DC Loses Another Terrific Teacher

[Anonymous]

Teacher here (elementary)--
I have always objected to teachers imposing 'personal views' on students or even sharing their political/religious etc. philosophy. We teachers are powerful influences and the influence we should be exerting is exposure to fascinating primary sources (hopefully multiple perspectives on the same topic), the development of critical thinking skills including identifying source, comparing and contrasting, distinguishing fact from opinion, formulating an argument backed by evidence etc.... I expect my students to be passionate and backed by reason. I expect that same of myself, but not to impose my biases. My whole being bristles at the notion of marking down papers that do not accord with my (private) party line or that which I might find obvious but a student might find beside the point.
THAT BEING SAID--in Mr. Riener's defense--it sounds like he was a damn good teacher to a lot of kids who felt that he offered more than the usual watered down pablum and helped them at the HS level to THINK. If the biases he brought to class were an ongoing on the table issue, it sounds like there were many opportunities over the years for administrators to counsel him on THAT aspect of his pedagogy--while also letting him know that they valued him for the many good things he brought to the classroom. If he resisted that specific feedback it might be time for him to go. Based on all the positive reviews I have read of him--it sounds like he was well fit to teach higher level AP classes. Teachers SHOULD teach to their strengths. There are teachers who would not fare well teaching higher level classes because their expertise and direction are different. Would you force THEM into a scenario where they felt ill-equipped?
The IMPACT score and constant impending threat of separation would force me to retire (rather than be retired) as well.
It sounds like this was a complicated personnel issue, but multiple opportunities were missed over the years to give Mr. Reiner proper feedback as an instructor. My take on DCPS now with IMPACT, determination of teacher placement in various classrooms etc. is that it is following the 'teacher as teacher-bot' model. Yes, you will get a LOT of nice, tidy uniformity. You may lose a lot of what sparks your (and my) kid. Be very careful with these very weird firings of the 'outliers'. Guess who is being cultivated? A VAST middle.

[Anonymous]

IMPACT is nothing more or less than an instrument for administrators to permanently separate individual teachers from DCPS.

In that respect, we can all agree that IMPACT is highly effective.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote: There is no dispute that he was a terrific teacher of AP classes. An effective manager, coach, or other leader always aims to deploy resources in the most effective manner. Why then, wouldn't Riener be asked to concentrate on AP classes? It's a well-worn joke that the Army will assign a talented mechanic as a cook and a talented cook as a mechanic, but I am not sure that is the system to which DCPS aspires.

I think your analogy is flawed. It's not as if an English teacher were being asked to teach Science. He was asked to teach 11th grade English classes. It is understandable that he didn't want to. He was pretty clear about why not. Kids who take the "regular" classes are unmotivated, compared with kids in the AP classes. Kids in the AP classes have their basic skills down, and are ready to deal with more college level work. They are motivated by the AP test at the end of the year, by a desire to get into a good college, and by the need for good teacher recommendations to get into college, among other factors (including intrinsic motivation from a pure love of learning.)

Kids in 11th grade English "regular" or "grade level" English classes, from Mr. Reiner's own words, appear to be remedial students, needing emphasis on basic skills, and they lack motivation. These classes may not be the plum teaching assignment that teachers wish to get, but I would imagine that in every high school, teachers need to take a turn teaching these classes. And they should give their best effort. And geez-- it isn't as if he was asked to teach (gasp) 9th grade English.

It just doesn't sound like Mr. Riener was the victim of some capricious and overly nitpicky teacher evaluation system, that "dinged" teachers for writing their lesson plans on the left hand side of the blackboard instead of the right hand side of the board. Again from his own words, he had a difference of philosophy in what to expect of these "grade level students". His evaluators wanted him to take steps to motivate them more. He didn't disagree about teaching methodology or curriculum, it seems he really didn't think it was his job to motivate them. He said:

"Their focus was completely on how I might motivate students in my grade level class. These are students who, while possessing various levels of skills and smarts, are quite challenged when it comes to motivation. I see my role is to expose them to as much reading, writing and thinking as I can. I try to make my classroom a welcoming place for these reluctant students. I don’t think anything is to be gained by greeting them at the door with lots of don’ts. I aim for a relaxed atmosphere, where young people might feel vulnerable to learning something."

I'm not sure really what that all means. He just wanted kids to be comfortable in class, but didn't want to really force them to do much work , is what it sounds like. That's not a recipe for getting students to improve. But if you just decided that he wasn't good at teaching such classes (and there were other teachers who were better) isn't it basically rewarding him for not wanting to work, by giving him all AP classes, and leaving the more junior (presumably) teachers to do the grunt work? How is that fair? There are probably other teachers at that high school who could do a good job of teaching AP.

If a school is willing to operate on a two-tiered system -- some teachers get to teach the (easier to teach) motivated kids and others get to teach the unmotivated ones -- then I guess that would be OK. Although I would expect the teachers teaching the unmotivted kids should get more pay or a reduced classload to compensate them for the fact that these kids are, in fact, harder to teach. And there probably should be a two-tiered evaluation system in place for these teachers.

But until such a system is in place, teachers have to expect to able to teach both groups of students, I think.

Anyhow, I am not out to "tar and feather" this teacher, but I think there is more nuance in the situation than simply "Flawed IMPACT evaluations are forcing the retirement of a fabulous teacher". There's a lot more going on here than just that.

[Anonymous]

You can lead a horticulture but you can make her think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I understand it, he wanted only to teach students who were already motivated to do well. Is that the kind of teacher we want in DCPS? Sorry, I don't feel badly for him. If he was such a great teacher, he'd be happy to teach general classes and not just to the cream of the crop. I think there is something to what the principal said - anybody could teach the AP classes because those kids are the ones who are already invested in learning and interested in doing well. It's the teachers who are working with the other kids and who are genuinely making a difference who should be retained.

Would you have just anyone teach special education? I would not, but then I have a special needs child and not every teacher can meet her at her level and inspire her to learn. Gifted and talented students also have special needs, which not everyone can meet. If all you want is a merely adequate education then by all means assign them any old teacher. If you want something great to happen in the classroom you need to understand that teachers are not interchangeable widgets. You can't put the art teacher in AP Calc and expect the students to achieve their potential. What makes you think that you could put any old teacher in Mr. Reiner's AP classes and get exceptional results? Different students have different needs. Now the needs of the more gifted students at Wilson will go unmet. This is tragic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Now the needs of the more gifted students at Wilson will go unmet. This is tragic.

Is that a fact? There are no other English teachers at Wilson who can teach gifted students well?

[Anonymous]

One size fits few

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Now the needs of the more gifted students at Wilson will go unmet. This is tragic.

Is that a fact? There are no other English teachers at Wilson who can teach gifted students well?

It is a fact that no one teacher can step into Mr. Reiner's shoes and fill the many roles he did.

[Anonymous]

Clearly there's the Rhee Team rationalizing on these posts and then there's the team on the side of the students! High School AP should and must be challenging, and to think Mr. Reiner will be the first adult who demonstrates passion, opinions and even (if true) vulgarity is just ignorant. Thank you J. Steele for your sensible words, and thank you previous poster on the historical record and deplorable facts of the era of the Vietnam War. My DCPS kids' dad avoided the draft in 1969 with a similarly desperate act, while their grandfather fought and was wounded there. All agree today on the insanity that was that era. Rhee & Co. are juvenile, petty, thin-skinned and short-sighted (not to mention guilty of inflicting their own distasteful brand of politics upon our students). I hope Mr. Reiner is hired back with full benefits the moment Fenty is voted out of office, in the same way Dr. Janey was removed at midnight by this group of hucksters.

[Anonymous]

If Mr. Reiner is as great a teacher as his supporters purport, I hope he does not waste his talents in DCPS. I hope he collects his hard earned pension and move over to one one of the many outstanding charter schools. As the charter movement continues to grow, we would love to have such a teacher among the charters. Charter schools, unlike DCPS schools, are not widget factories. There is no one size fit all as some posters on this board assume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly there's the Rhee Team rationalizing on these posts and then there's the team on the side of the students! High School AP should and must be challenging, and to think Mr. Reiner will be the first adult who demonstrates passion, opinions and even (if true) vulgarity is just ignorant.

For what it is worth, I am a poster on this thread who has been questioning whether this firing (or pushing out) was due to flawed IMPACT evaluations or whether there was something more at play here -- and I am by no means a Rhee supporter. Just thought there might be a little more to the story.

If you look back at the comments on the orgincal article, you'll see a comment from a teacher at Wilson, which if true, leads me to believe there is more to the story. Not saying a great teacher should be fired for ignoring the rules. But I can see how a principal could finally decide, he's had enough with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Mr. Reiner is as great a teacher as his supporters purport, I hope he does not waste his talents in DCPS. I hope he collects his hard earned pension and move over to one one of the many outstanding charter schools. As the charter movement continues to grow, we would love to have such a teacher among the charters. Charter schools, unlike DCPS schools, are not widget factories. There is no one size fit all as some posters on this board assume.

Do charter schools want to hire seasoned teachers? My understanding was, they pretty much just like hiring young (cheap) teachers.

[Anonymous]

If he was such a great teacher who cared for his "special needs" advanced students as a previous poster said, then he would have sucked it up with the administration to continue to have the privilege of teaching these few and spreading his pearls of wisdom.

Because of his stubbornness, now the needs of the more gifted students might be compromised. I call b.s. on this. Clearly his need to call the shots trumped his feeling of responsibility to his students. If all our great teachers had this prima donna attitude, there would be a greater chasm between the gifted and the rest. I'm sorry. The administration has a point. He did this to himself and to his students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Mr. Reiner is as great a teacher as his supporters purport, I hope he does not waste his talents in DCPS. I hope he collects his hard earned pension and move over to one one of the many outstanding charter schools. As the charter movement continues to grow, we would love to have such a teacher among the charters. Charter schools, unlike DCPS schools, are not widget factories. There is no one size fit all as some posters on this board assume.

Do charter schools want to hire seasoned teachers? My understanding was, they pretty much just like hiring young (cheap) teachers.

Actually, that's DCPS/Rhee. Teach for America, from which she recruits heavily, is LITERALLY the pipeline for inexperienced (cheap) teachers--not all young. Of course charters tap teachers of all experience backgrounds including young and cheap, but of course they would also be interested in and hire experienced teachers. Some experienced teachers take pay cuts just to work in charters, much like some teachers take paycuts to work in independents. Others are paid on par, depending on what budget allows for. Charters are held strictly accountable not only by a board, but by parents and children who have choice in terms of sticking with the charter school. It stands to reason that they seek the most qualified teachers (young, old, experienced, inexperienced but with that special 'something') that their budgets allow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he was such a great teacher who cared for his "special needs" advanced students as a previous poster said, then he would have sucked it up with the administration to continue to have the privilege of teaching these few and spreading his pearls of wisdom.

Because of his stubbornness, now the needs of the more gifted students might be compromised. I call b.s. on this. Clearly his need to call the shots trumped his feeling of responsibility to his students. If all our great teachers had this prima donna attitude, there would be a greater chasm between the gifted and the rest. I'm sorry. The administration has a point. He did this to himself and to his students.

Eh, what? He specialized in AP students. The administration wanted to change his specialty and deliberately changed his schedule in such a way as to put his health, his healthcare, and his life at risk.

What if Sibley decided that it needed more neo-natologists on staff and decided Dr. Peachy-Keen would now be a Neo-natologist (despite the fact that her expertise had always been in obstetrics). Would you still think that made sense? Or is it really that opaque to you that teachers and their skills are no more interchangeable than other professionals?