DC School Reform Now Explores How the Contract Helps Students

News outlets, political blogs, and opinion columns have generated much discussion about how the proposed WTU Contract would benefit teachers.  At this point, we have heard a lot about how it increases salaries by an unprecedented 21.6%, provides retroactive pay, defends the right to due process, and offers many new options to excessed employees.

DC School Reform Now believes that the Contract also benefits the greatest stakeholders in DC – our children.  This memo lays out how we believe the Contract will support student achievement.  If you agree, please help us spread the word.

The contract enhances professional development to ensure that teachers have the time, resources, and knowledge to plan effectively.  Teachers bear enormous responsibility for teaching our students: research has shown that the best teachers are capable of eliminating the black-white student achievement gap within as little as four years.[i]  At the same time, teachers cannot give their best performance without the skills, knowledge, resources, and especially the time to plan effectively.  The contract ensures that every teacher will inspire their students by:

• Providing every teacher with a set of explicit expectations for student achievement and an outline of the district and school-level support they will receive to meet those expectations
• Offering teachers at least ten days of school-wide professional development, and at least one day of leave for personal development and reflection, so that they can continually adapt their instruction to meet each student’s needs most effectively
• Establishing three district-wide Teacher Centers, housed at selected schools, where teachers can organize, share best practices, and receive support whenever necessary
• Offering an array of resources for new teachers: assigning them experienced mentors, giving them three days of intensive training at the start of the year, and offering ongoing support throughout their first three years

The contract encourages schools to value self-reflection, improvement, and adaptation to best serve the needs of individual students.  Education professionals cannot work in a vacuum: they must constantly re-evaluate their best practices and revise their routines according to what works best for their students.  And when teachers are not given the tools to identify personal areas of growth, students suffer in stagnant, un-engaging classrooms.  The WTU Contract ensures that all principals and teachers value professional growth and adaptability by:

• Offering a new performance pay system that highly values teacher evaluations and teachers’ unique skills and contributions to the school community above and beyond the classroom 
• Establishing a working group to review the IMPACT evaluation system, so that teachers have a say in how evaluators address their performance 
• Forming a working group of national experts to evaluate IMPACT and ensure that teacher evaluations remain fair, comprehensive, and helpful

The contract implements new programs and allocates additional funds to ensure that both individual schools and the District serve all students effectively.  Students arrive at school with different financial resources and diverse needs for specialized instruction, responsive counseling, and other kinds of academic and emotional support.  Teachers and the District must meet halfway to ensure that these levels of support are available to students at every school.  The WTU Contract codifies such support by:

• Piloting a Student-Teacher Advisory program that places small groups of students with teachers and ensures that every student gets the opportunity to discuss their interests, background, and academic progress with teacher-mentors in an intimate setting
• Forming Support Teams, made up of teachers and parents, that target chronically absent or tardy and/or academically at-risk students and provide them with additional support
• Piloting “Twilight Programs” to form a community for older high school students
• Developing more alternative high schools that innovate in order to reveal the talents of unengaged or underperforming students
• Doubling the start-up funds for each classroom so that teachers can provide the resources their students may not be able to afford

The contract ensures that DCPS teachers will be the highest-performing and most sought-after professionals in the country.  Our children deserve professional educators who are capable, persistent, and dedicated.  DCPS must attract and retain the best and brightest talent in order to ensure that students excel academically.  The WTU Contract ensures that DCPS can attract and retain the best teachers by:

• Offering performance pay raises to teachers with excellent records of improving student achievement, so that such venerable teachers are among the highest-paid in the country
• Stipulating that in the event of an excess, records of accomplishment matter more than seniority, so that the District retains and honors its highest-achieving professionals regardless of their age or tenure

By ensuring that DCPS can attract and retain the best teachers, placing teachers’ professional growth first and foremost, and emphasizing that teachers, schools, and the District at large must remain adaptive to the needs of various kinds of students, the WTU Contract represents a victory for students who too often remain unengaged and unmotivated by their education.  Spread the word: reach out to friends, colleagues, and neighbors and share how specific proposals in the contract will help all our children. 

DC School Reform Group Responds to Thursday’s Anti-RIF Rally

DCSRN Responds to Thursday’s Anti-RIF Rally

Washington, D.C. – Today, DC School Reform Now (DCSRN), a non-profit organization dedicated to reforming the district’s public schools, applauded DC Public Schools’ (DCPS) policy decision to allow school leaders to make staffing reductions based on student achievement. DCSRN acknowledged that while the cuts would be difficult in almost every case, it would be tragic if the needs of adults were allowed to trump the needs of the students.

Last week, Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee said that DCPS had to cut $40 million from its budget and these cuts will result in a Reduction-in-Force (RIF). It was also announced that individual school leaders will be given discretion on the staff reductions.

In response to a rally being held Thursday at 4pm outside of the DCPS central office to protest teacher layoffs, Anne Martin, Executive Director of DC School Reform Now said: “We believe that DCPS’s decision to allow school leaders to make difficult decisions on staff is crucial for continuing to increase student achievement in DC. Because principals in DCPS are held accountable based on student achievement, it is in their best interest to keep the most effective teachers in their schools.”

A child’s exposure to an excellent teacher makes a significant impact on his or her life. In 2008, the U.S. K-12 Education-Comprehensive Fact Base study found that high-needs students assigned to effective teachers for three years in a row outperformed students assigned to ineffective teachers for those three years by 50 percentile points. This is enough to significantly impact the life path of any student.

However, in DC (and across the country), employment decisions are typically made based on seniority, not performance.  We applaud DCPS for choosing not to make reductions blindly based on years of experience.  DCSRN believes that school leaders are best suited to make difficult staffing decisions based on teacher effectiveness.  School leaders have access to many indicators of student achievement, which include student portfolios, unit assessments, and reading levels. This data varies by school and grade level and because DCPS does not track it extensively, they would not be best situated to make these determinations. DCSRN urges DCPS to monitor all principals and ensure they are using these measurements of student achievement in order to keep the most effective educators in our classrooms, teaching our students.

“I completely trust my children’s principal to make the right decision about staffing cuts,” said Mary Siddall, a DC School parent. “She spends a lot of time in the classroom, works with the teachers on a daily basis, and tracks the progress of every child. She knows better than anyone who is effective and who is not.”

“Seniority status is not correlated with student achievement gains,” Martin said. “Through a variety of indicators, school leaders know which teachers are making gains based on student achievement and which aren’t.”

Martin continued, “As a city and a nation, we have to make the decisions based on what is best for students, not adults.”

DC School Reform Now is a 501(c)3, volunteer organization of concerned residents who are committed to enacting school reform in the DC Public School System. For more information, or to schedule an interview, please call Anne Martin 202-315-2421.

Washington, D.C. – Today, a DC public school advocacy group said that if school budgets must be cut due to declining revenues, cuts must be made by the school leaders based on student achievement. DC School Reform Now (DCSRN), a non-profit organization dedicated to reforming the district’s public schools, acknowledged that while the cuts would be difficult in almost every case, it would be tragic if the needs of adults were allowed to trump the needs of the students.

This came in response to a controversy brewing over a DCPS budget cut. Last Thursday, Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee said that DCPS has to cut $40 million from its budget due, in part, to budget cuts made this summer by the D.C. Council. The budget cuts will result in teacher layoffs and individual school leaders will be given discretion on staffing reductions. Last Friday morning, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray responded with a statement explaining the Council’s involvement in the  budget cuts.

“Assuming that the budget cuts are necessary and eminent, we believe that DCPS’s decision to allow school leaders to make difficult decisions on staff is crucial for continuing to increase student achievement in DC,” said Anne Martin, Executive Director of DC School Reform Now.  “Because principals in DCPS are held accountable based on student achievement, it is in their best interest to keep the more effective teachers in their schools.”

A child’s exposure to an excellent teacher makes a significant impact on his or her life. In 2008, the U.S. K-12 Education-Comprehensive Fact Base study found that high-needs students assigned to effective teachers for three years in a row outperformed students assigned to ineffective teachers for those three years by 50 percentile points. This is enough to significantly impact the life path of any student.

However, in DC (and across the country), employment decisions are typically made based on seniority, not performance.  We applaud DCPS for choosing not to make reductions blindly based on years of experience.  DCSRN believes that school leaders are best suited to make difficult staffing decisions based on teacher effectiveness.  School leaders have access to many indicators of student achievement, which include student portfolios, unit assessments, and reading levels. This data varies by school and grade level and because DCPS does not monitor it, they would not be best situated to make these determinations.  DCSRN urges DCPS to monitor all principals and ensure they are using these measurements of student achievement in order to keep the most effective educators in our classrooms, teaching our students.

“Seniority status is not correlated with student achievement gains,” Martin said. “Through a variety of indicators, school leaders know which teachers are making gains based on student achievement and which aren’t.”

Martin continued, “As a city and a nation, we have to make the decisions based on what is best for students, not adults.”

DC School Reform Now is a 501(c)3, volunteer organization of concerned residents who are committed to enacting school reform in the DC Public School System. For more information, or to schedule an interview, please call Anne Martin (202) 315-2421.

New Poll Shows Growing Support for Michelle Rhee in the District

62% of Registered Voters in D.C. Approve of How Rhee is Handling Her Job, Up Sharply from 55% Last Year

Washington, D.C. – Tomorrow, DC School Reform Now (DCSRN), a non-profit organization committed to education reform in the District of Columbia, will release—along with several other groups—new polling data on voter approval of local officials.

Voters indicated strong approval for how D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Michelle Rhee is handling her job.  With an approval rating of 62 percent, Rhee is clearly gaining in popularity among District residents, with a 7% increase over a similar poll conducted in 2008.  Among DC officials, Chancellor Rhee had the highest proportion of respondents (27 percent) who “strongly approve” of her job performance.

“Its clear from this new poll that Washingtonians’ support for Michelle Rhee’s efforts to reform the DC public school system continues to grow,” said Anne Martin, Executive Director of DC School Reform Now. “The task before her certainly isn’t an easy one and it’s great to see that DC residents are showing patience and enthusiasm as Chancellor Rhee works hard to rebuild our long-suffering school district which is in desperate need of revitalization.”

In addition, the poll results show education has become even more of a priority for DC voters, despite the recession, than it was this time last year. A plurality of voters (29 percent) identified “K-12 education and schools” as their top priority.

“Rhee’s leadership couldn’t come at a better time,” continued Martin. “As this new poll illustrates, District residents are tremendously concerned about the quality of education their children are receiving from the DC Public School System and desperately want to see improvements. It’s clear that Washingtonians see the Chancellor’s efforts as a step in the right direction.”

“The Chancellor has done a great job in dealing with student achievement, although she had to face many challenges,” said Terry Goings, a board member of DCSRN whose three children graduated from Coolidge High School. “Rhee’s management style of holding the adults that deal with our children accountable in DCPS sends a clear message to parents and students that their concerns are first. We have a long way to go, but thanks to Rhee’s hard work, we are finally making progress.”

In a joint effort with DC School Reform Now, the polling results were released by the Alliance for School Choice, the Black Alliance For Educational Options (BAEO), Center for Education Reform, DC Children First, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS), Greater Washington Urban League, and the Heritage Foundation.

View the results of the poll here: http://dcschoolreform.org/images/pdf/forkintheroad.pdf

DC School Reform Now is a 501(c)3, volunteer organization of concerned residents who are committed to enacting school reform in the DC Public School System. For more information, or to schedule an interview, please call Anne Martin at (202) 266-7245.

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