Rhee fires 241 D.C. teachers; 165 cited for poor performance

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Washington Post:

Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced Friday that she has fired 241 teachers, including 165 who received poor appraisals under a new evaluation system that, for the first time, holds some educators accountable for student growth on standardized test scores.

"Every child in a District of Columbia public school has a right to a highly effective teacher -- in every classroom, of every school, of every neighborhood, of every ward, in this City," Rhee said in a statement. "That is our commitment. Today, with the release of the first year of results from IMPACT, the educator assessment system, we take another step toward making that commitment a reality."

The Washington Teachers' Union said it will contest the firings.[[Of course.]]

The dismissals represent the second game-changing development this year in Rhee's efforts to assert more control over how D.C. teachers are managed, compensated and removed from their jobs. It also places the public school system at the head of a national movement -- fostered in part by the Obama administration's $3.4 billion "Race to the Top" grant competition -- to more rigorously assess teacher effectiveness.

Last month, union members and the D.C. Council approved a new contract that raises educators' salaries by 21.6 percent but diminishes traditional seniority protections in favor of personnel decisions based on results in the classroom. The pact also provides for a "performance pay" system with bonuses of $20,000 to $30,000 annually for teachers who meet certain benchmarks, including growth in test scores.

The evaluation, known as IMPACT, is the major instrument officials will use each year to determine teacher effectiveness.

Another 737 educators at risk

In addition to the 226 dismissals, which become official Aug. 13, another 737 teachers were rated "minimally effective," and will be given one year to improve their performance or also face dismissal. Rhee said Friday that job actions were "a more accurate reflection" of the quality of the 4,000-member teacher corps than has been available in the past.

"This is a school district that has had a lot of problems with student achievement," she said.

Rhee declined to speculate on how many of the 737 might face dismissal after next year. But she said that over the next two years "a not insignificant number of folks will be moved out of the system for poor performance."

Union leaders and some teachers have bitterly objected to IMPACT, which was devised in collaboration with a private consultant, Mathematica Policy Research. Although school officials convened teacher focus groups to discuss the plan, it was not subject to collective bargaining. Some teachers call it overly complex and dependent on an unreliable statistical methodology for linking test scores to individual teachers. WTU President George Parker said the program is designed to weed out teachers rather than to help them improve their practice.

"It's punishment-heavy and support-light," Parker said.

The IMPACT-generated dismissals are likely to spark a new round of debate about Rhee's treatment of teachers. D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who is challenging Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary, has made Rhee's management part of his critique of Fenty's education policy.

Changing the way teachers are graded

There is always turnover during the summer months in D.C schools -- and other school systems -- through retirements, resignations and dismissals of teachers who did not survive their two-year probationary period. An additional 76 District teachers also were dismissed Friday for not having proper licensing as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Law.

But few tenured educators have faced dismissal for poor performance. Rhee said that according to her staff's research, there were no teachers fired for lack of effectiveness in 2006, the year before her appointment as chancellor. Officials said the former evaluation process was cumbersome and time-consuming, with responsibility for assessments falling to school principals already stretched by other responsibilities. Procedural errors -- a missed deadline, a conference not held -- left dismissals open to successful challenge by the union in the appeals process. Teachers complained that some administrators used evaluations to play favorites or settle personal scores.
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