Does anyone know a DC teacher?

[femmocrat]

Please see Hannah Bell's post in GD for background:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8806737


I would really like to see the criteria on which their performance was evaluted, minus the testing. Librarians and counselors do not test, yet some were dismissed. Were other subject areas included and how were those evaluated?

BTW, I did my pre-student teaching in the DC Public Schools back in the Dark Ages.

[YvonneCa]

1. No. But when a similar...

... *evaluation* started happening in my district, that was my question. My district had a list of teachers to be pushed toward the door, supposedly because they didn't meet some preordained 'criteria' set out by the superintendent. (BTW, I was told this by multiple people within and outside the district.)

I never found out what the criteria was to get a teacher's name on that list. I DO have my guesses, though. ;)

[LWolf]

2. I'd like to see it, too.

I know teachers from all over the place, but none in DC.

I have a real concern about misuse of performance evaluations to accomplish a political agenda. With the current focus on merit pay and firing, I can see that even the most objective evaluation could be abused.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Met some in Seattle at the AFT convention

They all hated Rhee.

But none said anything about the performance evaluation.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. *These* are the Dark Ages.

>>>>>>BTW, I did my pre-student teaching in the DC Public Schools back in the Dark Ages.>>>>>

[Hannah Bell]

5. More on the rhee firings:

Saturday, July 24, 2010
No Salary Increases For You

Just realized that Michelle Rhee not only fired 5% of the D.C. teaching corps yesterday (241 teachers), she gets to withhold salary increases from another 730 teachers (17% of the teaching corps) because they were rated "minimally effective." Next year, if they are still rated "minimally effective," they too will be fired.

Wow - this is the contract the union agreed to? Within five years, Rhee will have a whole new teaching corps. She can basically fire EVERY teacher by making sure the classes they have result in stagnant or dropping test scores in the next five years.

And she saves on all those salary increases and pension costs by having 20% or 25% declared "minimally effective" every year. No wonder Michelle Rhee says NYC needs a contract like the D.C. contract.

You know who ought to be fired as a consequence of this mess?
George Parker, the head of the D.C. union, and Randi Weingarten, the AFT chief who helped "negotiate" this "innovative" contract.

http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/

[Hannah Bell]

6. Analysis of the method used to fire in DC

The problem with how Rhee fired teachers

(Note: IMPACT is the evaluation system used)

It may well be that all 165 teachers fired because of bad evaluations under IMPACT were bad at their jobs, but IMPACT isn’t designed well enough to tell, according to a number of teachers and other educators.

According to Turque, about 20 percent of the District’s classroom teachers -- all of them reading and math instructors in grades 4 through 8 -- were evaluated on student improvement in scores on the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System, or DC CAS. Those were the only grades and subjects for which there is annual test score data from DC CAS. “Value-added” -- a misnomer that ranks with the best of them -- will constitute 50 percent of their evaluation...

Under IMPACT, all teachers are supposed to receive five 30-minute classroom observations during the school year, three by a school administrator and two by an outside "master educator" with a background in the instructor’s subject. They are scored against a "teaching and learning framework" with 22 different measures in nine categories. Among the criteria are classroom presence, time management, clarity in presenting the objectives of a lesson and ensuring that students across all levels of learning ability understand the material.

A number of teachers never got the full five evaluations, apparently because a number of master teachers hired to do the jobs quit, according to sources in the school system. But even if they all were, let’s look closely at this: In 30 minutes, a teacher is supposed to demonstrate all 22 different teaching elements. What teacher demonstrates 22 teaching elements -- some of which are not particularly related -- in 30 minutes? Suppose a teacher takes 30 minutes to introduce new material and doesn’t have time to show. ... Oh well. Bad evaluation...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/dc-schools/the-problem-with-how-rhee-fire.html?wprss=answer-sheet


Oh, my: "Among the ways instructors can demonstrate that they are instilling student belief in success is through 'affirmation chants, poems and cheers.' "

load o' crap.