D.C. Council chairman and mayoral candidate Vince Gray said he supports the idea of firing ineffective teachers, but raised concerns about the evaluations D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee used as the basis for firing hundreds of city schoolteachers this summer.
Gray has been quiet on the teacher firings since Rhee announced late last month that more than 200 teachers were being let go because evaluations showed they weren’t getting through to students. But during a meeting with The Washington Examiner’s editorial board on Friday, he said “people should be held accountable.
Teachers that are ineffective should go.” He then questioned the use of the Impact evaluation tests Rhee relied upon when she fired the city’s teachers. “People need to be held accountable but it should be based on a fair evaluation,” Gray said. “There’s a lot of controversy around the Impact evaluation at this point as far as whether it’s a fair process.”
The Washington Teachers’ Union has promised to file a lawsuit that will claim certain aspects of Impact are unfair. Impact rates teachers from “highly effective” to “ineffective.”
The union is particularly upset that 5 percent of a teacher’s overall score is based on an entire school’s performance and that teachers were fired after they were assessed with Impact after only one year. No matter what, Gray said, “at the end of the day people need to be held accountable. They need to be teachers. They need to be counselors. They need to be principals. They need to be assistant principals. They need to be the chancellor.”
Gray won’t say if he’ll fire Rhee if elected. Rhee has all but said she’ll quit if Gray is elected. The Examiner asked Gray what he’d look for in a new chancellor.
He listed three characteristics:
— a commitment to education reform;
— a self-starter who is autonomous;
— someone who knows the dynamics of the city.
Gray also hit on one point in which he strongly differs from Mayor Adrian Fenty. Unlike the mayor, Gray said he doesn’t support school vouchers because he believes money should not go to religious organizations.
Many of the private schools that students who receive vouchers have attended are supported by religious groups. Fenty, however, pushed Congress not to cut the voucher program when it threatened and then later followed through with ending the program. [email protected]
