Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules teacher can't Be fired for failed English fluency tests (school, elect)

[Rick Roma]

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it in print. Film at 11....


Court: Lowell Can't Fire Teacher Phanna Kem Robishaw For English Tests - wbztv.com (http://wbztv.com/local/lowell.teacher.english.2.1675170.html - broken link)

[Jaggy001]

Your title is inaccurate.

What the Mass Supreme Court said was that the lower court did not have the authority to overturn the arbiters decision.

[ovcatto]

Nothing personal, but I'm not going to comment on what could be an interesting topic because there appears to a number of facts of law that the story just doesn't cover.

[ergohead]

I've never supported certification for teaching positions at the K-12 level.

I still think teachers should be hired on the basis of their ability to teach the subject material.

Certified teachers spent all their time in college learning bureaucratics without much effort toward obtaining subject matter expertise.

[Rick Roma]

Originally Posted by ergohead

I've never supported certification for teaching positions at the K-12 level.

I still think teachers should be hired on the basis of their ability to teach the subject material.

Certified teachers spent all their time in college learning bureaucratics without much effort toward obtaining subject matter expertise.

In your opinion would not being able to speak English hinder her ability to teach the subject material?

[ergohead]

Originally Posted by Rick Roma

In your opinion would not being able to speak English hinder her ability to teach the subject material?

I'd have to listen to her convey.

"Fluency" with first graders?

I had a federal judge yell angrily at me one time, "You're very fluent in English"!

I guess I had demonstrated that I knew of at least 1,000 ways of expressing the message, FU, without ever using those words.

[FinkieMcGee]

Originally Posted by Rick Roma

In your opinion would not being able to speak English hinder her ability to teach the subject material?

Most of my Electrical Engineering professors could barely speak english, some were pretty excellent.

[trnsplntfrmNV]

I just wonder if she ever passed an English test. Other than that with half of the school being Cambodian, firing was not justified totally. But then again this is America, speak english.

Ergohead: your right, I am in my last year (of 5) and I still do not understand how to teach, I just know what I am teaching.

[ovcatto]

Originally Posted by Rick Roma

In your opinion would not being able to speak English hinder her ability to teach the subject material?

Here is the thing, before states decided to kill their bi-lingual programs they were scrambling all over the place to hire teachers whose primary language was that of the students they were to teach, in this case a substantial Cambodian immigrant population. So were her language skills proficient by bi-lingual standards then but are now required to be those of a native speaker? How is that affected by the collective bargaining agreement? If you don't have the answer to those questions, its hard to make an informed comment about the situation.

[Jaggy001]

Originally Posted by Rick Roma

In your opinion would not being able to speak English hinder her ability to teach the subject material?

From the story ......

"The arbitrator ... made a factual finding that the school committee failed to meet its burden of establishing that Robishaw could not speak English fluently," Justice Margot Botsford wrote for the court in the unanimous ruling. "We are bound by this determination."

First, therefore, we need to establish whether she can or cannot speak English.