Michelle Rhee lays off 241 teachers
Columbia public school system recently fired 226 employees because of their poor results at the assessment system IMPACT concerning their teaching manners and knowledge and 76 more employees will be fired because of licensing issues.
Out of the 302 employees that will be let go 241 are teachers and the others are administrative personnel. Chancellor Michelle Rhee declared that the teachers will lose their jobs because the children from District of Columbia public school have the right to well prepared teachers and that the cleanup should have been done even earlier. During the period of delay the children had to suffer and there is a whole generation of Washingtonians that have graduated from the public schools and do not have the basic knowledge and skills to become productive members of the society, because they were not taught properly during their education years.
Under the IMPACT assessment system teachers were ranked regarding five classroom observation visits made by the principals of the schools and by some outside observers. Besides direct observation, teachers were also judged according to their students’ achievement. The Washington Teachers Union argued that the IMPACT is not a fair evaluation system, as the majority of the teachers claim. George Parker, the President of the Washington Teachers Union says that a survey made among teachers showed that they do not trust the IMPACT assessment and the union plans to challenge the firings of about 81 of the teachers.
