Our DD left a middle school where the principal was disrespectful to teachers and parents. The discipline was poor, and there was little communication with parents. Every time my husband or I sent an email to the principal, she would not respond. We had to call to be heard.

Now DD is at SWW, and it's a whole different world. The administrators are professional and responsive. You can tell that they care and that they have experience. DD is happy, and we are happy. There should be more DCPS leaders like the ones at Walls.

PreRhee, there were many demands placed on teachers. It's not true that "nothing was asked". Only a person who did not work in the schools before Rhee would not know.

While some people think of Michelle Rhee as this horrible person, I don't. I didn't agree with the firings at all or the process used to select those teachers who would be fired. However, I can see clear differences between Kaya Henderson and Michelle Rhee. Rhee responded to every email message event he negative ones. Henderson does not. Rhee held everyone accountable including the principals she hired. Henderson does NOT. Henderson does not want to hear anything negative about the principals especially the friends she's hired. Rhee seemed to make decisions that she deemed in the best interest of students. Henderson, on the other hand, makes decisions based on how much she likes the school leader or how much parental involvement there is. Pity those schools where parents are not organized, do not have a PTA, and have no clue how to advocate for their children because Kamras, Henderson, and anyone else at 1200 will not see you or care about how you feel or think. Your opinion will not matter. That's why the schools in the poorest areas of the city have some of the worst leaders. Ditto to schools with the largest ESL populations.

The only hope I see is complete change of the top leadership in DCPS. Mayor Bowser will learn that her praises for Henderson are not deserved. Soon, voters will demand that she rethinks who's running our public schools.

Get a grip. DCPS was a failing system in the golden days you speak of. Very few parents wanted to send their children there and those were mostly WOTP. I'm sure there were many teachers who loved that system. It didn't ask anything of them.

A lot of people talk about Michelle Rhee. What about Kaya Henderson? She is far worse, and people on the outside have no clue. She hires her friends to be principals, and they lack credentials, experience, people skills, and much more. They are the most mean-spirited, incompetent school leaders I have ever met as an educator in DCPS and parent. Most parents are not aware that the system is losing its most talented teachers because there is total cover up of anything that looks or sounds negative. One hundred teachers who need their jobs and came into this profession with enthusiasm and a desire to change lives is a reflection of the chaos, poor leadership, and low morale found throughout DCPS. If you ask the average teacher what he or she thinks about Chancellor Henderson, Jason Kamras, the instructional superintendents, and the principals in this public school system, they will tell you they have a low opinion of all them, and they wish all of them would get put out of their jobs because they're destroying our schools.

The sad part of this discussion is some folks look at 100 and see a percentage; I look at 100 teachers leaving, and I see human beings who have given up on fighting for basic things like computers, books for students, paper, a day when you're not retaliated against or yelled at by a cruel supervisor who has little experience with running a school, and a year without the IMPACT evaluation system.

Rhee got rid of many phenomenal teachers who were put on a list by their principals to be fired just because they were not LIKED or did not kiss up enough or spoke out about things too much. The public has no idea how that whole process worked and how much what the principal said allowed that principal to get you thrown out of your job.

My heart breaks when I think of all the inspiring leaders we had before Rhee and Henderson who cared about students and knew how to support their teachers. These were leaders who knew how to manage without bullying and without being petty and retaliatory. If you don't know anything about the horrible leaders we have running DC public schools, then you certainly do not work in the schools today. Maybe our new mayor will let Henderson go and give us a fresh start. I hope so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm surprised to see Caruthers at West on your list. Since she's been principal, West has seen almost half of its staff turn over every two years. For the middle grades, this has been nearly EVERY teacher every 1-2 years. Since I'm not too keen on long-term subs, this honestly makes the prospects for staying with West long enough to get to that point quite slim. Unfortunately, when good teachers go, so do the relationships they've cultivated, the extracurricular programs they've started or maintained, and any semblance of institutional memory.

I'm not surprised - I really like her. It seems like she's done a good job of keeping around good teachers and bringing in good new ones. And I haven't heard anything bad from the teachers that I've talked to. Do you have some insight with the teachers there?

In a small school, it's easy to take notice of the new faces and those who are no longer there, especially when the middle and intermediate grades (not to mention staff members that worked with the little ones) seem to have ALL new faces. I think that the turnover in and of itself speaks volumes. In my experience and from other parents that I've spoken with, the school has lost some wonderful educators. And I would expect (and hope!) that teachers aren't speaking ill of school leadership to parents. Particularly with the onset of testing season, I've come to see (sadly) that she offers more style than substance in the way of leadership, priorities, and programmatic offerings.

Calling her "more style than substance" doesn't sound at all like her. You're of course entitled to your own opinions, but I've never heard that opinion from another parent before. I think the impact she's had speaks far louder than toes she's stepped on. How about the teachers who have been there for a long time, teach well, and send their own kids there?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm surprised to see Caruthers at West on your list. Since she's been principal, West has seen almost half of its staff turn over every two years. For the middle grades, this has been nearly EVERY teacher every 1-2 years. Since I'm not too keen on long-term subs, this honestly makes the prospects for staying with West long enough to get to that point quite slim. Unfortunately, when good teachers go, so do the relationships they've cultivated, the extracurricular programs they've started or maintained, and any semblance of institutional memory.

I'm not surprised - I really like her. It seems like she's done a good job of keeping around good teachers and bringing in good new ones. And I haven't heard anything bad from the teachers that I've talked to. Do you have some insight with the teachers there?

In a small school, it's easy to take notice of the new faces and those who are no longer there, especially when the middle and intermediate grades (not to mention staff members that worked with the little ones) seem to have ALL new faces. I think that the turnover in and of itself speaks volumes. In my experience and from other parents that I've spoken with, the school has lost some wonderful educators. And I would expect (and hope!) that teachers aren't speaking ill of school leadership to parents. Particularly with the onset of testing season, I've come to see (sadly) that she offers more style than substance in the way of leadership, priorities, and programmatic offerings.

Anonymous wrote:

I'm surprised to see Caruthers at West on your list. Since she's been principal, West has seen almost half of its staff turn over every two years. For the middle grades, this has been nearly EVERY teacher every 1-2 years. Since I'm not too keen on long-term subs, this honestly makes the prospects for staying with West long enough to get to that point quite slim. Unfortunately, when good teachers go, so do the relationships they've cultivated, the extracurricular programs they've started or maintained, and any semblance of institutional memory.

I'm not surprised - I really like her. It seems like she's done a good job of keeping around good teachers and bringing in good new ones. And I haven't heard anything bad from the teachers that I've talked to. Do you have some insight with the teachers there?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal of my school is pretty damn awesome. Maybe not from the perspective of a teacher that isn't performing well...

Typical DC response: It must be the teacher's fault. Nooooo way could a leader just suck, huh?

Believe it or not, even well-performing teachers who are adored by admin can see how terrible the leader is in many cases.

By the way, which school are you at? Shout out your awesome leader! I'm sure he or she won't mind. And I'm certain it's not ALL leaders. But the type of mean-spirited, bullying, incompetence I've seen in the leadership in DC has not been seen anywhere else. So I can't help but wonder what makes DC a place for these terrible people to thrive when we all know they wouldn't survive anywhere else.

So, which schools have awesome leaders? I'd love to know they exist because what I've seen and heard of is scary.

You're right, they were all white. Some of our very highly regarded DCPS principals of color could include Atasha James at Leckie, Andria Caruthers at West, Abdullah Zaki at Kelly Miller (the 2014 principal of the year), Maria Tukeva at CHEC. DCPS principals and teachers are of an excellent quality. I'm sorry if you feel otherwise. All of them are doing a great job given the very difficult realities of their day-to-day work life.

Whoa. Maria Tukeva. Wow. Just wow. Have you seen the turnover number for CHEC?

This might explain the turnover: http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/impact-distribution-by-school/1611/
Guess which school has the highest number of "ineffective," "minimally effective," and "developing" teachers? Either leadership at CHEC like Tukeva can't develop their teachers, good teachers aren't staying, or they are unrealistically scoring their staff on IMPACT with ridiculously low scores.

Looks like IMPACT is being used to harass and harangue teachers. Who hires so many incompetent teachers?

A horrible 'leader'. That's who.

I'm surprised to see Caruthers at West on your list. Since she's been principal, West has seen almost half of its staff turn over every two years. For the middle grades, this has been nearly EVERY teacher every 1-2 years. Since I'm not too keen on long-term subs, this honestly makes the prospects for staying with West long enough to get to that point quite slim. Unfortunately, when good teachers go, so do the relationships they've cultivated, the extracurricular programs they've started or maintained, and any semblance of institutional memory.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal of my school is pretty damn awesome. Maybe not from the perspective of a teacher that isn't performing well...

Typical DC response: It must be the teacher's fault. Nooooo way could a leader just suck, huh?

Believe it or not, even well-performing teachers who are adored by admin can see how terrible the leader is in many cases.

By the way, which school are you at? Shout out your awesome leader! I'm sure he or she won't mind. And I'm certain it's not ALL leaders. But the type of mean-spirited, bullying, incompetence I've seen in the leadership in DC has not been seen anywhere else. So I can't help but wonder what makes DC a place for these terrible people to thrive when we all know they wouldn't survive anywhere else.

So, which schools have awesome leaders? I'd love to know they exist because what I've seen and heard of is scary.

You're right, they were all white. Some of our very highly regarded DCPS principals of color could include Atasha James at Leckie, Andria Caruthers at West, Abdullah Zaki at Kelly Miller (the 2014 principal of the year), Maria Tukeva at CHEC. DCPS principals and teachers are of an excellent quality. I'm sorry if you feel otherwise. All of them are doing a great job given the very difficult realities of their day-to-day work life.

Whoa. Maria Tukeva. Wow. Just wow. Have you seen the turnover number for CHEC?

This might explain the turnover: http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/impact-distribution-by-school/1611/
Guess which school has the highest number of "ineffective," "minimally effective," and "developing" teachers? Either leadership at CHEC like Tukeva can't develop their teachers, good teachers aren't staying, or they are unrealistically scoring their staff on IMPACT with ridiculously low scores.

Looks like IMPACT is being used to harass and harangue teachers. Who hires so many incompetent teachers?

A horrible 'leader'. That's who.