D.C. Fires 98 Teachers, Bringing Total to 400 Since 2009
Part of the school reform ushered in by former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and continued by her successor Kaya Henderson revolves around rewarding good teachers and getting rid of the bad. Yesterday D.C. did the latter,letting 98 teachers go for faring poorly on annual performance evaluations.With yesterday's dismissals, some 400 teachers have been fired from DCPS since 2009 for poor ratings on the annual IMPACT assessment. (There are over 4,000 teachers at D.C. public schools.)
According to the Post, of the 98 fired yesterday, 39 were rated ineffective on the assessment, while 59 were rated minimally effective for the second year running. This year, 998 teachers received the highest rating, while two-thirds of all teachers were rated effective.
Surprisingly, this round of dismissals has been less contested than in the past:
Washington Teachers’ Union President Nathan Saunders, one of the fiercest critics, said the evaluation system is flawed but has been improved through recent revisions. If a teacher with promise appears headed for a poor IMPACT rating, for