Latest Firings (IMPACT): Which Schools?

[Anonymous]

10:23 may be harsh, but so is the reality of what's going in DCPS.

Granted, most of the posters on DCUM seem to be at upper NW schools, who will not likely be hurt. If the JKLM schools do lose a teacher, they will have no problem replacing that position with an experienced and skilled teacher. Right?

Those of us who have our children enrolled "east of 16th" know that the child with the extreme behavioral and learning problems, who had been bounced from DCPS, to charter, to DCPS, probably destroyed his teacher's IMPACT evaluation. He derailed the class all year and even though the principal and the teacher and the support staff worked hard to get him an IEP and the services he needed, it took time. Heck, there was even a home visit involved and they finally got the mother on board.

Despite their efforts, this child did effect the class and I'm sure this teacher's evaluation shows that.

The thing with public school is you can't just kick this kid out.

I'm guessing this teacher will be out and I wonder who we will get in her place. I wonder if a fresh out TFA would exert the same effort to help a child that had been repeatedly failed by other public and charter schools? I'm wondering if a TFA, when presented with the same challenges would just quit.

I guess we'll find out soon.

[Anonymous]

10:23 OP here. I agree on the duh. Let's hold Rhee accountable. She's data driven. Let's get her to share her data. Let's get her to acknowledge that teachers cannot be hold accountable for their students' poverty, unfortunate circumstances, uninvolved families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10:23 OP here. I agree on the duh. Let's hold Rhee accountable. She's data driven. Let's get her to share her data. Let's get her to acknowledge that teachers cannot be hold accountable for their students' poverty, unfortunate circumstances, uninvolved families.

Not all students who are poor, experience unfortunate circumstances or have univolved families have behavioral and learning issues. Just as not all students with behavioral and learning issues are poor, experience unfortunate circumstances (other than these issues) or have uninvolved families. I agree that it is absolutely unfair to not look at the particular hand a teacher has been dealt in a particular school year in determining effectiveness. I hope/wish this new evaluation system is/was nuanced enough to be able to diffferentiate between a situation that is out of the hands of a teacher vs. a situation that a teacher's ineffectiveness contributed to. It frequently takes a year to get services for a child who is experiencing significant difficulty, even if everyone is on the same page. It seems as though this is a disconnect between IMPACT and special education policies. These kids in limbo (and one has to have compassion for these children as well as their teachers and classmates) can really effect an eval. system that relies on snapshots of performance. However, it is dangerous to claim that all teachers who teach in poorer neighborhoods or have many children in their class whose parents are working multiple jobs (and can't be as involved) should have a different set of standards or be able to take a pass just because of this. Not fair to the kids.

To this original question though, a few teachers reportedly left our school before IMPACT eval.s came out. I say reportedly because there was no formal announcement to families, so I don't really know for sure. I wonder if general turnover was higher this year, making the number of fired teachers seem lower than it might have been otherwise. Maybe some felt forced out.

[Anonymous]

Well, my juvenile tendencies sum up the situation quite accurately and these schools will forever be revolving doors or despair unless somebody really get serious about school reform.

[Anonymous]

12:24, I posted about the situation with a child who truly needed services and how I worried about what that did to him, his classmates and his teachers.

Yes, not all poor students experience behavioral problems. If they did, I certainly would not have had my child in a school where 3 of 4 children were classified as poor.

However, in the case of the child I have in mind, I believe poverty and the resulting family instability did contribute to this child's lack of a diagnosis.

I don't think 2 half hour observations by a Master Educator could fairly capture what went on in that classroom each day.

Since "getting serious about reform" is likely resulting in a teacher getting fired for performing heroically all year long, forgive me if I'm a bit discouraged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:24, I posted about the situation with a child who truly needed services and how I worried about what that did to him, his classmates and his teachers.

Yes, not all poor students experience behavioral problems. If they did, I certainly would not have had my child in a school where 3 of 4 children were classified as poor.

However, in the case of the child I have in mind, I believe poverty and the resulting family instability did contribute to this child's lack of a diagnosis.

I don't think 2 half hour observations by a Master Educator could fairly capture what went on in that classroom each day.

Since "getting serious about reform" is likely resulting in a teacher getting fired for performing heroically all year long, forgive me if I'm a bit discouraged.

12:42 (12:24 here) I encourage you to go back and read what I wrote, I mostly agree with you. Mainly, my point was that there needs to be a way to differentiate between this type of situation and one in which a teacher's effectiveness or lack there of contributed to a problem. I worry that if poverty, unfortunate circumstances and univolved parents are allowed as blanket excuses, some teachers who should not be in the classroom will be able to remain. If year after year, children are having major behavioral issues in a particular teacher's classroom, one possibly needs to look at the teacher. If it is one year out of many good years certainly a teacher should be given the benefit of the doubt. If IMPACT is not nuanced enough to differentiate bewteen these types of situations, it may be flawed. I hope the teacher that you wrote about does not lose their job because of this unfortunate year. I hope the child you wrote about receives the help he needs regardless of what/who contributed to the issues. I can totally understand that you would be discouraged.

[Anonymous]

12:24,
11:50 here. I did not say ALL students who do not come from privileged backgrounds (a poor student with a mother and/or father who cares about and supports their education is privileged in my book) have learning or behavioral issues. But I absolutely want to see if there's a correlation between the IMPACT firings and probation group and socioeconomics and location.

[Anonymous]

I heard on the radio yesterday that the DC teacher's union is filing a Freedom of Information Act request to learn the names of all the fired teachers.