D.C. Schools Fires More Than 400 Teachers

D.C. Public schools fired 413 teachers today as a result of poor annual evaluations.

This year, 663 Washington Teachers' Union members will be receiving bonuses for earning the top rating of "highly effective," according to a DCPS statement released today.

Of the 413 teachers who will be leaving their posts, 104 did not comply with licensure requirements, 113 were deemed "Ineffective" and 175 were considered "2x Minimally Effective." The remaining 21 are leaving under an "Unplaced Extra Year."

"Great teachers are critical to our success," DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson said in the statement. "We are delighted to be able to shine a spotlight on our top performers, and we are thrilled by the improvements that so many of our educators made this year. We also remain committed to moving out our lowest performers in an effort to ensure that every child has access to an outstanding education."

DCPS evaluates its teachers and staff on a system it calls IMPACT, which assesses teacher performance according to student achievement, instructional expertise, collaboration and professionalism. The system was put in place under former DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Henderson relaxed some IMPACT policies after she took her post.

Last year, a total of 211 educators were let go from the system, 76 of which were due to licensure noncompliance.

The employee shuffle comes amid a probe by DCPS and the U.S. Department of Education that investigates questionable scoring patterns and alleged cheating incidents among teachers between 2008 and 2010.

Comments

[El Chingaso]

11:47 AM on 07/20/2011

"Of the 413 teachers who will be leaving their posts, 104 did not comply with licensure requirements, 113 were deemed 'ineffective' and 175 were considered '2x Minimally Effective.' The remaining 21 are leaving under an 'Unplaced Extra Year.'" Hmm, finally, a good call in D.C. I guess the taxpayers' t!t isn't so guaranteed after all...

[DLB]

08:13 PM on 07/17/2011

Washington, D.C. had a recent mayoral election that removed one Democrat for another. The previous mayor wanted to follow Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee recommendations and terminate the employment of the bad teachers. The new Democrat was hired and those recommendations were followed, but what Rhee recommendations forgot to do was to throw a bone to the remaining teachers with bonuses.

See how politics works? No chance of saving money in the system. All the money "saved" by getting rid of failing teachers will be eaten up in bonuses.

Our country will never fix our current education system and save money in the process. The Democrats have made sure those two concepts are mutually exclusive.

[insidious]

11:04 AM on 07/18/2011

Where I'm located (AZ), teacher; "bonuses" amount to approximately $1300.00 a year. The money raised to pay for those "bonuses" came from the voters who passed SB301. In order to receive the bonuses, school boards, teacher input, and Union Reps. get together and mutually agree to terms of the "bonuses". To say Democrats are milking the system is a sign of illogical thinking.

[kcajnms]

02:55 PM on 07/17/2011

In DC, a minimum of the bottom ranked 10% of teachers should be fired every year and replaced with new blood. That would give all of the teachers the incentive to do a better job.

[factuals]

12:54 PM on 07/17/2011

What can you expect from any school system that had to fire 413 teachers? DC is another dump,and it looks like third world nation,....even turism from overseas are warned about "crime in the ghettos"when they go back to their countries,they think that USA is like South Africa,and that we are a bunch of idiots

[easydude51]

12:11 PM on 07/17/2011

Washington D.C. will so be another Atlanta. What does 400 teachers being fired tell you about the students and parents?

[factuals]

12:56 PM on 07/17/2011

Hp is not publishing any opinion that says the real truth about our school system

[automan 57]

12:00 PM on 07/17/2011

Benefits; Thats the biggest problem with the modern day teachers they are in it for the wrong reasons. To be good at any job you have to love what you are doing!!! Few; teachers I know do not love their jobs, just the hours, the three month paid vaction in summer, the power and sometimes the prestige. Most teachers now a days can't wait to put in enough time to retire as early as possible, so they can bask in their benefit's at tax payers expence!!! There is an old saying, but a true one, those who can't do teach. The real teachers which there are a very few left, teach until they physically can no longer do the job.

[easydude51]

12:04 PM on 07/17/2011

I have been teaching for more than 23 yrs. We have teachers that have been teaching for 30 plus years. We love our jobs the students and most of the parents. Teachers love their jobs. Teachers do not get paid during the summer get the facts right.....

[TartuffeSlayer]

01:15 PM on 07/17/2011

Have an original thought or stay away. It is obvious you know little about public education and teachers. Rash generalizations are not arguments, but I guess that is what passes for knowledge today.

[perspektuv]

10:37 AM on 07/17/2011

I failed Biology I twice. The 3rd time around, a teacher, Miss Glasser, at Mackenzie High, was an excellent teacher will never be forgotten. I passed with a B+ and gave me a love for science. Every day, she stood up on front of the class, explained everything, answered questions, drew pictures on the blackboard with such enthusiasm and energy that it became contagious to all her students. She's probably 75 years old now....but if she's out there, she could teach teachers how to be teachers!

[Kimpeach]

10:39 AM on 07/17/2011

The way Miss Glasser taught is not allowed in the classroom today! I knew a teacher who was written up because her administrators wanted her to use more technology in the class and less lecture.

[Kimpeach]

10:40 AM on 07/17/2011

and she taught like Miss Glasser (enthusiasm and energy) and the kids adored her. Eventually, she got tired of all the politics and she left the education field.

[TheRoosterman]

02:29 AM on 07/17/2011

With fear of being sued, kids that are violent, an educational system design around an agrarian society model (kids spend summer months on the farm), a society that shuns education as an esteemed professional, that is paid starting salaries less that start salaries of lessor educational requirements and over baring parents that make the most outrageous republican candidates look like timid citizens and I can see why our education system is not the best in the world.

[abys32]

02:03 AM on 07/17/2011

Decreasing teachers does not improve education. A lack of teachers is worse than the alternative. What is the plan?

[hawkseye]

07:27 PM on 07/17/2011

The plan is to privatize the schools and hire compliant teachers to staff them.

[abys32]

10:53 PM on 07/17/2011

Oh! Hire compliant teachers. Why didn't the public schools think of that? Brilliant. It was so simple, all this time. A plan for the simple-minded.
I wonder if privatization of schools will work as well as it has for the prison system. So far I have not heard good things about the success of either.

[f2900]

01:06 AM on 07/18/2011

Compliant like the ones who agreed to change test answers at the direction of their principals in Atlanta??? Brilliant!!

[DCreamerII]

12:57 AM on 07/17/2011

There is a difference between expectorating a curriculum at students and teaching them one. Teaching requires two way communications, giving the gift of confidence and a passionate belief in your mission. Evidently 663 of the district’s teachers were exceptional last year according to the objective and subjective measurements used to evaluate their performance and I doubt they or any members of their union are suggesting they return the bonuses they earned.

Poor teachers cause more damage to children than anyone except poor parents which is a whole different and more complex situation. We have to be able to weed out the ones who are just showing up for a paycheck and have quit believing in their student’s and lost their passion for the profession. Maybe the teachers in the middle between exceptional and fired will be motivated to pick up the slack and give their students the mentoring and support them and the country so desperately need for them to have.

[Cinquopated]

09:37 AM on 07/17/2011

I have a hard time believing that if you teach 8 hours a day plus student evaluations, grading, writing ones quizzes, planning for lessons and doing teacher-parent conferences is 'just showing up for a paycheck'. Let me remind you that most teachers are also required to have or in the process of getting a Master's in Education beyond their specialty - that means TWO masters degrees. I have a friend caught in this. There is often a 'first hired first fired policy'. There is NO problem in firing teachers despite what everybody here seems to believe. I even remember about ten years ago the big debate was the practice of firing old teachers (with a higher pay grade) to replace them with younger, cheaper teachers. So where is this meme of "teachers can't be fired" coming from?

[f2900]

01:07 AM on 07/18/2011

Faux Gnus for one.

[novabird]

10:40 AM on 07/17/2011

Those who believe that evaluations of teacher performance are fair or objective are buying into the right wing agenda of attacking and vilifying teachers while the gov't goes about destroying public education for the profit of their big business cronies.
Once the licensed teachers are gone and the teacher unions are broken, public education will be replaced by privately run education factories designed to produce low paid worker drones willing to work for third world wages.
Think it can't happen here? Look around you - it is happening right now.

[mrskorn]

03:13 PM on 07/18/2011

Umm, the secretary of education is a democrat. It is not just the "rightwing" that is putting on the pressure. Now it is everybody. Race to the Top is Obama's version of NCLB...except now teachers are graded on how their kids score on a once a year test! It is just getting worse.

[mlaiuppa]

12:39 AM on 07/17/2011

Good luck with hiring more "great" teachers. Teachers are going to start avoiding your district like the plague despite the down job market.

I guess you'll get lucky and have those peace corps TFA teachers to fall back on. I'm sure everyone of them will be highly effective for the year or two they donate to you before moving on to a real job.

[abys32]

02:06 AM on 07/17/2011

Maybe districts are counting on the newly inspired unemployed to fill in the teaching jobs. They will also be out the door as soon as they get the job they really wanted.

[Bebees Human]

09:47 AM on 07/17/2011

I think any competent teacher will be treated really well after such a disaster in that school district. They are wanted! It will probabley be hard to get hired in that school district though. The people doing the hiring will be tough to impress.

[Cinquopated]

11:15 PM on 07/16/2011

And yet people somehow believe that if we have unions we somehow "can't fire" teachers. Think again. It's all too easy!

[aztrukin]

12:28 AM on 07/17/2011

So all those reports of the teachers accused of many things languish in paid leave to only report to detention day after day, year after year for their fair hearing still get paid in NYC. Ultimately they end up being fired but they still get their checks and the union still collects their dues.

[mlaiuppa]

12:41 AM on 07/17/2011

NYC.

It's an outlier. An exception. It's not the norm.

In fact, I don't know of any other district that operates like that. So using it as an example is pretty much lying.

[mrskorn]

03:16 PM on 07/18/2011

The can be fired, it is just that the administration is so screwed up they can't deal with issues in a timely manner. They need to clean themselves up as they are the ones keeping these teachers in the rubber rooms.

[Sarah Armstrong]

11:07 PM on 07/16/2011

Great! If these teachers truly weren't doing the job, they need to look for work in another profession. I was an educator for 33 years and felt frustrated all of those years over the near impossibility of getting rid of teachers who should never have been in the classroom. The ones who truly do the great job of teaching students should be honored and paid MUCH more than they presently earn all over the country.

[hawkseye]

07:30 PM on 07/17/2011

In what state did you teach?

[JimNast]

10:56 PM on 07/16/2011

Firing teachers is the wrong approach. Reform of this nature needs to be top-down. If this many teachers are not performing in the DC school district, I would start by looking at administration. Why have school building principals, for example, not already cleaned house? How many of these teachers want to do a better job but need re-training? What level of effort has been placed by the district of bringing in additional training for these teachers? Where are they going to find new teachers before the new school year? How many were fired because they didn't change student results on standardized tests?

[MyrtleJune]

11:10 PM on 07/16/2011

There are too many licensed and effective teachers without jobs or in districts that bully them to molly coddle teachers in the way you suggest. It is the teachers' responsibility to achieve licensing. I don't know how they rate effectiveness so I'm not sure on that. In too many districts it is based on gossip and clique values rather than on honest assessment so I don't know how they rate that. There are plenty of teachers coming out of schools to take their places. Now, who and how can we ditch ineffective administrators is the larger, and mostly overpaid, issue in most schools.

[PixieGirl0731]

12:11 AM on 07/17/2011

What do you do for a living? Maybe you work for one of those companies that pay people to post on these websites? The liscense situation is an interesting one. Are they rporting people who were let's say a 3rd grade teacher who had an emergency certificate to be a school counselor? Maybe they decided that was not for them and they went back to 3rd grade? OR were they unable to pass a test? or get a degree? We just do not know why they did not get what they were suppsoed to get. But, most of the teachers I know are hard working people who care and want to do a good job BUT they simply are not seen as good teachers or they refuse to drill and kill the tests. Maybe the teachers that they fired did a better job then the ones that they gave bonuses to? We will never know because the "product" does not go to market in most cases for 12 years.

[JimNast]

12:36 AM on 07/17/2011

Show me where the excess exists in math, science, and special education teachers? What it seems you are describing is musical chairs where teachers no longer drift around districts but hop from district to district. Nothing has been done to make them better teachers.... even if they want to be.

[Jeannie candler]

10:24 PM on 07/16/2011

Students that attend private schools do much better than most students in the public school system.Could it be because the Fed. Govt. is not there in the teachers face telling them what they can and cannot do? Maybe it is the discipline from the teachers along with respect and a little bit of fear from the students. It worked for me!

[blitznstitch]

10:42 PM on 07/16/2011

if the public school system took the private school model and applied it, do you think the school would improve? Perhaps getting rid of the administration-model, and implimenting a Board of Directors model, as most private schools have, would change everything for the better.

[StarGazingAwe]

10:51 PM on 07/16/2011

Haven't we ruined enough with the profit-driven model? I'm thinking the economy, regulatory oversight, health care (I mean services, not care)...

[MyrtleJune]

11:14 PM on 07/16/2011

People are FREE to send their child to private school on their own dime. That does not excuse them from paying their share of public school taxes. In fact that's been the downfall of the public schools. That and administrators gobbling up inordinate amounts of pay while doing nothing effective. I'd say if an administration can loses this many teachers, they need to be let go as well for their ineffectiveness in hiring and retaining qualified individuals in the classrooms. The other bigger problem with public schools is the privatization attempts that keep our public schools from being effective over all. They cannot wait to get their hands on THAT money!

[aztrukin]

12:33 AM on 07/17/2011

Translation. Private schools do much better and since the public shool system has failed we need to stomp these better educators out of business and continue down our own path of higher pay and benefits and be damned about the education of our children.