This Week In Education Thompson: The Washington Teachers Union Contract

This Week In Education

Thompson: The Washington Teachers Union Contract

by john thompson

What do you get when you combine the District of Columbia's IMPACT evaluation system with the side letter of the proposed contract negotiated by the WTU? If implemented in good faith, you could get the Delaware RttT's teacher evaluation system. Since teacher evaluation is not negotiable in D.C., the union made the best of the situation by winning an independent evaluation and internal review of the problems with the district's system. And it did so without giving up tenure. The WTU maintained "just cause" as the standard for disciplining permanent employees. The union even got Michelle Rhee to agree to the unusual provision that the standard for removing probationary teachers must be "not arbitrary and capricious." (Typically, those teachers are "at will" employees.) We should also remember that the