More than 200 D.C. teachers fired

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What irks me about this is the timing. If you fire 206 teachers in mid-July - who are you going to find to replace them? Most of the good teachers (at least on paper) already have jobs. I'm not against firing for performance (though I still have many issues with Impact and how it is implemented), but this should be happening in the the spring or at the latest to coincide with the end of the school year.

This allows DCPS to hire from the stable of TFA teachers they have lined up. These new grads know they will get jobs because they know a couple hundred teachers will be fired and DCPS has a contract to hire TFA teachers.

It's only the fired teachers who get screwed, but no one cares about them because they are ineffective.

And why is this a problem? You have to be pretty bad to be ineffective, and they get two years... a bad teacher harms up to 30 kids a year, I'd rather 1 teacher as a causality than up to 60 days (2 years of being ineffective prior to being fired)... a kid can be lost forever in a bad system, a teacher can move and get a new job. Teachers have unions, kids do not. We should be more outraged about what happen with the kids. I am thinking that 6,180 kids have a better shot at getting a fair (average) education next year because 206 teachers were fired, and that maybe 500 of those kids lives will be saved from educational/career failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not understand why people are upset that poor performing teachers were fired. Granted I have only taught at the college level but part of my employment review was my student evaluations. This wasnt even quantative data, like test scores, but qualatative data, how they felt about me as a teacher. Why shouldn't test scores be part of their review? We all have employment reviews, why should they be immuned? Hell, it sounds like they are changing test scores anyway.

What's the beef with TFA, too?

If teachers are truly poor performing, fine -- but there's no evidence that IMPACt is truly identifying them.

As for using student evaluations for college teachers -- I think that's a bad idea too - unless the prof is mistreating students and it can be proven.

I bet you wouldn't get in any trouble if a student who missed half your classes and flunked the exams got an F. Imagine your teaching skills being rated on a class full of students like that.

Doesn't DC have truant officers? Maybe some of bureaucrats at Central Office should start doing family visits to get these kids to school. I don't understand why they are missing so much school? I did have to fail students and they took it out on my evaluations but all teachers get some bad reviews. There were also other elements to my review, like an observation and overall grades of my students.

If a child has more than 10 unexcused absences in a year they get referred to the dc child services dept. Teachers get rated on their teaching skills, classroom management skills, and performance of students. Face it, there are bad teachers out there, and we have all had them... we can't protect them all under "IMPACT is a bad thing" in general it is only an OK tool, but bad teachers no matter how many years they have taught should lose their jobs.

Also, these fired teachers get 1 year of full pay without having to work in order to give them more time to find jobs, not a bad severance if you ask me

[Anonymous]

No - fired teachers do not get a year's pay.

ALso, you're assuming that IMPACT is a good tool for weeding out bad teachers - there is no indication that this is so.

I doubt anyone is against bad teachers getting fired. It a matter of whether IMPACT is rightly identifying them

[Anonymous]

"You have to be pretty bad to be ineffective..."

Actually not always the case. A teacher can be rated "effective" and then ultimately ineffective when their student scores sink them. Some students in SE DC really struggle.

[Anonymous]

"You have to be pretty bad to be ineffective..."

"Actually not always the case. A teacher can be rated "effective" and then ultimately ineffective when their student scores sink them. Some students in SE DC really struggle."



I am a solidly effective teacher in a NW school. There is no way I would ever consider teaching in the SE, a place where DCPS really needs to attract effective and highly effective teachers. Why not? It is NOT because I prefer the NW community of students and families. It is not because the facilities are nicer. I would in fact PREFER to teach in NE or SE but will not consider it for the reasons stated above. I have a family I need to support. I can not risk losing my job.

This is what makes me sad. IMPACT does not help attract better teachers to the classrooms that really need them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I am too lost because it just seems so disingenious, to have a group of children promoted to the next grade with everyone full knowing amongst the school's teacher corps that those children were previously under a failing teacher.

Does

Don't be so sure that everyone knows the teacher was failing and that the kids were short changed. You're assuming IMPACT is failsafe and that a low IMPACT score means a bad education for the kids.

Not. Change in itself is not always better. Just because someone disagrees with the current phony reforms doesn't mean that he or she is defending the status quo.

Problem is you are assuming the old system was good for kids. Frankly, I can see a lot of flaws in IMPACT, but I also know that the old system was as flawed or worse.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know of a teacher who lost his or her job because of IMPACT last year? Did they seem to deserve it, or not?

It would add a lot to this discussion to have some specific examples instead of all this generalizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"You have to be pretty bad to be ineffective..."

"Actually not always the case. A teacher can be rated "effective" and then ultimately ineffective when their student scores sink them. Some students in SE DC really struggle."



I am a solidly effective teacher in a NW school. There is no way I would ever consider teaching in the SE, a place where DCPS really needs to attract effective and highly effective teachers. Why not? It is NOT because I prefer the NW community of students and families. It is not because the facilities are nicer. I would in fact PREFER to teach in NE or SE but will not consider it for the reasons stated above. I have a family I need to support. I can not risk losing my job.

This is what makes me sad. IMPACT does not help attract better teachers to the classrooms that really need them.

I get the issue of needing to keep your job, but are you so sure that you would not be rated effective with these kids? Why? Not just test scores but why are teachers to so risk adverse? Every profession has its issues and this is one that I see is hugely problematic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"You have to be pretty bad to be ineffective..."

"Actually not always the case. A teacher can be rated "effective" and then ultimately ineffective when their student scores sink them. Some students in SE DC really struggle."



I am a solidly effective teacher in a NW school. There is no way I would ever consider teaching in the SE, a place where DCPS really needs to attract effective and highly effective teachers. Why not? It is NOT because I prefer the NW community of students and families. It is not because the facilities are nicer. I would in fact PREFER to teach in NE or SE but will not consider it for the reasons stated above. I have a family I need to support. I can not risk losing my job.

This is what makes me sad. IMPACT does not help attract better teachers to the classrooms that really need them.

I get the issue of needing to keep your job, but are you so sure that you would not be rated effective with these kids? Why? Not just test scores but why are teachers to so risk adverse? Every profession has its issues and this is one that I see is hugely problematic.

I don't think its overly risk adverse for a teacher to switch to a school where they might lose their job because of what they perceive as an unfair system.

Let's take another profession -- anything - in which a person with two kids and a mortgage who doesn't take a harder, less stable job for the SAME PAY is considered risk adverse.

No if they made a switch like that, they'd be considered stupid.

[Anonymous]

Name a single local employer that has fired 5% of it's professional workforce for cause in one year. Just one.

[Anonymous]

to effective NW teacher, what can or should DCPS do to encourage you and others to come to schools that really need you? Should there be bonuses for transfers or higher salary for high need schools? I'm worried the bonus system will incent best teachers and principals who are already in NW to stay where they even if they would rather be in NE or Se. It seems kind of cruel to give bonuses to a few when the "nonteaching" staff who help them are getting axed for budget, not performance. Any teachers want to weigh in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know of a teacher who lost his or her job because of IMPACT last year? Did they seem to deserve it, or not?

It would add a lot to this discussion to have some specific examples instead of all this generalizing.

Please do not name names. These teachers have dealt with enough without having their names bandied around the internet. Good luck to them and congratulations on escaping DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:to effective NW teacher, what can or should DCPS do to encourage you and others to come to schools that really need you? Should there be bonuses for transfers or higher salary for high need schools? I'm worried the bonus system will incent best teachers and principals who are already in NW to stay where they even if they would rather be in NE or Se. It seems kind of cruel to give bonuses to a few when the "nonteaching" staff who help them are getting axed for budget, not performance. Any teachers want to weigh in?

Why would a bonus motivate a teacher to teach in a school where she would be at risk of earning ineffective or min effective and be fired for cause?

[Anonymous]

I know of several teacher who left DCPS during the school year after receiving 1s and 2s on their first observation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:to effective NW teacher, what can or should DCPS do to encourage you and others to come to schools that really need you? Should there be bonuses for transfers or higher salary for high need schools? I'm worried the bonus system will incent best teachers and principals who are already in NW to stay where they even if they would rather be in NE or Se. It seems kind of cruel to give bonuses to a few when the "nonteaching" staff who help them are getting axed for budget, not performance. Any teachers want to weigh in?

promise not to penalize teachers who make the change - by penalize, I mean marking them down for not being as "effective" in the new setting. Assume that if they are effective one year (or let's say two) they don't immediately become ineffective the next just because they switched schools.