Latest on that Rhode Island school mass firing....

Deal possible over proposed R.I. teacher firings: Compromise would save jobs, overhaul struggling school, The Washington Post, Thu Mar 4 2010. Nick Anderson (excerpts for space)

A Rhode Island school superintendent and union leaders, who have been at odds over a decision to fire every teacher at a struggling high school, signaled Wednesday that a compromise that would preserve jobs and overhaul the school may be possible.

......Superintendent Frances Gallo said in a statement. She said she welcomes union input in developing "a dynamic plan to dramatically improve student achievement" at Central Falls High School.

Gallo's statement followed an overture Tuesday from the Central Falls Teachers' Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. The instructors have offered support for a longer school day, as well as more rigorous evaluations and training, among other steps.

That appeared to pave the way for reopening negotiations on the proposed dismissals.
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Experts say there is little evidence to determine whether firing teachers en masse will improve a troubled school, despite President Obama's support for Rhode Island officials who appeared on the verge of taking that drastic step earlier.
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Despite Wednesday's developments, experts say the effectiveness of Obama's school turnaround strategy remains an open question.

"There just is very little evidence in terms of what works in quickly turning around a persistently low-performing school," said Grover "Russ" Whitehurst, a Brookings Institution scholar who oversaw education research under President George W. Bush.

Whitehurst said the federal Institute of Education Sciences pursued that question under his tenure but failed to find enough examples for solid answers. ......

"We could find no evidence that any one particular approach worked better than any other," Jennings [Jack Jennings is president of the Center on Education Policy] said. Obama's statement on the Rhode Island school, he said, shows that the president wants to crack down on academic failure, "but there's no assurance that kids are going to be any better off."

Removing all or most of a school's faculty, experts say, raises the obvious issue of finding effective replacements. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday that schools elsewhere have been rejuvenated after changing staff. His aides cited cases in Chicago, Colorado and Los Angeles.
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Gerald N. Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, criticized the requirement that a principal be replaced in order for a school to qualify for federal funds; he said anecdotal evidence of success is not enough to justify it.