It showed little support for teachers' unions, a strong belief that even bad teachers are hardly ever fired and a sense that lifetime tenure should be eliminated. Those findings sent a mixed message to union leaders. But she said that people misunderstand the role of unions, particularly regarding lifetime tenure. She cited several in-service programs her union runs to help teachers develop skills, and she lamented that the public never learns of that aspect of union work. Bad news gets printed.
Cute kids winning spelling bees get a nice story.
Harvey B. Press, president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island, also believes that the unions have a public-relations problem. Like Reback, he is pleased that Rhode Islanders like their teachers and their schools. Both Press and Reback would take issue with Crowley and others who call the state's schools mediocre. They should compare us to a Hartford or a Boston instead of Connecticut or Massachusetts, and I think our scores would be fine. Peter McWalters, state commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, said he's also fed up with the continuing negative coverage of test scores.