DCist: Schools Roundup: The Blame Game Edition

JY

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:38:11 -0500

Teachers often don't tell DCPS that they are leaving so there are always surprises when school starts. Also, the number of students per school is unpredictable. So being 90 teachers short out of 4000 to start the year isn't bad and cutting that to 46 in the first few weeks is pretty good. This seems like a non story. I bet every well run school system in the country deals with similar numbers.

The Delicious

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:10:09 -0500

"Research has found that teacher quality has the largest impact on students’ educational achievement – more than class size, facilities and socio-economic concerns." This is incorrect...at least the last bit of it is. Socio-economic status (SES) has been recognized in the literature since the Coleman Report in 1966 as having the largest impact, accounting for roughly 75% of the variation in student achievement as measured by standardized test scores, while teacher quality has the largest impact with respect to in-school-related factors, and accounts for roughly 8.5% of the variation in student achievement.

Hillman

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:02:48 -0500

WTU claiming someone is not accountable? That's a heckuva lot of hubris, given their sordid history.

Amorse

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:29:26 -0500

Research has found that teacher quality has the largest impact on students’ educational achievement – more than class size, facilities and socio-economic concerns. Great teachers can overcome these unfortunate obstacles and get their students to learn. DCPS must do whatever it takes to recruit and retain the most outstanding teachers. If they don’t, parents will continue to send their kids to charter schools, were teachers are not unionized, and there will be no more WTU as we know it. I am hopeful for Rhee's efforts and have attended two community "DC School Reform Now" meetings. It is a helpful, informative way to stay tuned to the changes and the need for community support. I highly recommend attending these meetings.

erahk0

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:05:40 -0500

Maybe schools can enlist their parents (the one's who care) to help fight for filling their teacher vacancies. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there are enough qualified science teachers living in the US that can fill the DCPS science teacher vacancies.

kelly5612

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:09:10 -0500

So what is a school supposed to do? Conjure up science teachers in the lab a la Weird Science? It's supremely ignorant to treat schools like businesses, then expect them to be exempt from the laws of supply and demand. And the WTU is a downright embarrassment. I'm ashamed to be involuntarily giving them money out of my paycheck.

erahk0

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:01:11 -0500

adamsmorgan: Science teachers are historically hard to fill positions in our area. There just aren't many qualified. My son's school has had the same problem too and your friend needs to keep an eye on whether any of their kid's teachers will be teaching science as well as a core subject. If so they should find out if the teacher is qualified. I've seen unqualified teachers teach science, i think most parents don't give that a second thought - but it really irks me. Your friend should complain to the principal, the student counselor and the parent community.

adamsmorgan

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:38:49 -0500

A friend of mine teaches at the middle school in Brookland. They moved the science teachers to other schoosl and now there are no science teachers at all, none, nada, zilch...awesome.

erahk0

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:10:26 -0500

I know in my kid's school their vacancies (~10) were all filled by the middle of September. Poor performing teachers ought to be fired! Period!