D.C. fires 241 teachers
To my knowledge (based on a Dan Rodricks show I listened to this summer), Baltimore City fired 11 teachers last year. All were challenged by the union. D.C. is firing 241 this year, and 81 will be challenged by the office.
I am tired of working alongside ineffective teachers. I want a little dash of Rhee in Baltimore, as scary as that might be.
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10 comments:
I think one important question is: what makes you think that DC is firing the right 241 teachers, or, that if Baltimore fired more, they'd be the right ones?
Yeah, that's the question.
I read up on the system, and it seems like there is a lot of room for fighting it if it were unfair and you were doing your job.
I have seen, sometimes first-hand, what a vicious administration can do. But there needs to be something more than what we have now... what's the solution for teachers who are terrible, year after year?
That's easy for you to say. Have you ever been in the direct line of fire from an administrator for some unknown reason? I've seen administrators go after teachers who teach (duh!), have good attendance, and actually stay after school most days of the week to help kids (omg!) and then leave dead-beat teachers alone because they kiss up and drink the kool-aid. Based on the administrators I've seen in the City, I don't have any faith in them to make the right call--more of the same!
Yup, I've seen it, so it's not easy for me to say. I've seen it a lot. But I've also seen the other side, teachers who miss 25 days of school a year, get placed on a PIP, and then don't show up for their PIP meeting so it has to be rescheduled, and the process just gets drawn out, and administrators aren't willing to do the work to get rid of them. It's really, really hard to fire a teacher in the city. That's why only 11 were fired last year... there needs to be different systems in place. My students don't deserve to have bad teachers.
I hear what you're saying, though -- still, what you are saying doesn't generally lead to firing, otherwise there would be more than 11 firings a year.
If administrators really wanted to fire teachers, they could. I've known dead-beat teachers who do things that are wrong and get a slap on the wrist. We're talking stuff that's not covered by the union contract. Why not spend the energy going after poor teachers rather than harassing those who just do their jobs? As long as you continue to drink kool-aid, kiss ass, and don't question policy, administrators will give you the benefit of the doubt!
I agree, 100%, and I wish/hope administrators would go after the truly bad teachers. And I know this isn't what necessarily happens (though it has happened).
I feel like Rhee is going after bad teachers, though. I'm not positive on that, but the fact that the union is not fighting two-thirds of her firings leads me to believe that.
My motto for 2010-2011 is "Do your job."
Check
http://www.wbaltv.com/education/24454808/detail.html
obviously you work you don't work in Baltimore. From reading your blog and the creativity you bring to your lessons, YOU would be severely IMPACTED in DC. Secondly, YOUR ability to keep your job as an English teacher will depend on your students passing the test. 55% of your overall eval is based on the score. Sounds good in theory and yes ( bad teachers should not be in the classroom) but RHEE way will not work. Great wakeup call though ..
Huh? Don't work in Baltimore? I absolutely do.
I don't find testing to be bad carte blanche. In the IB program, I am evaluated on external assessments that make a lot of sense and really evaluate what I teach the students. I believe in the skills I'm teaching and what the tests evaluate. So... getting evaluated 55% based on testing might be kind of high, but what if the tests are good? It depends on what tests and many other factors.
All I'm saying is it's way too hard to fire teachers in Baltimore, and a dose of Rhee might be a good thing. People I really respect love her and hate her. I'm kind of in the middle. The Newsweek article a few years back made her seem like an absolutely horrible person, and I hear she was a horrible teacher (I work with someone who was colleagues with her in Baltimore), but she's clearly smart and dynamic and getting results.
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