After all the high-profile explaining, defending and justifying of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation teacher-improvement project, it turns out that only three teachers have been found unfit to continue teaching in Hillsborough County. Not the hundreds that had been projected when planning and training commenced three years ago.
So, what’s the upshot?
*One early conclusion could be that this is proof positive the program is working. This is not GatesGate. Although not yet half way through the seven-year, $200-million program underwritten by Gates and the school district, the tutoring and evaluating and mentoring is apparently paying off. Virtually all teachers found wanting have been brought up to speed.
*There’s also the possibility that if only three teachers out of 15,000 were deemed worthy of dismissing, they must be really, really awful. Pity the students who had to endure the process that confirmed that reality.
*Or the cynical take that you can’t spend all that time and all that money and not fire someone. Scapegoat somebody without further undermining morale.