DC Teacher Contract

Speaking of DC, here's my friend and Houston ed warrior Natasha Kamrani with some thoughts on the ground-breaking new teachers contract in DC:

 

(1)   On Tuesday, the DC City Council finally approved a groundbreaking teachers' contract!  This was the LAST and FINAL hurdle the contract had to pass.. Many of you are familiar with the education reform efforts in DC during the past few years, which are spearheaded by Chancellor Michelle Rhee. The new teachers' contract is a fundamental pillar of her strategy to reform the district. But more broadly -- and more importantly -- it is a fundamental shift in how we approach the essential profession of teaching.

There is a whole lot to learn from the DC effort and we'll continue to keep an eye on their progress.

 

This excerpt from the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/29/AR2010062905052.html)  does a good job explaining the salient points of the new contract:

The deal will bring significant changes to how District teachers are managed, paid and evaluated. It provides for a 21.6 percent salary increase through 2012, with about half the money coming in a single retroactive payment covering the nearly three years they worked without a raise while the pact was negotiated. The package will boost the average salary for a D.C. educator from $67,000 to about $81,000, raising it close to the top of the pay scale for public school teachers in the Washington region, according to a union survey.

The contract also calls for a voluntary pay-for-performance system that officials say could add $20,000 to $30,000 to the salaries of teachers who show better-than-expected growth in student test scores and who hit other targets. The accord expands professional development opportunities and will establish school-based "teacher centers" where instructors can learn ways to improve their skills.

The pact -- in tandem with a new teacher evaluation system that will use growth in test scores as one benchmark -- will weaken job security for some educators. It allows principals to use performance, instead of seniority, as the chief determinant when reducing staff because of declining enrollment or program changes.

Under a "mutual consent" clause, displaced teachers who once were assigned to other schools -- whether principals wanted them or not -- will no longer be guaranteed spots in the system and must find administrators willing to take them. Teachers with good evaluations who are unable to find a job will have a one-year grace period, at full pay, to continue the search. They can also opt for a $25,000 buyout or early retirement with full benefits if they have 20 or more years of service.

The contract represents a major victory for Rhee, who pushed for an agreement that offered teachers richer compensation in exchange for greater accountability for their students' academic growth. The talks began in late 2007 and teetered on the brink of impasse in mid-2008, after union leaders rejected Rhee's proposed two-tiered salary structure, which weakened tenure protections for teachers.

(2)   Since the new contract provides pay for teacher performance measured, in part, by demonstrating better-than-expected growth in student test scores, DCPS will get the data they need by creating a series of new student evaluation instruments (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/29/AR2010062905052.html):

Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is seeking an outside contractor to help dramatically expand DCPS' use of standardized tests, so that every grade from K through 12 will have some form of assessment to measure student progress and teacher effectiveness……

"Data driven" is a mantra among Rhee and her top staff--data to drive decisions. In a brief interview Friday, she said: "It's been a priority for a long time. We want to have a much more robust set of assessments not just in math and reading but different subjects. As a parent I want to know on a regular basis how my kids are progressing or not and have my teachers take a pulse not once a year or four times a year."

As to charges that relentless testing--and test preparation--are sucking the oxygen from other forms of classroom instruction, Rhee said: "I think testing gets a bad rap sometimes. Consistently assessing our kids is going to lead to more information about what they're learning and mastering and what they are not."

(3)   For those of you out there (and I know you're out there) who are already feeling the hair on the back of your neck start to stand up because of the talk of more testing, I offer this excerpt from Jay Mathews, highly-regarded columnist from the Washington Post, with his reaction to the news above (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/06/to_those_opposing_more_dc_test.html):

I have only one question for those who think Rhee is heading down the wrong path: Newcomers to the Washington area, if they have school-age children, generally look to Fairfax and Montgomery counties for public schools, not D.C. Fairfax and Montgomery Counties, as well as Virginia and Maryland schools in general, have many more required tests in core subjects for high schoolers than D.C. schools do. They focus closely on the results, and try to make sure every child reaches the state standard in several subjects, because high school graduation depends on it.

That is precisely what Rhee wants to do. If this works in the burbs, why shouldn't she?