DCentric

Mr. T in DC

Bell Multicultural High School, part of CHEC

I just stumbled on this blog called “An Urban Teacher’s Education”, where I found an interesting (and long) post from an ex-DCPS Educator discussing issues at the Columbia Heights Educational Campus (CHEC)– and D.C. schools, in general:

All of the administrators that I worked closely with began their careers with Teach For America. This program is very clear about the beliefs it holds about education: the only purpose of a teacher is to raise student achievement (read: raise test scores). It seemed to me that very few of my administrators had much classroom experience…their aim was to identify teachers who they believed should be fired. This, and a significant lack of experience, is a trend across the district. Just this summer at School Without Walls, a twenty-six-year-old counselor was promoted to assistant principal despite the fact that she has no teaching experience. Nevertheless she will be responsible for conducting IMPACT evaluations and somehow providing teachers feedback they’re supposed to use to improve.

When teachers are being observed by people who are able to give very little actionable feedback and often have no experience in my particular area of teaching…problems are bound to arise…I often found myself being directed to do things that I believed to be contrary to what was good for the students. …There is a lot of lip-service paid to supporting teachers in the District and at CHEC, and a lot of superficial support is provided – primarily geared toward helping teachers understand IMPACT. However, when it came time to deal with the real and often substantial challenges of teaching in DC, administrators who have little to no classroom experience are not in a position to provide any meaningful support to their staff.

Rhee, Tukeva, and like-minded reformers seem to be under the impression that experience in the classroom is one of the least important factors in improving education.

I don’t think I taught with more than four or five people at CHEC who had more than five years of experience in the classroom. And I don’t believe that more than one or two of the administrators had more than five years experience in the classroom. I couldn’t disagree with this approach more.

Again, it’s a long read, but considering how our public school system is now a topic of national interest, it’s worth skimming, for a different perspective. For a fuller picture, this comment thread on Prince of Petworth, about Bell Multicultural being named a top school by Newsweek magazine is also worth a look. One question the commenters debate? Whether students are well-served when they take AP exams for which they aren’t prepared.

I hope all of this attention being focused on our schools also results in thoughtful scrutiny of what does and does not work. We are failing our youngest citizens while we analyze election results and play guessing games regarding whether certain officials will stay or leave.