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The Washington Teachers Union will file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of its 241 teachers fired last week for poor performance in the classroom, union President George Parker said Monday.
"The story is not the firings so much as the document upon which the firings are based," Parker said. "It is a flawed document."
Quote:
The document in question is the D.C. Public Schools' teacher and staff evaluation tool, called Impact, which rates teachers from "highly effective" to "ineffective." An "ineffective" score left 185 of the system's 4,300 teachers without a job in the fall -- about 10 times the average number of firings in similarly sized districts. Another 56 teachers were let go for licensure problems.
Fired teachers can file grievances if the process of their evaluation was flawed -- for example, if they received only four observations instead of the required five. They cannot file grievances based on the outcome of the evaluations. Rhee said her team intentionally did not fire teachers whose process they knew to be flubbed -- leaving the union with little room for remedy.
D.C. teachers union to file suit over firings | Washington Examiner (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/education/D_C_-teachers-union-to-file-suit-over-firings-1003814-99278909.html#ixzz0utP5d4VA - broken link)
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Of course its not the teachers who are at fault. It's the document!
If you're no longer "effective" as a teacher, then its time to move on. Unfortunately, we have coward unions who shamelessly defend these people as if there's nothing at stake here.
I don't know the specifics of this case but in my experience teacher evaluation systems are often flawed and evaluate teachers on criteria that are out of their control (ie: good vs bad neighborhood & % of kids who know English will affect scores...). Kids and parents often have a better idea of who is a good teacher is more than a bureaucrat crunching a spreadsheet. School boards across the country are doing mass layoffs and new 'evaluation systems' can be just a mechanism & excuse to downsize not to improve teaching.
Under IMPACT, teachers were 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.
The instructors were scored against an elaborate "teaching and learning framework" with 22 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.
At the end of the school year, the teachers' overall performance was converted to a 100-to-400-point scale. Teachers with scores below 175 are subject to dismissal. Teachers scoring between 175 and 249 are judged under the system to be "minimally effective." Scores between 250 and 400 are considered "effective" or "highly effective."
Some teachers said Friday that the system has not worked as planned.
Elizabeth Davis, a computer concepts teacher at Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School in Northeast, said teachers were at a disadvantage because they were being evaluated on a new set of criteria -- the teaching framework -- that they were still trying to learn.
"A lot of good teachers have been caught up in this web," said Davis, a veteran teacher and a candidate for president of the Washington Teachers' Union. She said she received a "highly effective" rating, although she did not meet with her master educator until the final week of classes.
I'm not going to sit here and say that teachers who aren't performing don't need to be fired, but perhaps a better system is available, and they could have tried this on a smaller number of schools to make sure it works properly before throwing it at the whole school system.
The IMPACT process has 5 in class evaluations. 3 by district employees, and 2 by "master educators". Who chooses the observers? What if you don't mesh with the person observing you? Just seems a little premature to me.
everyone should be a teacher. It appears to be the only job in America you cant get fired from
Why do you think that so many young people nowadays go into that? Because they can't get fired and they get high salaries for 8 months of work and summers off. It is a cake job.
The union is NOT required to file a lawsuit. You've completely misapplied the law you cited. FAIR REPRESENTATION. NOT MANDATORY REPRESENTATION NO MATTER WHAT. Nice try.
Why not defend the school system for ridding itself of worthless teachers instead of defending the union?
Now there's an idea!
Last edited by AeroGuyDC; 07-27-2010 at 09:39 AM..
Under IMPACT, teachers were 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.
The instructors were scored against an elaborate "teaching and learning framework" with 22 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.
At the end of the school year, the teachers' overall performance was converted to a 100-to-400-point scale. Teachers with scores below 175 are subject to dismissal. Teachers scoring between 175 and 249 are judged under the system to be "minimally effective." Scores between 250 and 400 are considered "effective" or "highly effective."
Some teachers said Friday that the system has not worked as planned.
Elizabeth Davis, a computer concepts teacher at Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School in Northeast, said teachers were at a disadvantage because they were being evaluated on a new set of criteria -- the teaching framework -- that they were still trying to learn.
"A lot of good teachers have been caught up in this web," said Davis, a veteran teacher and a candidate for president of the Washington Teachers' Union. She said she received a "highly effective" rating, although she did not meet with her master educator until the final week of classes.
I'm not going to sit here and say that teachers who aren't performing don't need to be fired, but perhaps a better system is available, and they could have tried this on a smaller number of schools to make sure it works properly before throwing it at the whole school system.
The IMPACT process has 5 in class evaluations. 3 by district employees, and 2 by "master educators". Who chooses the observers? What if you don't mesh with the person observing you? Just seems a little premature to me.
Did you see in the OP that the Superintendent intentionally did not fire those teachers whose evaluations were flawed? In other words, she seems to be on solid ground regarding those she did fire. They had the required evaluations. They flunked. They got fired.
I support this action wholeheartedly.
Besides, if the other 4000+ teachers understood the process and passed, then I have no sympathy for the ~200 that were fired. Can't do the job? Get fired. Seems pretty simple to me.
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