Reversal of Fortune: October 1993

When we first wrote about Delaware algebra teacher Adele Jones in October 1993, she was not teaching equations but waiting tables at the Lamp Post family restaurant. The previous spring, the Indian River school board, acting on the recommendation of Jones' principal at Sussex Central High School in Georgetown, had fired the veteran teacher. The grounds the board offered—"incompetence" and "insubordination"—were vague, but everybody in the small agricultural community knew that Jones' heavy-handed grading had led to her dismissal.

During the 1990-91 school year, Jones had given 42 percent of her students F's and 21 percent D's. The next year, Sussex principal John McCarthy put Jones on an individual improvement plan designed to bring her failure rate into line with the other teachers in the school. Things improved—only 27 percent of her students failed that year—but not enough to make McCarthy happy.

The principal argued that the "negative" grades bruised kids' self-esteem and turned them off to math and school. He wanted Jones to grade on a curve and lean less heavily on quizzes and tests. He also suggested that Jones lower her expectations: If the kids weren't ready for Algebra II, she should teach Algebra I and a half. "When large percentages of kids fare poorly, good teachers go back, reteach, blame themselves, and say, 'I haven't done my job.'" he explained at the time. The bottom line: He wanted Jones to...