Month 9 as a failing school
Blog by Martha Infante/InterACT
When it was announced in September that due to our low test scores, my public middle school was now considered a “failing “ school, I began blogging about the effects that our district’s reform process, modeled after popular federal educational practices, had on students, teachers, and the school community. In a nutshell, the district assigns the label of “Focus School” to any school which does not meet certain test score cutoffs. These schools are then up for bids by any group or organization who can write a plan, and if selected, can take over the management of the school. Charters are popular bidders in this process called Public School Choice. The district has assigned responsibility to me and my colleagues for the low performance of students in my school, in spite of the impact of dozens of layoffs, billions in budget cuts, and the soaring poverty, crime, and violence which surrounds the neighborhood. (more...)