27 Southbridge Teachers Given Walking Papers

Southbridge school district cuts 27 teachers

By Brian Lee

Twenty-seven teachers with fewer than three years' experience in the district have been told not to come back next year; the number is high, but not a surprise, given the state takeover of the Southbridge public schools earlier this year, the teachers union president said this week.

School districts aren't required to give teachers who haven’t held their positions for three years a reason for not being renewed. 

Education Reformers Have It All Wrong: Accountability From Above Never works, Great Teaching Always Does

From Salon

Excerpted from “The Allure of Order: High Hopes, Dashed Expectations, and the Troubled Quest to Remake American Schooling” by Jal Mehta. Published by Oxford University Press

In late 2001, three months after the September 11 attacks, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) passed both House and Senate with strong bipartisan majorities and was signed by a Republican president. Promising to use the power of the state to ensure that all children were proficient in reading and math by 2014, proponents heralded the act as the greatest piece of federal education legislation since the creation of the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965. By requiring the states to set high standards, pairing them with assessments that measured whether students were achieving those standards, and holding schools accountable if students failed to do so, NCLB, in the eyes of its sponsors, would close achievement gaps and make America’s schools the envy of the world. 

Bill Gates: Teachers need real feedback

Southbridge Education Association President Addresses Membership

Ken O’Brien


[The following letter went out yesterday from SEA President David Williams to his membership]

Dear Colleagues,

There are a fair number of misconceptions surrounding the actions of the SEA's leadership recently and I would like to clarify our position. Our prescribed purpose is to protect hours, wages and conditions for all of our members. Unfortunately all three have come under attack in the last few years by this administration.