March 11, 2008
More on the DCPS Firings
Late on Friday D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee fired 98 central office employees, taking a big step toward her promise to “create a culture of accountability.” Mafara Hobson, Rhee's spokesperson, has said the dismissals were based “partly on employee performance and on Rhee's plans to make the central office more efficient,” and the city's Department of Human Resources has not yet released the names of those terminated, in an effort to preserve their privacy.
Predictably, the newly-fired employees are (anonymously) crying foul, and the D.C. Council, which voted to give Rhee the authority to terminate non-union employees without cause in the first place, is waffling on where it stands, though with a few exceptions. WAMU reports that Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells is in favor of the terminations, while Council Chair Vincent Gray wants to confirm that employees were fairly evaluated before forming an opinion.
The Post’s Marc Fisher comes down clearly on Rhee’s side, writing yesterday, “Year after year, decade after decade, waves of reformers and politicians swore they would finally address the incompetence and corruption that saturated the D.C. system. They promised to clear out the deadwood and bloat from the central office. But until now, no one had the legal authority, political foundation or spine to do the deed.”
Fisher aside, the Post coverage has been disappointing, focusing less on the implications of the firings on the system as a whole than fanning the flames of controversy surrounding them. As widely read education blogger Andy Rotherham pointed out:
I'm pretty supportive of what Michelle Rhee is trying to do but that notwithstanding, wasn't Saturday's front page WaPo story on the firings in the central office woefully incomplete? If school officials were not forthcoming then that's one thing, but otherwise it was a bunch of anonymous assertions with very little authoritative reporting about what is going on.We were surprised to see so little heard from school staff – not unlike their coverage of the schools closings, the Post seemed to rely on comment from Council members and activist parents, and not the people who depend most regularly on support from the central office – the teachers and administrators who work in D.C. public schools. As for the unnamed central office sources arguing about the need to preserve “institutional memory”? Last time we checked, there were still around 600 employees at 825 N. Capitol – surely at least a few of them can provide some perspective.
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I refuse to even read the article if you keep posting that scary-ass pic.
I blame dcist for my continuing nightmares of a mutant Rhee/Trump telling me, "These aren't the droids you're looking for."
Jesus Christ stop using that pic
Somebody actually used the need to maintain "institutional memory" as grounds for not firing members of a horribly incompetent institution?
That's exactly why there needs to be some firing--the institution keeps remembering how to do the same crappy job year after year.
Hey, it's bold of Rhee I'll certainly grant her that. She can't be on a lot of people's Christmas lists this year. BUT it's a hard job, and if one done well, then she deserves to be saluted for her courage. I can't imagine that it's easy to stand up to so many people, institutions, and figures.
We have to wait and see what the results are (much later down the road) to judge +/- but I have to think, could DC schools really get any worse? Don't they only stand to gain and can only go up from here?
if only the rest of the department heads were like Rhee. DC is one of the most bloated and incompetent governments i've seen. Neighboring county governments (fairfax, montgomery, and arlington - especially) are also ridiculously large, but at least they have decent schools and public services to show for it.
Fire at will, if someone thinks they were wrongfully fired, let them reapply for their job. The state of the district's school system requires emergency attention. Clean house, then rebuild. I'm all for spending more money on schools, but not when we're finding warehouses full of unused textbooks, principals taking three hour breaks to go to the salon, and administrators doing nothng more than collecting a pay check. DC is failing it's students miserably, and it's long past due that the bureaucracy is held responsible.
That picture is amazing.
Stockard Channing, please don't encourage them... and after reviewing your performance in seasons 1-3 of WW, i must say you were a lot better in 4-7.
yeah, it's been fun getting the carolyn steptoe update on things on the eckington listserv throughout this whole school closing/firing thing. it seems there's a group out there that likes to say they want better schools, then they're diametrically opposed to anything that rhee does. i say the same thing time after time....
damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Is the Chairman going to review each and every evaluation to determine whether someone was fired fairly?
I can't believe the amount of micromanaging the Council is putting on this issue, what with all of the other problems plaguing the city.
She was given the power to fire at will, with the intent to remove people who were poor performers and areas that were in need of streamlining.
Is DCPS's IT needs so horrendous that they need 50 people in the Central office to run the computer system?
So, of course they need to put up resistance to the power they granted Rhee. The Council has a lot of parents that they need to pander too... and at least put up a showing of discontent so that they can weakly appease all parties, then take credit for all of her hard work years later when there are results...
Oh, sorry, jaded.
I'm a DCPS teacher and let me tell you, she has about zero support among my colleagues. This is despite the fact that teachers HATE to call 825 for anything. All we get is voicemail, full voicemail and when we leave a message about an issue, we never get called back. And when you get a live person, they act as if you are bothering them. Teachers just feel like Rhee will be coming at us next. There are so many of us who do our thankless jobs, trying to engage out of control children, spending our own money on supplies, etc. Yet we feel that Rhee wants to replace us with her favored Teach For America and DC Teaching Fellows, who are inexperienced, non-professional educators. Many of them quit before the school year is out. They are the bright-eyed, bushy tailed young white girls who think they can change the world, until they get into an urban classroom with little training and some kid hits them. Then they quit and go to law school. Don't get me started.
DCPS math quiz
Name:
Date:
1. If you have an office of 698 incompetent employees and fire 98 of them, how many rhee-main?
2. 1 out of every 3 employees is embezzling money. Assuming the same ratio holds for the fired employees, how many fired employees will find new jobs elsewhere in DC government?
3. Half of all employees know how to order more paper clips. If a quarter of the fired employees know how to do this, what percentage of institutional knowledge has been lost?
4. One of the rhee-maining employees decides to use her embezzled riches to acquire a Bentley Continental GT. After three years, would she be better off buying or leasing? (assume MSRP and standard lease terms)
Calculators will not be provided. Please show your work.
"This is despite the fact that teachers HATE to call 825 for anything. All we get is voicemail, full voicemail and when we leave a message about an issue, we never get called back. And when you get a live person, they act as if you are bothering them. Teachers just feel like Rhee will be coming at us next. There are so many of us who do our thankless jobs, trying to engage out of control children, spending our own money on supplies, etc."
Chelita, first, thank you for doing your job. I really do sympathize for you. But, I think you're being a little short-sighted here. You're visibly upset that the Central Office clearly isn't doing its job to support you and your colleagues. Hence why when you call, you don't get a response. Or why you need to use your own money for supplies.
So Rhee wants to clean house and fix those very problems. So you can focus on what your job is...to teach. So why you aren't giving her any credibility? Rather than applaud her for trying to solve a bunch of problems, you're afraid that you're next? How would you propose cleaning up the problems of DCPS?
You are a perfect example of the DCPS philosophy where you would rather wish for things to change and cry foul when someone steps up to the plate and insitutes anything drastic to help fix the system.
And as for your comment re: the Teach for America teachers. Anyone who is a full time teacher is a professional educator. It may not be the end-all and be-all of teaching, but these people are trying to make a difference in education, as opposed to people like me who are commenting on it. Rather than support them, you berate them. With colleagues like you, I would go to law school too.
I said this in my post on the morning update thread, but if the Council thinks these recently-jettisoned mouth breathers are that well qualified, then the Council should hire the lot of them to serve as an oversight staff or an independent school board, or something to that effect.
Otherwise, the council members should realize they are the ones who authorized Rhee to fire this deadwood and STFU.
Put your money where your mouth is, Vincent Gray, or just go away. It's not like DCPS could possibly get any worse.
I have to agree that none of the Post articles were very informative. They are somewhat one-sided in favor of the employees, but beyond saying that she wants to make the central office more "efficient," they tell us little about what Rhee's plan entails. Are people just being fired, or are the positions being eliminated? What is the timeline for this process? One of the major problems with the central office was slow processing times for hiring teachers and getting them their paychecks. If you've just fired 40 out of 50 of your IT people, how are you going to update these systems to make them more efficient? Is updating the technology even part of the plan? What about all of those emergency building repairs that wouldn't have been necessary had they not fired so many routine maintenance people?
I am all for people being more accountable and efficient, but sometimes all this talk about clearing out the dead weight is vague and just feels like a talking point.
Many of these non-teaching slugs will crawl back into the system through the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education. The OSSE, policy end of the DC education bureaucracy, can bring the "business end" of teaching to a screeching halt.
The firings have crippled the economy of PG County, where most firees live. There has been a major disruption of the Amway and Mary Kay distributorships that these folks ran out of their DCPS cubicles.
Drew, you're funny. Actually, I've worked with several teaching fellows and Teach For America types who did a great job, had good rapport with the students, worked them hard, had high expectations of them and generally performed well. I can also name about half a dozen from my school who quit in the middle of the year, as their lack of experience was no match for some badly behaved knuckleheads who ran them out. And I was nice to them and supported them, because their success in the classroom means increased student achievement, to write like the educational bureaucrat I am.
I guess those of us in the schools want things to change, yet can't stomach the really ugly dealings that will have to happen to make change. Like closing schools and firing people. I guess it just has to be done.
My first reaction was typical Fenty administration non-transparency. If these employees were fired legitimately, and I have little doubt they were, then why not share this information confidentially with the City Council Chair. That said, if Rhee's office is really too busy implementing reforms to share the information, Vincent Gray should give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. Oversight on DCPS spending is more important anyway.
Please..I worked with dcps admins on business deals and Rhee is right. Its a carnival of ignorance/corruption. Fire and rehire smart promising talent committed to improving the system. Absolutely no reason for dc to have the worst performing school districts...none..
Chelita, I am glad you see my humor.
I work in Central Admin in another urban district very similar to DC and I can tell you exactly why Michelle fired so many IT people. They are utterly and totally incompetent. Our IT department is operating programs built in the 70's that have gone through few, if any, upgrades. You can't get data, you can't track information and you certainly can't use IT to improve anything or inform your work. The technology they have hinders your ability to do work instead of helping. The staff insulate themselves so that no outsiders or new hires can understand their practice and they convolute their work to make themselves appear invaluable. They have not kept up with any new technology or innovations and can't run or repair new systems. So schools are forced to spend millions of dollars buying programs that overlap in functionality and hire the companies that create them to provide support. And then none of these seperate programs communicate with one another so any information you can get is incomplete. I know DC is operating with woefully old, mismanaged and irrelevant IT systems and people and it's time for them to GO.
Six727: I don't doubt what you're saying, we've all had frustrating interactions with incompetent IT people. I also agree with you that employees can be a problem both for their incompetence and because they can impede progress.
However, saying that incompetent individuals should go isn't the same as saying that the IT positions should be eliminated as a whole. I'm hoping to see that this plan doesn't just involve firing people, but also makes the necessary structural changes as well. That means making the necessary investments in technology, facilities, procedures (remember the fraud stories a few months back?).
I absolutely believe the points being raised by six727. I also know several DCPS teachers who don't have email, can't use the internet, let alone teach kids how to use search engines to locate information, can't even use word to create a document and do everything by hand... the list goes on. And they expect the school system to train THEM. I would say that the internet and email became quite commonplace around 15 years ago. That was when I, as a teacher, made sure I knew how to use these features, that are now a part of our daily lives. Yet DCPS is full of people whose skill level is shockingly low and they don't seem to want to upgrade it.
Chelita, would you mainly blame the Teachers Union for some of these problems?