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More than 200 D.C. teachers fired

TheDemSocialist said:
The District fired 206 teachers for poor performance Friday, the second year in a row it has dismissed significant numbers of educators for sub-par work in the classroom.


They were dismissed for poor scores on the evaluation system known as IMPACT, which grades teachers on five 30-minute classroom observations and their compliance with nine broad standards. These include ability to express course content clearly, teach students with differing skill levels and manage time effectively. For some teachers, half of their appraisal is contingent on whether students meet predicted growth targets on standardized tests.


Large-scale dismissals of teachers for job performance is still a rarity in big city schools, experts say. Collective bargaining agreements and often-cumbersome appeals processes, combined with a reluctance on the part of officials to confront politically potent unions, have limited firings.


Read more at: More than 200 D.C. teachers fired - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post

Thoughts?
Comments?
Response?
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That sounds like a really poor way to evaluate teachers. Our country is ****ed.
 
Lachean said:
Why would detailed or intimate knowledge be required to form an opinion? Do I have to be the weather man to tell you its raining?

The education system sucks no matter how much money we throw at it in large part due to the fact that it is difficult to fire bad teachers. And Tenure is a horrible notion.

Do you take issue with the firing of bad teachers? Do you take issue with any of the standards by which they were evaluated?
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Do you have any statistics to back up the overused, dumbass claim that the education system is failing due in "large" part to bad teachers? I already know the answer - no you don't. There are so many other problems and this "bad teacher" myth is a joke. This country is so stupid.
 
I'm really impressed by how many people in this thread are eating up the stories of the DC district. "Oh it's so amazing that they fired ineffective teachers." You're right, that sentence sounds great doesn't it. And yet nobody used their critical thinking skills and said, "well is were those teachers evaluated effectively?", "is it smart to fire teachers who go through years of training or would it be better to just train them?", "i wonder if these teachers were fairly fired or if they were fired for BS reasons?" Nope, none of those questions are fair because there are sooooooo many bad teachers which I know because I believe whatever my trusted news source tells me and have never gone to the teachers' organizations and teachers' unions to hear their side of the story because I love that privatization, conservative, bad teacher myth plate of BS.

/rant. have a nice day.
 
This is ridiculous. Some punishment huh?



N.Y.C. has about 700 teachers on paid leave in 'rubber rooms' | NJ.com
NEW YORK -- Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do.
 APThis May 2006 photo provided by art teacher Judith Cohen shows her sitting in front of cardboard boxes in a rubber room, in New York. Hundreds of public school teachers in New York accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct, have been banished to adult detention centers known as rubber rooms, where the city can keep an eye on them, paying them their full salaries of $70,000 or $80,000 a year to essentially do nothing. Cohen says she has been waiting in a rubber room, or reassignment center since May 2006. Cohen, an art teacher, said she passes the time by painting watercolors of her fellow detainees.
Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the school system to its "rubber rooms" -- off-campus office space where they wait months, even years, for their disciplinary hearings.
The 700 or so teachers can practice yoga, work on their novels, paint portraits of their colleagues -- pretty much anything but school work. They have summer vacation just like their classroom colleagues and enjoy weekends and holidays through the school year.
Click to expand...
 
Lachean said:
Why would detailed or intimate knowledge be required to form an opinion? Do I have to be the weather man to tell you its raining?

The education system sucks no matter how much money we throw at it in large part due to the fact that it is difficult to fire bad teachers. And Tenure is a horrible notion.

Do you take issue with the firing of bad teachers? Do you take issue with any of the standards by which they were evaluated?
Click to expand...


Can anyone tell me what benefit to the public teachers' unions create? Good for DC, this needs to happen in many more school districts
 
theplaydrive said:
Do you have any statistics to back up the overused, dumbass claim that the education system is failing due in "large" part to bad teachers? I already know the answer - no you don't. There are so many other problems and this "bad teacher" myth is a joke. This country is so stupid.
Click to expand...

you have a sound point-even good teachers cannot help kids who come from broken homes where their one parent probably doesn't give a damn. But having represented a major school system at one point I know how hard it is to get rid of incompetent teachers.

and yes, many teachers are incompetent. and teachers unions make it harder to weed out the dead wood
 
sangha said:
Are you enjoying your weekend?

Thank the unions
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people like me tend to control our environment without the help of unions

enjoy living in the most prosperous nation in the world? thank entrepreneurs and corporations

enjoy seeing more and more manufacturing going overseas? thank the Unions and parasitic politicians
 
TurtleDude said:
people like me tend to control our environment without the help of unions

enjoy living in the most prosperous nation in the world? thank entrepreneurs and corporations

enjoy seeing more and more manufacturing going overseas? thank the Unions and parasitic politicians
Click to expand...

Actually you should prbably thank everyone. Workers had a huge hand in building this country, and this includes union workers.
 
MrVicchio said:
Pro-active parents are yes, the first best line of defense in fighting poor students. Only a fool argues this point. HOWEVER, next in line is the talent, and ability of the teachers. Active parents can help over come poor teachers, and good teachers can overcome worthless parents to a degree. You cannot save a kid from parents that are indifferent, but you can fire ****ty teachers.
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How do you measure this talent? And what percentage of the population should we expected to be talented? Truely talented?
 
Boo Radley said:
Actually you should prbably thank everyone. Workers had a huge hand in building this country, and this includes union workers.
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really? so America became the most prominent nation in the world because of Unions? I believe that happened before the Unions really had a major role. But you are correct, workers did play a major role though not the most important role.
 
TheDemSocialist said:
The District fired 206 teachers for poor performance Friday, the second year in a row it has dismissed significant numbers of educators for sub-par work in the classroom.


They were dismissed for poor scores on the evaluation system known as IMPACT, which grades teachers on five 30-minute classroom observations and their compliance with nine broad standards. These include ability to express course content clearly, teach students with differing skill levels and manage time effectively. For some teachers, half of their appraisal is contingent on whether students meet predicted growth targets on standardized tests.


Large-scale dismissals of teachers for job performance is still a rarity in big city schools, experts say. Collective bargaining agreements and often-cumbersome appeals processes, combined with a reluctance on the part of officials to confront politically potent unions, have limited firings.


Read more at: More than 200 D.C. teachers fired - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post

Thoughts?
Comments?
Response?
Click to expand...

Poor performance is a valid reason. However, I would ask, do they have better to replace them or worse?
 
TurtleDude said:
really? so America became the most prominent nation in the world because of Unions? I believe that happened before the Unions really had a major role. But you are correct, workers did play a major role though not the most important role.
Click to expand...

Because of workers. Do pay attention, and try to avoid strawman arguments. Workers have done as much or more than business, and some of them belonged to unions. As I have noted before, look at the world of employees before unions. Would you argue they were better off then?
 
Boo Radley said:
do they have better to replace them or worse?
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at a time when thousands of outstanding young teachers are being laid off from new york to california with DETROIT in between?

you don't know what you're talking about
 
TurtleDude said:
people like me tend to control our environment without the help of unions

enjoy living in the most prosperous nation in the world? thank entrepreneurs and corporations

enjoy seeing more and more manufacturing going overseas? thank the Unions and parasitic politicians
Click to expand...

Is that why the income of the working class grew fastest when unions were at their strongest, and why the middle class has shown little income growth since Reagan began busting unions?

Once again, the facts trump your opinions
 
Boo Radley said:
Because of workers. Do pay attention, and try to avoid strawman arguments. Workers have done as much or more than business, and some of them belonged to unions. As I have noted before, look at the world of employees before unions. Would you argue they were better off then?
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depends on who you are talking to. tell me what good do public sector unions do?
 
sangha said:
Is that why the income of the working class grew fastest when unions were at their strongest, and why the middle class has shown little income growth since Reagan began busting unions?

Once again, the facts trump your opinions
Click to expand...

unions created an artificially high wage for American labor. as globalization increased (which is inevitable) that wage scale could not survive because it was artificial and that is what is hurting the middle class

in a competitive environment-artificially inflating the cost of a commodity to some of the competitors will kill them off. Unions in competitive industries that are global are doomed
 
TurtleDude said:
depends on who you are talking to. tell me what good do public sector unions do?
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Same as any other. Public workers are as concerned with working condition, wages, and compensation as the private sector. No matter who pays, the job is still ebing done, and all employees have the right to seek just compensation. If we don't like how well our leaders negotiate, find new leaders.
 
TurtleDude said:
Can anyone tell me what benefit to the public teachers' unions create? Good for DC, this needs to happen in many more school districts
Click to expand...
It depends on what part of the "public" you're talking about. If you're talking about union members and their families, then they benefit. If you're talking about non-union workers who work in professions where unions exist, then they benefit as well since employers treat them well with the ever present threat of them joining a union. If you're talking about students, then they benefit when unions fight for smaller class sizes, safer environments, limiting standardized testing, increasing instruction time, increasing music/phys ed./etc., training teachers to be effective instead of just firing them and repeating the same mistakes, an elected school board to get parents in charge, etc.

But really, in spite of these benefits, the job of a union is to serve the members that pay them so their job is not to "look out for the public" even if some of their actions benefit the "public" by default. So the better question is: do public teachers' unions harm public education? Of course, some of their actions may be harmful, but from my perspective, they have a net neutral effect on education - actually I would argue that positives outweigh the negatives, particularly since the negatives can be easily fixed without getting rid of them altogether.
 
TurtleDude said:
Can anyone tell me what benefit to the public teachers' unions create? Good for DC, this needs to happen in many more school districts
Click to expand...

Taylor Mali - Taylor Mali: What Teachers Make

What Teachers Make, or
Objection Overruled, or
If things don't work out, you can always go to law school

By Taylor Mali
Taylor Mali


He says the problem with teachers is, "What's a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"
He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about
teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the other dinner guests
that it's also true what they say about lawyers.

Because we're eating, after all, and this is polite company.

"I mean, you¹re a teacher, Taylor," he says.
"Be honest. What do you make?"

And I wish he hadn't done that
(asked me to be honest)
because, you see, I have a policy
about honesty and ass-kicking:
if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won't I let you get a drink of water?
Because you're not thirsty, you're bored, that's why.

I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
I hope I haven't called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today.
Billy said, "Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don't you?"
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.

I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).

Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?
Click to expand...
 
Lachean said:
Why would detailed or intimate knowledge be required to form an opinion? Do I have to be the weather man to tell you its raining?
Click to expand...


When you presume to sit in the high seat of judgment and decide who and how many teachers should be fired, yes, you had better have a damn good knowledge of how those people do their jobs. If you do not, you should shut your mouth before endorsing another person losing their job.
 
Badmutha said:
If D.C. was LA...........

L.A. school district spent millions firing just seven teachers; paid $50,000 bribes to dozens more | Mark Hemingway | Beltway Confidential | Washington Examiner

....it would of cost 100 million dollars to fire those 200 subprime teachers.........with only 40 teachers ultimately being fired.

This is the system and the insanity liberals and Democrats defend.........sacrificing the education of millions of American children in the name of protecting incompetence, corruption, and DNC Union dues.
.
.
.
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what a laugh
management spends millions to fire seven teachers and you point to teacher incompetence
ignoring that of management
 
TurtleDude said:
unions created an artificially high wage for American labor. as globalization increased (which is inevitable) that wage scale could not survive because it was artificial and that is what is hurting the middle class
Click to expand...

What in the name of all that is holy does globalization have to do with teachers in DC losing their jobs ? Were these teaching jobs in DC classrooms outsourced to China or India?
 
sangha said:
since Reagan began busting unions
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union busting is de rigeur, especially for blue executives

California budget: Democrats pass austerity budget - Los Angeles Times

Cuomo budget: $10 billion deficit cut, no new taxes, layoffs likely

Jerry Brown Budget Cuts | California budget: Gov. Jerry Brown approves cuts to services for poor, sick and elderly - Los Angeles Times

MA House votes to restrict unions - Boston.com

New Jersey Assembly Passes Bill That Requires Public Workers' Unions To Pay More For Benefits - WPIX

Emanuel Unveils Major Budget Cut On First Full Day « CBS Chicago

Governor Pat Quinn signs Illinois education reform bill into law, new rules effect school days, teacher strikes, tenure | abc7chicago.com

Detroit Moves Against Unions - WSJ.com

Union Deal Defeated; Gov. Malloy Pledges To Cut State Workers - CTnow

did you read yesterday about rahm the ram's air-traffic-controllers moment in chicago?

they wouldn't cooperate? he FIRED em IMMEDIATELY

Rahm Emanuel sends layoff notices to city workers in union showdown - Chicago Sun-Times

i don't think the locals are likely to mess with the ram as the mayor heads into what the sun times calls round two---the 700 million

these days, dem execs can get away with...

well, what would you call it?
 
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