A teacher in Buffalo read the New York Times series about the homeless child named Dasani and shared this story of administrative mandates, bad policy, and the harm inflicted on students. Why does Race to the Top assume that a school is “failing” when its students have unaddressed needs? Why does it assume that students who have unaddressed needs will get higher test scores if their teachers and principal are removed but their needs remain unaddressed?

A Buffalo Story:

John King, New York State Commissioner of Education, threatens to close LaFayette High School in Buffalo, New York due to low test scores on the assessments. Lafayette is full of refugees. Many who have had no formal education prior to coming to the US. Others who have gone through the system in their homelands or the Refugee Camps and graduated from 6th grade. They are ELL students. They may or may not speak English. Their homeland tongues represent 56 different languages and they don’t necessarily know how to write down what they speak. They are given a year or two before they are expected to be fully functional in the Buffalo Public Schools. The results are not surprising, they are failing. The government provides support for their families for ninety days, teaching them how to cope and adapt to the American way of life. They provide a place to live, furniture, clothes, food stamps, and access to other public services, then they are cut loose. Churches and agencies such as Vive and the International Institute try to help, but the children’s anchor is their local school.

The teachers from Lafayette cried when they heard that King wanted to use the turn around model. He wanted half the teachers and the principal removed so a new crew could come into the building and start fresh. King believed that this model would result in students finally doing better on the tests. The teachers cried, not because they would lose their jobs. No, they would be transferred, probably to an easier assignment at a school where the students had the ability to pass. They cried for the kids. They cried because they had a strong bond with these young adults. They cried because they were the lifeline and the children needed some sort of constancy in their lives so they could overcome their horrific past. They cried.

The Buffalo Teachers Union fought and some sort of sanity won out. The turn around model was discarded. A partnership with John Hopkins University was developed. It took time to create a satisfactory program. Numerous attempts were rejected by the state. Finally acceptance, but no funding. The process had taken too long, the funding was pulled. A punishment? A punishment for fighting for the students and not taking the easy way out? It looks that way. Last week King visited LaFayette and said he wasn’t satisfied. Not enough progress had been made. He still threatens to have the state take over the school. I don’t know what this means, but it sounds ominous. It sounds vengeful. But ultimately, it sounds hurtful to these children who have already endured too much.

State Commissioner John King, whose only education experience was limited to three years in a “no-excuses” charter schools noted for its high rates of suspension, seems eager to fail the entire Buffalo district and take control of it. Maybe he should, so he can be held accountable for improving it.