RI School That Fired Every Teacher to Rehire Them

The Rhode Island school district that gained the support of President Obama for promoting accountability after it fired all its teachers from a struggling school announced yesterday it had reached an agreement with the union to return the current staffers to their jobs. The transformation plan for Central Falls High School for the coming school year will allow the roughly 87 teachers, guidance counselors, librarians, and other staffers who were to lose their jobs at the end of this year to return without having to reapply.

The agreement calls for a longer school day and more after-school tutoring, among other changes. Obama, during a national address on education in March, said the firings were an example of the need for accountability over student performance, citing the fact that only 7% of the school's 11th-graders passed state math tests. As for the 700-plus people that applied for the positions? Tough luck.