"Rule of Nine"
If a district receives this money and the district has nine or more schools ("Rule of None") in levels 4 or 5 of corrective actions, half of these schools must close or an outside agency must be wrought in to run these schools. If the principal in these schools has been there for more than two years, he or she will be replaced and half of the staff must also be replaced. This is incredibly unfair and unjust. Nine schools is twenty percent of our schools yet in New York City, nine schools is less than one percent of their schools. In places like Los Angeles and Chicago, nine schools is less than two percent of their schools. Scholl districts with eight or fewer schools will never face these draconian requirements no matter how poorly they perform.
Email your U.S. congressional representatives, Senator Kerry, Senator Brown, President Obama, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (arne.duncan@ed.gov). Tell them to correct the flaws in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and come up with a fair and equitable way of measuring our schools' success.