Michelle Rhee fires 241 under performing teachers in Washington. Can you fire your way to better schools?
Washington, D.C., school Chancellor Michelle Rhee is drawing national attention for her ambitious reforms in the nation’s Capitol and for her no-nonsense management style that includes firing teachers she feels are not producing student gains.
Michelle Rhee, chancellor of Washington public schools, announced today that 241 teachers will be fired.
Today, the District of Columbia Public Schools announced the firing of 241 teachers for poor classroom performance. Teachers are being evaluated under a new detailed accountability system called IMPACT that looks at student progress, using what is commonly called a growth model.
In addition, 737 employees rated “minimally effective” by the new rating standard have a year to improve or face dismissal next year.
The academic growth of their students account for half of a teacher’s evaluation; most of the rest of the evaluation hinge on detailed classroom observations of the teacher.
The mass firings prompted this response from American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who doubts the efficacy of firing your way to better schools. She argues the solution is helping teachers become better:
Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s signature education philosophy appears to be that you can hire and fire your way to better schools. Rhee fired more than 75 teachers last year under her old evaluation system. Last November, she used a budget crisis as an excuse to dismiss another 266. Today, the initial implementation of the new IMPACT system already has resulted in terminations of more than 200 teachers. Questions have been raised not only about the validity of IMPACT, but about the chancellor’s penchant for firing teachers rather than providing supports to develop their skills.
Mass firings such as these, and questions about the validity and reliability of IMPACT, are precisely why DCPS agreed with the American Federation of Teachers and the Washington Teachers’ Union and signed two side letters to the contract dealing with the system. One letter calls for an independent review, and the other provides teachers with an opportunity to share their concerns regarding the IMPACT system.
Our hope is that the recently approved contract for DCPS teachers will usher in much-needed changes for District schools. The terms of the contract call for all teachers to receive targeted professional development throughout their careers, with particular support for new teachers and for those who need specific supports.
Firing teachers en masse may sound to some like strong action is being taken, but in the absence of real professional supports and valid teacher evaluations systems, it simply perpetuates a destructive and failing strategy. Rhee’s approach ignores the fact that good teaching is much more of a learned skill than it is innate. All of us who have taught know this. Our common goal must be to improve teaching and learning so that the children educated in the District’s public schools are prepared to succeed in college, work and life.
Chancellor Rhee has numerous tools available to her in the contract we recently reached. She has a responsibility to follow the lead of school systems that successfully use such tools to develop highly skilled teaching forces, rather than stubbornly adhering to the destructive cycle of “fire, hire, repeat.”
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233 comments Add your comment
E Pluribus Unum
July 24th, 2010
12:58 am
@Happy Teacher
keep striving to do your best, and enjoy teaching.
you made some good points,but also remember
that coins have two sides and that there is some
validity from the other point of view.
EducationCEO
July 24th, 2010
2:00 am
@Abe – You and I can discuss the real test results because I guarantee no one else wants to hear the truth. Besides, she has to make room for a new crop of TFA grads this fall. Does anyone know if she was able to find those Special Education students the district ‘lost’ at the beginning of the year? Probably doesn’t matter now that the testing has ended. Read between the lines, people.
EducationCEO
July 24th, 2010
2:11 am
@Darrell Groves – They ca’;t fire Rhee because then they couldn’t tout the hard-working child of Asian immigrants angle, who went to an Ivy League school and is now working to save the down-trodden Black & Brown kids of the D.C. Public School System. How else would they back-door other Ivy and TFA grads into the classroom, without regard for the dedication and commitment of trained educators? By the way, those of you who assume those teachers (and others) are unqualified obviously know little about the teacher evaluation system. If she follows protocol, removing ‘ineffective’ teachers would not be so controversial because she would have cause to remove them. But as those of us in education know, you could be the best damn teacher in the building but if the principal (or a pet) does not like you or feels threatened, they will find a way to get rid of you. Sounds simple, but it really does happen. Why do you think so many teachers post under made-up names on this blog? What really bothers me is the fact that only teachers are deemed ineffective here. What about the leadership? Didn’t Obama call for new leadership at GM? Why can’t he do the same at DCPS? I think he may be worried about offending Gates, Broad, and Walton. Oh well…
HS Teacher
July 24th, 2010
6:29 am
I feel that too often, administrators DO allow poor teachers to continue teaching. It is easy to ignore a problem like that. Doing all of the paperwork and dealing the grief is far too painful.
However, the percentage of “poor” teachers is very small. During my 10+ years of teaching I have only come across a handful of “poor” teachers. Most of those did other things in the school (coaching, club sponsors, etc.) which made them more valuable to the administration, so the administration basically over looked their “poor” classroom teaching.
Quality teaching is not a problem in GA. I have worked in 3 different schools and 2 different school systems. Most every single teacher wants to do a good job and they are there to make a difference in the childs lives. I am frustrated that so much money and effort is placed on ‘teacher quality’ when that is not a major issue at all from my experience in GA.
One of the main issues that I have seen is student quality. By that, I mean students that are not prepared for school. They never learned the basics, they were never given school supplies by their parents, they were never taught social graces, they are not required to study at home, and so on. I would like to see more attention and focus on ’student quality.’
Blackberry Curve
July 24th, 2010
7:13 am
Maureen: You don’t want to believe it, do you?
nutshell
July 24th, 2010
7:50 am
Okay, lets try to explain it to the business folks.
Every year teachers get a new group of students; teachers do not know the extent of these students prior knowledge, but have to take the students from point A to point B at the end of the school year. Teachers do not get to choose these students that are in their classrooms. Unlike business that requires an employee to fill out an application and then go through an interview process to select the candidate for whatever particular job business wants filled. Now lets say a person is selected, goes through the training process and just doesn’t “get it”, the company retrains the person; mentors are brought on to counsel the person but still doesn’t “get it”. The mentor and the orginial trainer are called in where both are fired for not being able to get the new employee “up to speed”.
OR, let me give you a construction analogy:
You are required to build a house to code and half the wood you must use is termite infested or just plain rotten. You do not get to bring in any other wood expect what is delivered to you. Your entire livelyhood depends on you doing this year after year.
Concerned 1
July 24th, 2010
8:42 am
I just do not get this…half these people do not teach and never will. Why do they keep sesationalizing education. It is a wonder teachers can teach at all. Put a screen in each classroom that follows the script. Oh, the bully got your child. Oh no, Johnny just ate Suzy. Janie’s still crying because she can’t reach her desk for the trash. They just won’t stay in the classroom? Right!
Concerned 1
July 24th, 2010
8:43 am
Sensationalizing!
Middle Grades Math Teacher
July 24th, 2010
9:06 am
@Happy Teacher — going way back to your first or second post: Regarding teachers who are initially unpopular because of the rigor of their course, but who become popular later because of said rigor…true. HOWEVER, that doesn’t usually kick in for many students until AFTER (sometimes long after) the course is over. For most students, they don’t have the maturity to appreciate this until sometime down the road.
"Underperforming"
July 24th, 2010
9:11 am
The spelling is underperforming (in the title), not “under performing”.
Suavez
July 24th, 2010
9:24 am
As usual, the problem is black parents and the ones who suffer are the teachers.
ScienceTeacher671
July 24th, 2010
10:10 am
In a few weeks, I’m going to get a new crop of 9th graders. Many of them will be socially promoted because they failed the CRCT, which means that they will be reading and/or doing math at below a 5th grade level. Others will have barely passed the CRCT, which means they still don’t read well enough to comprehend a 9th grade textbook or are low enough on math skills that they will struggle mightily with the math problems in physical science.
Will I teach them science? Yes, I will. We’ll do labs, we’ll do hands-on activities, we’ll do projects, and I’ll even lecture some, although that’s currently not a ‘politically correct’ teaching strategy. They’ll all learn some science, although those who pay attention and try, and those who attend classes regularly, will learn more.
Will it look as if they have learned science at the end of the year? Hard to tell, because some of them don’t read well enough to read & comprehend the EOCT, which is written at a 9th grade level.
When they start evaluating us based on test scores, I’m not going to look as good as the teacher next door who has all honors and advanced students who could pass the test on Day 1. But that’s NOT my major concern. My major concern is, IT’S NOT FAIR TO THE KIDS.
It is not right to tell a child s/he is “proficient” when s/he is up to 4 years below grade level. It is not right to put a child into a class when s/he doesn’t have the skills needed to succeed in that class. It is not right to socially promote a child for 12 years, and then deny him or her a diploma because s/he can’t pass the GHSGT, when it’s been obvious since elementary school that the child needed extra help and remediation, yet s/he never received it.
And no, I’m not blaming teachers for that. I’m blaming administrators, and I’m blaming legislators who don’t adequately fund remediation for students who need it and who provide loopholes for these students to be socially promoted — and then blame the teachers when the children don’t get the help they need.
ScienceTeacher671
July 24th, 2010
10:11 am
…and when my post gets out of the filter, I’m also blaming the DOE for “dumbing down” the tests and telling parents their children are proficient when they are anything but.
ScienceTeacher671
July 24th, 2010
10:25 am
In New York, they are talking about whether or not students and parents deserve “honest tests”. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/opinion/24sat4.html
Maybe it would be nice if we talked about that in Georgia as well. Brad Bryant, want to do something useful and historic?
justbrowsing
July 24th, 2010
10:26 am
I have had a student to refuse to prepare for the test because he did not like the class. This student never did work or tried to. No wonder he failed the test miserably. I did my job- should my pay be contingent upon his mood?- I would think that a more exhaustive approach would be best for students. This will never work if students and parents are not held accountable for their end of the bargain. It is important to note that this student had emotional issues related to his family. Also, administrators should balance this information with what they have observed in the classroom all year. Merit pay will not be some magic pill. What will happen is they will pass it and then hold students and parents accountable to give the illusion that it works- when they can just do that now.
Happy to run, happy to hide
July 24th, 2010
10:35 am
Why is it whenever Happy Teacher is presented with tough questions and analogies that force him to acknowledge the implications of what he puts forth, he avoids them?
Is it ethical to hold teachers accountable in isolation, and not allow them to hold students accountable for their work or behavior?
Has Michelle Rhee developed any major policy initiatives that would mandate better administrative support for teachers in these areas?
Or is she too busy, as a Congressional investigation found (funny how Happy Teacher tries to dismiss this) doing damage control when her fiancee is accused of inappropriate contact with minors?
Happy Teacher
July 24th, 2010
10:35 am
One, single student would never cause anybody to get fired. (Not sure why merit pay was brought back up)
In DC, student achievement data was 50% of the equation. The other half was observation-based, which sounds fairly comprehensive to me. It is clear that there are those who favor objective evaluations, and those that favor subjective. You can’t do much better than a 50/50 compromise, because neither side is going to totally get their way.
ST671- Do you think Common Core is a step towards honest assessments?
Proud Black Man
July 24th, 2010
10:45 am
@ Suavez
“As usual, the problem is black parents and the ones who suffer are the teachers.”
Just had to throw in a bit or racist nonsense didn’t you tea (insert the name that cannot be mentioned?)
Lester Maddox
July 24th, 2010
11:15 am
As usual, the problem is black parents and the ones who suffer are the teachers.
Thats pretty much it in a nutshell. The “darker” a school gets, the more problems, academic/behavior, it has to deal with. Until this “2000 pound elephant in the living room” is dealt with nothing that Ms. Rhee or any other educrat does is going to make any difference in the long run.
Teacher&mom
July 24th, 2010
11:20 am
others have already mentioned Rhee’s use of TFA teachers. I wonder how many slots from the teachers that were fired will be filled by TFA teachers? TFA teachers fulfill a two year commitment. A few stay on to teach indefinitely but the majority go on to nice corporate jobs after their time in classroom. While I’m holding my judgement on the reason so many teachers were fired, the pessimist in me wonders if Rhee hasn’t found a cheap and effective way to staff her classrooms with a revolving door of TFA teachers. It is a win-win for Rhee….lower teacher salaries, almost zero compensation for retirement plans, and no ties with the teacher’s union.
justbrowsing
July 24th, 2010
11:37 am
not to add- teaching becomes some public service comittment to pay off one’s student loans. If I knew then what I know now.
justbrowsing
July 24th, 2010
11:38 am
There will not be an educational profession- it will become a national peace corps.
justbrowsing
July 24th, 2010
11:39 am
Obama can count me out next go round. I am dissatisfied with his educational agenda-
Ethics
July 24th, 2010
11:39 am
Is it ethical to hold someone accountable for a job, but not give them the authority to do the job properly?
Would you hold a police officer accountable for doing his job, if you didn’t allow him to use a gun or a badge?
imagine
July 24th, 2010
11:42 am
imagine the prodigious amount of unethical behavior and total incompetence needed to make an administration look as bad as the Bush administration on education issues. But somehow, the Obama administration has accomplished it.
justbrowsing
July 24th, 2010
11:48 am
Obama could have selected a more polished, and more knowledgeable educator with vast experience to head up the education department. Instead, he chooses Arne Duncan. It makes me question Obama’s views on teacher education, and his ability to choose wisely when it comes to some leadership.
Turn the tables
July 24th, 2010
12:02 pm
All of this is happening in a system with collective bargaining? We see the efforts to demonize teachers, yet unions are so weak at turning the tables. Some of the very simple things they could have done:
-agree to a major Rhee demand, but ask in return, as a show of “solidarity and commitment” that no administrator, including Rhee, make more that 25% more than the highest paid teacher. Watch Rhee squirm when the public sees she won’t commit to this.
-agree that the highest ethical standards should be in place in the system. Ask for every single record to be turned over in the Rhee-Kevin Johnson scandal, where a Congressional Inquiry found that Kevin Johnson, among other things, had inappropriate contact with a minor and Rhee did “damage control”. Watch Rhee squirm when she won’t commit to this.
-agree to the “accountability” that Rhee wants in exchange for a progressive discipline policy that will remove chronically disruptive students out of the regular school when other measures have not worked.
-agree to the IMPACT evaluation instrument, but in cases of alleged incompetence, allow for an independent group of evaluators to also conduct evaluations and offer strategies to address alleged weaknesses. Watch Rhee squirm when she won’t commit to that.
Give teachers the tools and more importantly, the authority to teach and checks and balances to make sure they are evaluated fairly in that regard. If you allow a Rhee, with that much baggage to demonize teachers without holding her accountable for the deplorable conditions in DC, you are one sorry union.
New saying
July 24th, 2010
12:03 pm
When it comes to education issues, is Obama a Bush is sheep’s clothing?
idiots weigh in
July 24th, 2010
12:16 pm
If you needed any more proof that Andrew Breitbart is a total idiot, just look as his justification to why DC teachers shouldn’t have tenure: “Sidwell Friends doesn’t have tenure, and their school does pretty well.”
Yes the idiot really said that.
Nikole
July 24th, 2010
12:28 pm
@ why do you hate happy teachers—–My comment has nothing to do with being happy. I am a happy teacher myself, excited about going back to school soon. That does not mean that we should ignore other factors or dismiss teachers working in hard situations as complainers. I complain a lot at work, but I always follow up with possible solutions.
@ underperforming—when I type underperforming it comes up as misspelled.
Fericita
July 24th, 2010
12:33 pm
Happy Teacher, thanks for posting that link to the Washington Post article. I found this detail interesting: “It is also controversial because about 20 percent of the District’s 3,800 classroom teachers will have half of their evaluation based on improvement in standardized test scores.”
I wonder why only 20% of the teachers were evaluated this way? Was it like the pilot program in certain schools, or were those teachers already flagged as needing improvement?
There are definitely bad teachers out there, and like HS Teacher said, administrators often turn the other way because the paperwork process required to get rid of a teacher is difficult. However, 241 seems really high…if you’ve hired someone because they are a warm body, you are going to have problems down the road.
I’m also surprised to read negative comments about Teach for America teachers. I went to grad school in Harlem and worked as reading tutor in a class with a TFA teacher who was an amazing teacher. I learned a lot from the way he taught. He was also just about the only classroom that didn’t have major fighting. We should be grateful to have those types of teachers in the classroom, even if they only give 2 years.
Economicwoes
July 24th, 2010
12:52 pm
When do low test scores become part of the superintendent’s or chancellor’s problem, after 50% of the teachers are fired.
She has an easy job, and its obvious that whatever Rhee thought would work isn’t. Pointing the finger and passing the blame is the game which makes a person successful in education.
AlreadySheared
July 24th, 2010
1:00 pm
A tired proposal that I like to drag out periodically when a topic like this comes up:
Given the CRCT, start with a total count of Needs Improvement, Meets, and Exceeds students.
I.e., Of the 100 kids left at the end of the year who were taught for the ENTIRE YEAR year by Mr. Jones, students came into his 5th grade math classes with 20 Needs Improvement, 60 Meets, and 20 Exceeds from the end of their 4th grade year. After a year with Mr. Jones, this cohort tested out at the end of 5th grade with 10 Needs Improvement, 65 Meets, and 25 Exceeds.
Getting this information for all the 5th grade math teachers in a school system would give you a pretty good idea of who is doing a really good job, and who is doing a really poor one, relatively speaking.
If you used the aggregated information to compare teachers ACROSS the same grade, you could get useful information.
For example, suppose “Improved” meant going up in performance, say from “Needs Improvement” to “Meets”, or “Meets” to “Exceeds”, and “degraded” meant going down, say from “”Exceeds” to “Meets”, or “Meets” to “Needs Improvement” .
Suppose also that we decided to represent teacher performance as a pie chart, where “improved” is colored green, “degraded” is colored red, and outcomes where the student’s status doesn’t change are grey.
THEN, you could look at the results of all the teachers of, say, Georgia geography. If all the pies look about the same then it is what it is. But if you look at a collection of pies and some are a lot redder than the average Georgia geography teachers’ pie, that would tell you something useful. Same for pies that were a lot greener than average.
It would give you pretty good information on who is doing a good job, who is doing a bad job, and who is average. And yes, if the same teacher is “Mr. Red Pie” for two or three years running, that would seem to me to be a STRONG indication that either
1) Mr. Red Pie is in serious need of some additional training, or failing that,
2) a career change is in order, either voluntary or involuntary.
yes but
July 24th, 2010
1:24 pm
What do you do when Mr. Green consistently gets the better kids than Mr. Red and Mr. Gray? That does happen, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for not so good reasons.
And sometimes teachers are just plain incompetent. But when leaders who push “accountability” have demonstrated so many lapses in ethics themselves, it is natural, and appropriate that teachers will resist until meaningful checks and balances have been put in place
Rhee's evaluation nonsense
July 24th, 2010
1:35 pm
Here’s an example of what a teacher can be downgraded for using IMPACT
“Among the ways instructors can demonstrate that they are instilling student belief in success is through ‘affirmation chants, poems and cheers.’ ”
Another thing the Rhee groupies won’t admit. Testing experts uniformly dismiss the idea of using test as a major evaluation tool of the teacher. It’s not what the tests were designed for, it’s just how Arne Duncan misuses them.
Lack of ethics.
Tony
July 24th, 2010
1:39 pm
First, schools must be able to fire non-performing personnel. There is a myth that teachers can’t be fired. This tale is more related to spineless administrators and boards of education that lack the will to stand firm on the issue of quality performance.
Second, teachers should not be subject to a unidimensional evaluation tool. That is, one that is based solely upon students’ test scores. During this past year we saw a lot of politicians pushing for such a device and tying it directly to teachers’ pay. The unfortunate downside to this is that there are too many variables involved with assessing the learning of students. Too many!
ScienceTeacher671 hit one of the nails on the head – attract candidates for teaching from a pool of college students with higher SAT scores. Other nations seek out the top performing high school students and provide scholarships for them to become teachers. Our nation, on the other hand, allows colleges to push lower quality students toward education programs. We do not offer promising careers for those who do graduate, and all our pay and benefits are at the mercy of politicians. Seems like these areas would be good places to overhaul rather than spending so much time and money on testing children.
More Rhee hypocrisy
July 24th, 2010
1:44 pm
If under Rhee’s system, teachers can be downgraded for rude behavior towards students, why isn’t Rhee downgraded for rude behavior toward staff, a level of rudeness so blatant that even her supporters don’t deny it exists?
AlreadySheared
July 24th, 2010
1:58 pm
@yes but
Please reread. I assume that by “better kids” you mean higher achieving.
If you teach a class where EVERYONE “exceed”ed last year, by definition it will be impossible for you to turn anyone green – the best color you can hope for in that class is all gray.
To restate, the ONLY way to get a green student would be to RAISE the level of a student who had underperformed previously. To be “Mr. Green”, you would need to do that more often than the average teacher in your situation.
Understand that you don’t use this method against a fixed standard; you use it as a comparison tool among similarly situated teachers.
30 students per class X 5 classes = 150 different opportunities.
Multiply that by 3 years and now you’re at 450 different students taught.
“Bad Luck” 450 times is not bad luck, it’s something else…
yes but,
July 24th, 2010
2:11 pm
And what if you have 5 fantastic teachers on your team, and one just happens to be the least fantastic. They get fired, even if they do better than 90% of the teachers out there?
On the other hand, if someone has students consistently underperforming, there is most likely something to that that directly involves the teacher.
The problem with people like Rhee, is that they have acted so unethically, there is no trust in the system she puts forth. Of course her biggest argument that teachers are incompetent is that they agreed to her terms, and let a union who could have easily put the heat on Rhee to let her off virtually scot-free.
Had Enough
July 24th, 2010
2:22 pm
@Already Sheared,
A slight problem with your comparison idea is the big difference in the second to third grade CRCT in reading. In second grade, the teacher reads all the questions and answers to the students so it somewhat keeps the kids on track during the testing. When they get to third grade, it’s all up to them. The teacher reads the directions, and then the timer begins. It’s up to the kids to stay focused and read those LONG passages, the questions, and then mark their answers. Third grade kids are all over the place with maturity skills. Some take it very seriously and really take their time and try their best. Others are DONE by the second passage and just start marking bubbles on the answer sheet. The reading test is two sections that each last 60 to 70 minutes, depending on when the last child finishes (extra time after 60 min. if needed). A teacher can do everything in her power to make the kids realize the test is important and they need to do their best, but that immaturity often kicks in and the kids just can’t handle a test that requires reading long passages for 60 minutes.
ethics and hypocrisy
July 24th, 2010
3:14 pm
Rhee is saying that a only a certain number of students should fail, or else the teacher hasn’t provided effective training right? So if Rhee is consistent, if a certain number of teachers fail, and are recommended for termination, Rhee should be fired for not effectively training them right?
A 62 page Congressional Report that fully documents Rhee’s unethical behavior, and this was the best the union could do?
AlreadySheared
July 24th, 2010
3:17 pm
@Had Enough,
Again, you’re comparing the pie charts of 3rd grade reading teachers TO OTHER 3RD GRADE READING TEACHERS in the system.
This is a relative comparison: ALL of the 3rd grade reading teachers deal with the issues common to teaching 3rd grade reading.
Happy Teacher
July 24th, 2010
3:23 pm
Get it right, Rhee was MENTIONED in a 62 page Congressional report. The report actually concerned the mis-use of funds in the AmeriCorps program. Rhee was just a witness in the investigation.
ethics and hypocrisy
July 24th, 2010
3:36 pm
She was “mentioned” for doing “damage control” for a man, Kevin Johnson, who was accused of inappropriate contact with minors, a man who is now engaged to Rhee.
That’s a pretty damning indictment of someone’s ethics in my book.
Happy Teacher
July 24th, 2010
3:52 pm
That is fine, I respect your opinions, but I also feel it is important to stick to facts when you are indicting the ethics of a prominent figure.
ethics and hypocrisy
July 24th, 2010
3:57 pm
More facts: Rhee claims her students went from the 13% percentile to the 90%t percentile in the two years she taught them, yet to this day, she has failed to provide documentation to back up that claim.
If you’re going to institute radical reform, shouldn’t you be completely honest and aboveboard?
catlady
July 24th, 2010
4:06 pm
abe, honest, honey, if you think students don’t “quit” till they are 16 you need to get into the classroom!
Let’s evaluate Ms. Ree’s faculty improvement program She fired over 300 last year, and this year, instead of seeing a vast improvement, she “had” to fire almost 250 more. Gee, that worked, didn’t it? Maybe next year it will be 500?
Ms. Downey, do we have our schizophrenic poster still here? Or maybe I am getting crazy (ier)?
On the question of the incidence of “bad” teachers: IMHO, our school, with about 40 teachers, has 4 in need of serious “development” activities. One needs to be moved into a lower grade classroom, as she is not very sharp. The other three need to have a fire lit under them in terms of work ethic and class control. As it turns out, we are palming one off on another school (just as we have had several palmed off on us over the last few years). The others have “political connections”, so we are stuck.
justbrowsing
July 24th, 2010
4:10 pm
Also- how do you measure growth in disjointed subjects such as science and social studies which can often be unrelated. If we look at the trends in test scores- it is obvious that 6th and 8th grade science are more difficult than 7th grade science. How would we determine growth in those instances? You can’t.
ethics and hypocrisy
July 24th, 2010
4:12 pm
If this many teachers are failing to show improvement, shouldn’t Rhee fire herself for being ineffective herself?
ethics and hypocrisy
July 24th, 2010
4:15 pm
The guy who recommended Kevin Johnson be criminally charged is fired by the Obama administration. Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Kevin Johnson is a basketball buddy of Obama himself could it?
And this isn’t partisan politics at its worst?