Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting back to IMPACT, this teacher was a Group 1 teacher, meaning a teacher whose IMPACT score is weighted 55% according to test scores.

Here is some recent data on the percentage of "so-called" highly effective educators according to group. Note that only 4% of Group 1 teachers were rated highly effective last year. What does this tell you about the validity of this evaluation instrument?

Group % Highly Effective Teachers in Group
1 4
2 16
3 11
3a 41
4 18
5 64
6 0

Please advise -- I know group are teachers in the testing grades, whose students take the DC-CAS. What are the other groups?

Anonymous wrote:Getting back to IMPACT, this teacher was a Group 1 teacher, meaning a teacher whose IMPACT score is weighted 55% according to test scores.

Here is some recent data on the percentage of "so-called" highly effective educators according to group. Note that only 4% of Group 1 teachers were rated highly effective last year. What does this tell you about the validity of this evaluation instrument?

Group % Highly Effective Teachers in Group
1 4
2 16
3 11
3a 41
4 18
5 64
6 0

Anonymous wrote:We are 150k plus under water -- bought in 2005 -- and would love to get out of our upper NW neighborhood to one with better schools -- inside DC or out. Plain and simple -- we are stuck. Hoping for a miracle in the lottery....

Anonymous wrote:We are 150k plus under water -- bought in 2005 -- and would love to get out of our upper NW neighborhood to one with better schools -- inside DC or out. Plain and simple -- we are stuck. Hoping for a miracle in the lottery....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people could stop arguing about whether the suburbs or the city are better for a minute, please note that one of the main reasons there was cheating which led to this teacher's firing was because of the pressures the administration put on teachers to make sure their students improve on DC CAS. The article notes that DC CAS accounts for 50% of a teacher's score whereas in other school systems it counts for a much smaller percentage.

And who was it that instituted this kind of lopsided teacher evaluation? And instituted it without a trial period, so any flaws could become apparent before they were used to evaluate teachers? And who was it that dismissed subsequent reports of cheating? The heroine of many folks in DC's white middle class, Michelle Rhee - who continues to make scads of money as a consultant despite the mess she left behind.

Yes, I think the system will improve as more middle class people decide to stay in DC and raise their kids here. But we've got to do a better job of picking our chancellors. Rhee lacked the proper experience to run a school system and this article shows us one more reason why.

Of course, it's also deeply embarrassing that DCPS is saying that this teacher would have been fired anyway even if she had reported her suspicions about cheating. (That can't be blamed on Michelle Rhee - other mindless administrators did that.) Jeez, it's like the Supreme Court saying that a condemned man has to die anyway even though there may still be evidence exonerating him....oh wait.

At any rate, as a former DCPS parent, I find this story deeply embarrassing and you folks in FCPS may laugh all you want. You have every right to!

Just want to point out that, for most DC residents, and DCPS parents, you guys just look silly. There's a million and one reasons why DCPS isn't a world-class school system. People are fighting every day to make it so. Pointing at one person, or one story, and saying, "See! There you go! This is why the system is broken!" just makes you look incredibly myopic.

And Michelle Rhee is in serious danger of becoming a mash-up of Emmanuel Goldstein and Moby Dick for you guys.

Anonymous wrote:I know this thread has strayed off but I grew up with the teacher in this story and she and her family are just wonderful people. Our little town is very proud of her.

Anonymous wrote:Thought I'd add our story to the growing list of 'anecdotal' city homebuyer success stories. We bought our rowhouse in east Columbia Heights in '02 for under 200K. Drug dealing, trash on our street, etc. Today, half the houses on our street have turned over, five in the last two years for over 400k, the latest sold a few months ago for over 500K. We've got a preschooler and a toddler, with our oldest in a DCPS school a five minute drive away with a waitlist in the hundreds and working the various lotteries available here in the city just in case we get lucky again and can upgrade further. No doubt it's taken some effort to make life work here, and we have long since gotten over our choices not making sense to everyone. The wealth and position of strength we're operating with now is something we attribute directly to giving this city a chance. Not saying it's perfect or that we wouldn't ever change where we live -- but it won't be out of desperation.

Anonymous wrote:Is there research that shows the middle-class-with-kids population in DC is growing in any kind of statistically significant way? Middle class meaning teachers, cops, nurses, store managers, used car salesmen, etc. HHI below 100k. (This is what most people mean by middle class, right?)