Did you get this letter from DCPS? No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Highly Qualified Teachers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another piece of information: experienced, licensed educators in DCPS have been riffed in order to make spaces for unlicensed Teach for America teachers

PP here. I am going to have to push back on this. I have been in DCPS for five years, and we had one RIF (Reduction in Force), and I will agree that it was bogus. And after a long drawn out court battle the wrongly RIFed teachers were given jobs back.
What happens, most often is that teachers are seperated from the district due to poor performance evaluations, and then spots are opened up for other teachers and TFA DCTF folks. Secondly, most of the places that TFA and DCTF goes- no one else wants to go into. The alt. cert. teachers are taking jobs that would often go unfilled if not for optimistic new teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another piece of information: experienced, licensed educators in DCPS have been riffed in order to make spaces for unlicensed Teach for America teachers

PP here. I am going to have to push back on this. I have been in DCPS for five years, and we had one RIF (Reduction in Force), and I will agree that it was bogus. And after a long drawn out court battle the wrongly RIFed teachers were given jobs back.
What happens, most often is that teachers are seperated from the district due to poor performance evaluations, and then spots are opened up for other teachers and TFA DCTF folks. Secondly, most of the places that TFA and DCTF goes- no one else wants to go into. The alt. cert. teachers are taking jobs that would often go unfilled if not for optimistic new teachers.

Wrong, we got lots of TFAs at our school, beautiful modernized building, great location.

[Anonymous]

Modern building, but likely Title I, no?

[Anonymous]

What's your point? That non-TFA teachers don't want to teach here because its Title 1?

[Anonymous]

Ok, I give up. You tell me why your school has such high turn over that you have a lot of TFA. The truly great schools, that people want to work at, have low turn over and small numbers of openings. So, no TFA.

[Anonymous]

The high turnover is due to TFAs leaving after a year because they are off to law school

[Anonymous]

Those letters that go home each year are an OSSE issue...not a teacher issue. OSSE loses paperwork, certifications, etc every year and creates this chaos. The similarity in the coding "highly qualified" when referring to license status and "highly effective" when referring to evaluation status through IMPACT confuses many. The letter probably means your child's teacher is new to the district and has not obtained a license yet in DC or maybe the request to transfer an out of state license hasnt been processed yet. Another scenario that is common is that your child's teacher submitted all of the documents to OSSE and now OSSE has lost said documents.The teacher is probably too busy teaching your child to take the day off to go downtown and sort it out.

[Anonymous]

These letters cause unnecessary panic!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The high turnover is due to TFAs leaving after a year because they are off to law school

OK, so then why are non TFA teachers not chomping at the bit to get into your 'highly modernized' school? I teach in Title I, and have for 5 years. And can tell you that the long haul teachers, with rare exception, do not want to be in Title I. Once you have your own family you simply do not want to put up with the behavior issues and pressure for test results that are just not coming. There is a reason why schools like Janey and HYde do not need/ take TFA. Because regular teachers want the spots. Unlie Title I. Hence the high number of TFA and Fellows, who leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The high turnover is due to TFAs leaving after a year because they are off to law school

OK, so then why are non TFA teachers not chomping at the bit to get into your 'highly modernized' school? I teach in Title I, and have for 5 years. And can tell you that the long haul teachers, with rare exception, do not want to be in Title I. Once you have your own family you simply do not want to put up with the behavior issues and pressure for test results that are just not coming. There is a reason why schools like Janey and HYde do not need/ take TFA. Because regular teachers want the spots. Unlie Title I. Hence the high number of TFA and Fellows, who leave.

Sorry, but you are clueless. There are TFAs all over DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Dear 10:39,
Clearly you know a lot about teaching and DCPS (quick, make something up here to validate your over concern about TFA). But your facts do not line up with reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those letters that go home each year are an OSSE issue...not a teacher issue. OSSE loses paperwork, certifications, etc every year and creates this chaos. The similarity in the coding "highly qualified" when referring to license status and "highly effective" when referring to evaluation status through IMPACT confuses many. The letter probably means your child's teacher is new to the district and has not obtained a license yet in DC or maybe the request to transfer an out of state license hasnt been processed yet. Another scenario that is common is that your child's teacher submitted all of the documents to OSSE and now OSSE has lost said documents.The teacher is probably too busy teaching your child to take the day off to go downtown and sort it out.

+1

About seven years ago, inspired by NCLB highly qualified language, OSSE (or whomever was around then; acronyms and who holds the power changes so quickly in this town) decided that in order to have the 'best' school system in the country, it would create the stiffest teacher certification requirements around. By around, I mean possibly in the entire country. An interesting stunt. Today that is administered by OSSE, and, as far as I can tell, NEVER scrutinized or challenged by any other power broker in this city who should be looking out for kids including our Council and Board of Education. Some folks who can get easily certified by sending their credentials through the mail in VA., MD., etc. can't get certified in DC without jumping through myriad arbitrary hoops, closed doors, and being ordered back to school (OSSE approved programs of course). This is just for basic certification allowing a teacher to teach without letters being sent out that make them feel like a criminal and make parents feel alarmed and cheated--apart from the more recent intensive evaluation system which is its own area of controversy. So guess who can get certified quickly and conveniently to teach in DCPS? Well, fresh-faced TFAs on a fast track. The TFA program includes the certification that ensures these letters are not sent out. So that's who is filling our schools. Now I think there is a place for fresh-faced teachers and TFA types. Perhaps not to the extent of filling our schools or displacing all other kinds of experience or pathways to teaching. You connect the dots and follow the money. How is this working out for old DC and our kids? Are we, a decade in, the best school system in the country? Are we even better than VA. which has a far more streamlined, pleasant, welcoming and flexible (they allow for a variety of credentials) certification process?

[Anonymous]

PP here. I am going to have to push back on this. I have been in DCPS for five years, and we had one RIF (Reduction in Force), and I will agree that it was bogus. And after a long drawn out court battle the wrongly RIFed teachers were given jobs back.
What happens, most often is that teachers are seperated from the district due to poor performance evaluations, and then spots are opened up for other teachers and TFA DCTF folks. Secondly, most of the places that TFA and DCTF goes- no one else wants to go into. The alt. cert. teachers are taking jobs that would often go unfilled if not for optimistic new teachers.

Not true. TFA has specific contracts with districts that include spots in desirable schools.

[Anonymous]

TFA are exempt for 2 years on having to get certified but as a poster stated will not have a letter sent out. Hence, technically they are teaching uncertified in anything as most new TFA only had 5 weeks of teaching experience over the summer. That's if they were lucky, and even then their summer experience may be different from the subject they are placed in, e.g. summer experience with elementary but placed in a middle school. Teachers who are not TFA or Teaching Fellows may or may not be certified but regardless will get letters if OSSE does not have credentials on file that as many have pointed out are higher than others in neighboring states. Is it difficult to pass the Praxis exams, no it's not. However, there may be good reasons why teachers' have not taken them or the school administrators may have placed them in different positions than those they are certified to teach post hire. Considering the issues with TFA and Teaching Fellows, the bottom line is "it means nothing" unless the teacher has been teaching the same content class for a lone time and is still not certified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TFA are exempt for 2 years on having to get certified but as a poster stated will not have a letter sent out. Hence, technically they are teaching uncertified in anything as most new TFA only had 5 weeks of teaching experience over the summer. That's if they were lucky, and even then their summer experience may be different from the subject they are placed in, e.g. summer experience with elementary but placed in a middle school. Teachers who are not TFA or Teaching Fellows may or may not be certified but regardless will get letters if OSSE does not have credentials on file that as many have pointed out are higher than others in neighboring states. Is it difficult to pass the Praxis exams, no it's not. However, there may be good reasons why teachers' have not taken them or the school administrators may have placed them in different positions than those they are certified to teach post hire. Considering the issues with TFA and Teaching Fellows, the bottom line is "it means nothing" unless the teacher has been teaching the same content class for a lone time and is still not certified.

Praxis exams are the easy part with OSSE/DC certification. They pile SO much on on top of that, far more than neighboring states. The Praxis exams are the least of it--a cake walk.