More than 200 D.C. teachers fired

[Anonymous]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-schools-insider/post/more-than-200-dc-teachers-fired/2011/07/15/gIQADnTLGI_blog.html

More than 200 D.C. teachers fired
By Bill Turque

The District fired 227 teachers for poor performance Friday, the second year in a row it has dismissed significant numbers of educators for sub-par work in the classroom.

[ Edited to comply with copyright laws. ]

[Anonymous]

PreK parent here (so relatively new and naive). How do you find out which teachers got the axe at your school? Do most parents not find out until the first day when some faces are missing? Also, does the school have to scramble to hire new teachers to replace the fired ones before school starts, or do some classes start the year with a substitute teacher?

[Anonymous]

PP, the school certainly is not going to announce which teachers were terminated due to performance, so, yes, you'll figure it out based on who's missing and parent gossip, although you may never know for sure. In terms of replacement teachers, if the principal is competent s/he would have seen this was likely coming and had plans in place to start interviewing, but depending on how popular your school ii it may or may not be able to find someone by the beginning of the year.

[Anonymous]

If you find out and your child was under that teacher's tutelage, what is your recourse?

[Anonymous]

Thanks, PP. Assuming we have around 30 teachers (I'm not sure) and 6% are cut, that's 2 teachers, which isn't very many.

Because our kid just finished preS, this will be the first time we've "gone back" to our east-of-the-park school. I'm sure there will be many surprises besides missing teachers (like families who left for another school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you find out and your child was under that teacher's tutelage, what is your recourse?

I suppose there no recourse - just as there is none when teachers resign or retire.

If you really like the teacher and thought he/she was really good, I suppose you could say something nice about them, but what else?

[Anonymous]

This is great news. Do I relish seeing individual teachers lose their jobs? No. But frankly the education of our kids should take priority.

My guess is that after the next few years, you're going to see much less turnover as the teacher corps is professionalized. As it becomes clear to the majority of teachers that they have nothing to fear from IMPACT (and may even stand to gain with bonuses) I think the controversy will be gone in a year or two.

[Anonymous]

Funny, I'd bet that the DCPS teaching corp will, in a few years, be primarily staffed with TFA types. You know, those who come in for a couple of years, learn to teach on DC's kids, and then quit.

Only time will tell.

[Anonymous]

More info available at http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Press+Releases+and+Announcements/Press+Releases/DCPS+Continues+to+Strengthen+Workforce

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is great news. Do I relish seeing individual teachers lose their jobs? No. But frankly the education of our kids should take priority.

My guess is that after the next few years, you're going to see much less turnover as the teacher corps is professionalized. As it becomes clear to the majority of teachers that they have nothing to fear from IMPACT (and may even stand to gain with bonuses) I think the controversy will be gone in a year or two.

You know, I presume, that the opposite is happening. almost half the highly effective teachers last year didn't take the bonuses and some of the best teachers -- who also do well on IMPACT because they play the game -- think it's a joke and interferes with their ability to teach well.

Education is not improving as more teachers have gotten fired. In fact, scores are down for the second year.

Have you thought about who is going to replace the fired teachers? Teachers who have never been evaluated by IMPACT, so we don't know if they are superior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I'd bet that the DCPS teaching corp will, in a few years, be primarily staffed with TFA types. You know, those who come in for a couple of years, learn to teach on DC's kids, and then quit.

Only time will tell.

Yep. And thank God for that. What we were trying for the last 40 years wasn't working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is great news. Do I relish seeing individual teachers lose their jobs? No. But frankly the education of our kids should take priority.

My guess is that after the next few years, you're going to see much less turnover as the teacher corps is professionalized. As it becomes clear to the majority of teachers that they have nothing to fear from IMPACT (and may even stand to gain with bonuses) I think the controversy will be gone in a year or two.

You know, I presume, that the opposite is happening. almost half the highly effective teachers last year didn't take the bonuses and some of the best teachers -- who also do well on IMPACT because they play the game -- think it's a joke and interferes with their ability to teach well.

I'd be interested in seeing a cite for this. Also, I don't doubt that some of the best teachers don't like IMPACT. That's one of the proposed tweaks: teachers who are rated highly should be subject to evaluation every five years rather than every year.

Education is not improving as more teachers have gotten fired. In fact, scores are down for the second year.

Have you thought about who is going to replace the fired teachers? Teachers who have never been evaluated by IMPACT, so we don't know if they are superior.

When did the WTU die-hards suddenly start fetishizing "test scores". Who says "education==test scores"? There's more to teaching than that. Even if it did, why would we expect to see massive gains in the first three years? In any case, this is a time of upheaval. That's always intimidating for people. As IMPACT is tweaked going forward, and people get used to the concept, people will see it as an unremarkable part of the job.

[Anonymous]

God forbid you get a yearly review.......

Like or hate IMPACT it is the system. When the vast majority of the teachers do fine under it then it can't be all bad. Good riddance to the poor performers. Worst you get a new teacher who actually wants to teach rather than a teacher who you KNOW can't teach.

[Anonymous]

It's not that many unless it's your child's favorite teacher. IMPACT bites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is great news. Do I relish seeing individual teachers lose their jobs? No. But frankly the education of our kids should take priority.

My guess is that after the next few years, you're going to see much less turnover as the teacher corps is professionalized. As it becomes clear to the majority of teachers that they have nothing to fear from IMPACT (and may even stand to gain with bonuses) I think the controversy will be gone in a year or two.

It's funny that you think the current DCPS environment lends itself to professionalization.... yikes!