It will be difficult to find top teachers willing to work in the high-poverty schools likely to evolve in Wilmington. Working conditions in such schools can be daunting. More of the good teachers will succeed because they will be eagerly awaited in the suburbs. Bad teachers who do manage to escape will not find the welcome mat out in the suburbs and might find themselves recycled back into the city if their job performance is lacking. This pattern has repeated itself all across the nation and there is no reason to believe northern Delaware would be immune.
Double whammy Trying to weed out ill-equipped teachers by testing alone can create a double whammy.
It has been discovered that many minority teachers, like minority students, don't do as well as their white peers on standardized tests. The dilemma is obvious. Both these approaches run into all kinds of labor and political problems. Delawareans pushing for neighborhood schools must address this dilemma. There is no existing law or court ruling that says there must be skilled teachers in poverty-plagued schools.