Michelle Rhee spent about thirty minutes chatting with Bruce DePuyt this morning on the NewsChannel 8 anchor’s NewsTalk program — and understandably, she spent most of her time defending the IMPACT evaluation system, the results of which were responsible for the termination of hundreds of DCPS teachers last Friday.

“For me, it’s really a matter of thinking about the children,” said Rhee, who was sure to mention several times that she has two children that attend DCPS schools. “I do not want my children in the classroom of an ineffective teacher.”

“We don’t believe that you can gauge a teacher’s performance by any one measure,” said Rhee. “We want to be fair to teachers and take into consideration what their individual circumstances are…we expect to see growth,” Rhee said. (Of course, when asked about the recent dip in test scores at the elementary level, Rhee chose to take a selective, wider lens.)

DePuyt asked Rhee whether or not there was actually a physical person that is evaluating all the teachers. “All five of the observations are done in person where the observer…is actually in the classroom, watching how the teacher is interacting with the students,” said Rhee. Last year, two of the observations were announced, but three were not.

“We don’t want to see the dog and pony show,” said the Chancellor. “We want to see what the kids see everyday.”

When DePuyt asked Rhee if she could assure the public that all DCPS teachers got an individual and fair evaluation, Rhee said “absolutely.” Rhee also noted that if there were any teachers who did not receive the five in-person observations, those teachers were not considered for termination this year. Finally, Rhee also affirmed that teachers were offered professional development if they did not understand the IMPACT metrics.

The Washington Teachers’ Union is planning to file a lawsuit over the firings, dubbing the evaluation a “flawed document.”