Rhee's Hard Data or "Single Data Points" Depends on Whose Value Is Being Added

Just a few short weeks ago Michelle Rhee and her lawyers announced the firing of a whole bunch of tenured teachers based on first year evaluations under the new IMPACT "value-added" scheme that pays and punishes teachers based on student test scores.  From WaPo:

Rhee, and like-minded leaders in other school districts, contends that the best way to overhaul schools is to intensively monitor the performance of every adult, including janitors, and measure it by multiple yardsticks. For teachers, that includes evidence that their students meet or exceed predicted rates of growth on standardized tests, a metric known as "value-added." School districts have experimented with value-added for many years but generally employ it as a diagnostic tool to assess weaknesses or determine bonuses. . . .

. . . .Value-added constitutes 50 percent of their evaluation. Twenty-six of the 165 dismissed teachers fell into this category. . . . At the end of the school year, the teachers' overall performance was converted to a 100-to-400-point scale. Teachers with scores below 175 are subject to dismissal. Teachers scoring between 175 and 249 are judged under the system to be "minimally effective." Scores between 250 and 400 are considered "effective" or "highly effective." 

According to Rhee and the Oligarchs who built her, one-shot tests appear to be perfectly valid when it come to firing teachers and making decisions on teacher pay and job security.  However, when it comes to Rhee's own accountability to do what she identified in 2007 as her top priority as schools chief (to close the achievement gap), such tests are only isolated data points that should be looked at over time.  You see, the gaps are not closing as Rhee's raging arrogance had led her to predict.  From Rhee's spokeswoman, Jennifer Calloway:

. . . She also cautioned against forming broad judgments on the basis of a single year's data.

"Change does not happen overnight," Calloway said. "Any one single data point - or change in a single data point over one year - is not sufficient to make overall conclusions about progress on this goal. To only consider one year would not accurately portray what has happened during this administration." . . .

Which Rhee to believe depends upon whether you are a former DC teacher looking for work or one of Rhee's stooges who will be looking for work after this year's elections dump the vaguely beige mayor, Adrian Fenty.   But surely Rhee will now re-think her hair-trigger firings of all those teachers based on "a single data point."  About as surely as Arne Duncan making school integration a top federal policy priority.

Rhee Fires 241 Teachers Under New IMPACT Evaluation Scheme

Last updated 10:15 pm July 24


The scientific community is in accord on the dangers inherent in making high stakes decisions derived from test scores based on "growth models."  An explicit warning was issued by the National Academies last Fall to Arne Duncan and anyone else interested enough to read the warning label on the growth model snake oil.  We now know that 165 teachers fired today by The Witch were evaluated using the growth model scores, and it is clear that Rhee and Co. have blood on their hatchet and are ready for more.  No support, no improvement plan, no warning, no professional development plan, just Bang, you're gone.

A clip from Bill Turque:

. . .Union leaders and some teachers have bitterly objected to IMPACT, which was devised in collaboration with a private consultant, Mathematica Policy Research. Although school officials convened teacher focus groups to discuss the plan, it was not subject to collective bargaining. Some teachers call it overly complex and dependent on an unreliable statistical methodology for linking test scores to individual teachers. WTU President George Parker said the program is designed to weed out teachers rather than to help them improve their practice.

"It's punishment-heavy and support-light," Parker said.

The IMPACT-generated dismissals are likely to spark a new round of debate about Rhee's treatment of teachers. D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who is challenging Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary, has made Rhee's management part of his critique of Fenty's education policy.   . . .

Rhee "Finds" $34 Million and Loses Last Cent of Credibility

With her Walmart approved contract and its corporate underwriting becoming the albatross that could sink hers and Fenty's political futures, the Not Ready for Prime Time Players in Michelle Rhee's office suddenly announce the digging up in Februrary, no less, of 34 million extra dollars that can now go to reduce the Oligarchs' promised contribution to the tentative teacher contract--a planned contribution that has now shrunk from $65 million to $7 million. Miraculous, or as Councilman, Jim Graham, more aptly said yesterday "curiouser and curiouser."

It was only last Fall that Rhee suddenly misplaced $43 million, enough to warrant the firing of 266 teachers and 300 other school employees. Meanwhile, prostisuits Randi Weingarten and George Parker continue, unbelievably, to urge teachers to ratify the shell game contract that is not worth the paper that it is written on. With broad powers given to Rhee by the contract to handle cases of financial necessity, all she will need to do to get Broad's way cleared for charters and TFAers is to continue the fraudulent form of leadership already deeply documented. If teachers ratify this contract, they will have acknowledged they are not nearly smart enough to teach.

From Bill Turque:

By Bill Turque
Wednesday, April 14, 2010; B01

Teachers union leaders angrily accused D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee of unethical behavior Tuesday by failing to disclose the discovery of a $34 million surplus in the school system budget in February, three months after laying off 266 teachers because of what she described as a budget shortfall.

News of the surplus comes at a critical time for Rhee and the teachers union, who just last week announced a tentative contract agreement that ended more than two years of often rancorous bargaining. The two sides were close to a deal late last summer when union anger over Rhee's plans for layoffs delayed its completion.

. . . .

"We got this information very late in the game," Rhee said. "The most important thing is for people to look forward."

Tuesday's meeting started with what appeared to be heartening news for the council, which had raised numerous questions at a Monday budget hearing about how the proposed contract -- which promises teachers a 20 percent pay increase over five years -- would be financed in a tight fiscal environment.

Rhee said that raises in the first two years of the five-year agreement, which are retroactive base salary increases of 3 percent each for 2008 and 2009, would be paid for by $22 million in unspent federal funding. She said the third year of the pact, which calls for a 4 percent raise in the current fiscal year, would be financed by a $34 million surplus and $7 million from private foundations.

Council members, led by Chairman Vincent C. Gray, expressed astonishment at the sudden windfall. Gray, who is challenging Rhee's boss, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, in the Democratic mayoral primary in September, said that if he were a laid-off teacher, he'd be livid. "I'd be about ready to put my hands around somebody's throat," he said.

He added: "People lost their jobs under a budget deficit that didn't exist. That's what I heard today."

"It's just too convenient," said council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), who likened the school system's budgeting process to a "three-card monte game."

"This just gets curiouser and curiouser," council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said.

Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) asked Rhee whether she would be willing to consider reinstating the laid-off teachers in light of the new budget situation. Rhee said no.

"Because we are in a completely different situation now," she said.

Members also were upset with Gandhi, who made no mention of the surplus at Monday's hearing, which lasted more than five hours.

Gandhi did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Through his spokesman, David Umansky, he said: "All of the facts, figures and information concerning the finances of the teachers contract will be released when the CFO's analysis of the contract is made public."