By all accounts, Middleton High School is responding to the academic and behavioral SOS that had gone out over falling test scores and rising rates of unacceptable conduct. Hanging in the balance: the possibility of the state taking over under the federal No Child Left Behind Law.
Apparently a house cleaning of administrators and teachers has helped. So has help from the Department of Education that has enabled MHS to hire full-time mentors for reading, math and science. Even more importantly, a culture of hope, renewal and academic achievement appears to be taking root under the charismatic guidance of new principal Owen Young.
But that “house-cleaning” needs context. Middleton’s “underperforming teachers” have been “reassigned.” Surely, they’re not now the problem of some other school, one that’s out of the headlines and not under any state or federal mandate? Surely.