Results tagged “teachers”

As we mentioned in the Morning Roundup, the D.C. public schools announced yesterday that an unexpected $40 million budget shortfall will require spending cuts and personnel reductions by the end of October. In a letter to teachers, George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers' Union, expressed anger that the WTU was not notified of the cuts prior to yesterday's announcement, and suggested that the coming layoffs could jeopardize the ongoing contract negotiations. Contract talks were recently rumored to be nearing to a close after almost two years of stalemate.

Bad news for D.C. charter school teachers: you may not be getting paid on Friday, according to a story just posted to the Post's website. D.C. missed a $103 million payment to its 60 public charter schools this morning, thanks to some kind of tax revenue shortfall or delay, Bill Turque reports. The District is facing at least a $190 million deficit in the current fiscal year, thanks to shrinking tax revenues due to the recession. The Post story says that charter board officials are negotiating with the city to make some kind of partial payment from contingency funds to help them meet immediate payroll needs.

In a letter sent last week to DCPS teachers, D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee directly addressed ten of the most frequent concerns she hears from teachers, ranging from "Some people say that you want to fire all the veterans in DCPS and replace them with Teach For America teachers or DC Teaching Fellows. Is that true?" to "There are too many initiatives going on. I’m worn out and overwhelmed. What’s your priority?"

Bill Turque turns in a thoughtful piece in today's Post, examining the loaded dynamics behind disciplining students who attack their teachers. It may sound obvious - kids shouldn't get away with physical violence, ever - but tension between instructors and administrators, overcrowded or poorly-managed classrooms, and the difficulty of confirming allegations, complicate the discipline process. There are no definite statistics about assaults against D.C. teachers, but Turque interviews instructors at Woodson Academy who complain of being struck by books or shoved by students, and who feel that DCPS and their administrators have done little to address bad behavior.

Details about the District's new teacher evaluation system were discussed for the first time at a D.C. Council hearing yesterday, the Post's Bill Turque reports. The plan, which has been in development with teachers and experts over the past several months, combines classroom observations (the focus of the current system) with standardized test scores and value-added measures of student learning. Schoolwide performance goals could also be established and used as part of the evaluations.

Money, money, money, money...mon-ey.

Next up on Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s agenda to make D.C. Schools more accountable? Getting “highly qualified” teachers into the classrooms. Under the controversial law “No Child Left Behind,” all teachers must demonstrate that they are qualified to teach their subjects, usually by completing graduate coursework or passing certification tests like the Praxis series.