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9486 in the collection
Rhee's 'Plan B' Targets Teacher Quality: Strategy Might Include New Evaluation Process, Linking Licenses to Classroom Performance
From Charlie Rose to Katie
Couric to Newsweek, she has become the national
media's go-to figure for discussions of what
ails big-city schools.
Further evidence of the shallowness of the
national media who reveal themselves to be in
the corporate pocket on every issue from
education to the environment.
By Bill Turque
Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is
preparing to bypass the Washington Teachers'
Union in pursuit of the objective she considers
essential to overhauling the District's public
schools: the power to fire at will teachers she
deems ineffective.
What she calls "Plan B" involves a more
aggressive use of powers she already has and
that are not subject to contract negotiations
with the union. These could include
strengthening the existing system of annual
personnel evaluations that spell out procedures
for terminating teachers.
Rhee is also positioned to benefit from a
potentially groundbreaking revision that has
unfolded largely outside public view during
contract talks. It would make the District
school system one of the few in the country to
link the licensing of teachers to their
classroom performance, rather than their
academic credentials. New rules, scheduled to
go into effect this week, would grant State
Superintendent of Education Deborah A. Gist the
discretion to create an advanced teaching
credential specifying the bench marks
instructors would have to meet to keep their
jobs.
Speaking to a roundtable of education writers
on Friday, Rhee declined to discuss her
alternative path in detail, except to say that
it had "multiple facets." She said she wanted
to make changes in collaboration with the union
-- and in a way that teachers would profit
financially -- but that she was prepared to
move ahead unilaterally.
"The contract is the way that I would prefer to
go," Rhee said. "But if we can't get to
agreement on the contract, there's another very
clear way that we can get there. . . . The
bottom line is we are going to bring
accountability in a very significant way to the
educator force in this school district."
Since mid-July, Rhee has tried to sell union
leaders and the rank and file on a proposal
that would propel salaries to more than
$100,000 annually in pay and performance
bonuses for many teachers. But in exchange, she
insists that they relinquish tenure and spend a
year on probation -- risking dismissal.
Instructors have the option of keeping tenure
and accepting lower raises. New hires would
have no choice, remaining on the probation
griddle for four years, twice as long as the
current requirement.
The pay proposal, along with a slew of other
initiatives, has turned Rhee into a national
standard-bearer for urban school reform and, in
particular, a champion for those who regard
teachers' unions as the most significant
obstacle to progress. From Charlie Rose to
Katie Couric to Newsweek, she has become
the national media's go-to figure for
discussions of what ails big-city schools.
Rhee had once hoped to wrap up a contract by
June, but as national and local acolytes look
on, she has been unable to build a consensus
among teachers, who remain sharply divided over
the pay plan. As contract talks continue, she
is pressing George Parker, president of the
teachers' union, to bring the salary package to
a membership vote. So far, he has resisted.
In recent weeks, Rhee has moved to defuse
expectations surrounding the contract and novel
pay package. Asked earlier this year by Fast
Company magazine what happens if she fails to
get the labor deal she wants, Rhee replied,
"Then I'm screwed." But at Friday's roundtable,
she suggested that "Plan B" could have a
national impact as far-reaching as the pay plan
because it would show other cities a path to
reform that does not require winning over
unions and spending millions more on raises.
Rhee's ultimate goal is clear: to weed the
District's instructional corps of
underperformers and remake it, at least in
part, with younger, highly energized graduates
of such alternative training programs as Teach
for America, where she began her career. Unlike
many tenured Washington teachers, those
emerging from such programs are unlikely to
invest their entire working lives in education.
But they will, in Rhee's estimation, be more
inclined to embrace her core message: that
children can learn no matter what economic and
social conditions they face beyond the
classroom, and that teachers should be held
directly accountable for their progress through
test scores and other measurements.
Without union buy-in, however, Rhee faces a
longer, harder slog, which might involve
changes in teacher licensure.
Under current D.C. rules, a teacher can receive
a standard license by completing a college- or
university-based teacher education program and
passing Praxis, a teacher exam. It is renewable
every five years upon completion of six credit
hours of course work or 90 hours in
professional development workshops.
Gist, who as state superintendent can set
professional standards, has proposed amending
the District's municipal regulations to make
most licenses non-renewable. Teachers would be
required to get a new "advanced teaching
credential" by demonstrating classroom
effectiveness through criteria she will
determine during the next six to 12 months. Her
plan would also broaden the range of accepted
teacher education programs to include such
nonprofit groups as Teach for America.
The proposed rules would give Rhee "maximum
flexibility in selecting and placing
candidates," according to a PowerPoint
presentation on the state superintendent's Web
site.
Gist has been working on the revisions through
the rulemaking process, which does not require
review by the D.C. Council or the D.C. State
Board of Education. The revisions were posted
on the D.C. Register Aug. 8 and become
effective this week. Parker said he had no idea
what Rhee's "Plan B" entails but that any
attempt to use the licensing process to weaken
tenure protections was unacceptable.
"It really appears to be a backdoor process of
firing teachers," said Parker, who sent an e-
mail to most of the District's 4,000 teachers
last week warning them of the proposal.
He added that there is no evidence that the
proposed revisions would apply to non-unionized
charter schools. "If this is so important, how
come it doesn't apply to charter schools?"
Parker said he had no indication that Gist and
Rhee, who meet regularly, were acting in a
concerted fashion to develop the new licensure
rules.
Asked for an interview last Wednesday, Gist
said she first had to receive clearance from
Carrie Brooks, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's chief of
staff. Gist, who reports to the mayor, did not
respond to the request. Brooks did not return a
phone message.
Rhee is free to unilaterally overhaul the
school system's "Professional Performance
Evaluation Process," and even Parker readily
acknowledges that it needs work.
Instructors judged by principals to be
underperforming can be placed on a 90-day
"improvement plan" and assigned a "helping
teacher." What follows during the three months
is a series of classroom observations, each of
which must be preceded by a principal-teacher
"pre-conference" and then a follow-up meeting.
All must take place within precise time frames,
a challenge for often harried, distracted
administrators.
"You blow one deadline, you go back to ground
zero," said one principal, who asked for
anonymity because she was speaking without
authorization. She said she has used the 90-day
plan just once in nearly a decade.
Asked last month how many tenured teachers the
District fired for poor performance last year,
former Rhee spokeswoman Mafara Hobson initially
said only one. She subsequently said the number
was not correct but did not provide a revised
total.
Union leaders say administrative bungling and
principals with little expertise in evaluating
teachers enable the union to reverse many
firings through the appeals process.
"It's very poorly implemented," Parker said.
"This is what frustrates m
— Bill Turque
Washington Post
2008-09-18
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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