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The March 22 article "Minneapolis schools with low scores will get overhauls" describes a butt-kicking, back-handed approach to school reform.
Washburn and Edison high schools will let go the entire teaching staff, due to the schools’ low test scores on state-mandated tests. They will then rehire the "good" teachers, while the rest are left to flounder in the system, presumably to land a spot in another school where they will, at least in many cases, bump out another teacher. Sort of like musical chairs without the music or happy, party atmosphere.
That test scores are the sole factor propelling this drastic mass exodus is absurd. Test scores alone will never define the rare combination of inspiration, talent, intelligence, patience and stamina that make truly great teachers succeed. Furthermore, exiling the good teachers along with the bad is preposterous. I happen to know the principal of Washburn — she is judicious and sensitive. But her job now must be to hire back the best and brightest, while shoring up morale among a group of "survivors" whose long-time colleagues have been booted off the island.
Private and charter schools are able to mold their own teaching talent; their principals have free rein to hire exceptional teachers and to fire teachers who do not live up to expectations. Minneapolis would do well to play some catch-up, and devise ways to develop their faculty in a humane and effective manner. I would suggest that they begin by pretending "No child Left Behind" was just the empty rhetoric that it is, and enact changes that are truly visionary, not a last-ditch effort that leaves no teacher his pride.
Katherine Kersten’s March 23 column reminded me of Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent response when he was reminded that a majority of Americans don’t think the war in Iraq has been worth the costs.

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