If anything should rock the foundation of public education in Buffalo, it is this finding by a state-appointed review team: Teachers were not teaching.

The teachers, one hopes, at least thought they were teaching, since they knew they were being observed. Yet the observation cropped up repeatedly in assessments of seven schools: “Direction instruction was not observed.”Teachers relied on worksheets as the primary method of instruction at high schools, while students paid little attention, with their heads on their desks and sometimes with their eyes closed.

Other criticisms followed, but unless you are blessed with a school of self-teaching students, that one observation is enough to land a school on the list of the state’s worst, which is where the seven schools in this report find themselves. What is more, Superintendent James A. Williams says many of the problems observed in the seven schools repeat themselves in buildings across the district.

The question is how to get off this list. In at least two ways, Buffalo schools are making an inauspicious start.

For one, Williams’ approach is likely to cost the school district up to $2 million per school in which the district fails to follow state guidelines for improvement. Williams says— correctly—that it’s more important to do what is right for students than it is to“chase after the money.”But that doesn’t mean the money is unimportant, especially in a city as poor as Buffalo. There needs to be room for discussion and compromise on matters such as replacing principals in schools where the problems would challenge even the country’s top educational leaders.

There also needs to be more cooperation between the administration and the Buffalo Teachers Federation, both of whom have a stake in the task of improving education in the city schools. They’ve begun that process with support for a new, more useful teacher evaluation program, but more is needed. Williams and BTF President Philip Rumore need to ensure that Buffalo offers a setting in which teachers teach and students learn.

Which brings us back to the concept of teachers teaching. In a district that displays all the problems that urban settings can offer, it is perhaps not surprising that some teachers fall into a rut. Not everyone can rise above their environment, after all; it takes focus and coaching. Nonetheless, that is the challenge. More mandatory training would help.

These seven schools—Bennett High School, Burgard Vocational High School, International School 45, Lafayette High School, Martin Luther King Jr. Multicultural Institute, Riverside Institute of Technology and South Park High School—are the canary in Buffalo’s educational coal mine. They need to by turned around so that the whole district can thrive. That begins with teachers who teach.