Is Teacher Churn Undermining Real Education Reform in DC?

Candi Peterson, blogger
An Op-ed in this Sunday's Washington Post, written by Mark Simon, education analyst and DCPS parent calls attention to the rate of turnover of both teachers and principals as a huge education reform. Simon argues the turnover rates are so high we're losing a lot of our best teachers and creating a hostile culture in too many schools. Turnover in charter schools is even higher.


By Mark Simon, Published: June 15- Washington Post

"I suppose the leaders of D.C. Public Schools want me to be happy that social studies teacher Kerry Sylvia won’t be coming back to Cardozo Senior High next year. The sound bite sounded appealing when DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced recently in her new strategic plan that one way to improve graduation rates is to focus on teacher talent — to remove bad teachers and replace them with better ones. But what if, however well intentioned, the reforms are actually leaving uninspired teachers in place and getting rid of some of the best talent?

When I heard that Sylvia had received a notice last month that she was being “excessed” from Cardozo after 13 years, it didn’t add up. I know good teaching, having taught high school for 16 years myself and helped to design the celebrated teacher evaluation system in Montgomery County. My daughter is about to graduate from DCPS, and I have been an engaged parent and a close DCPS observer for 14 years.

Sylvia is clearly a brilliant teacher, committed to her students, her school and its community. She is not only an award-winning teacher but also a leader and student advocate. I’ve talked with her students, several of whom told me that Sylvia’s class was the reason they come to school. If the District’s new plan is eliminating teachers like Sylvia, it’s on the wrong track.

DCPS has one of the highest teacher turnover rates in the nation. Richard Ingersoll of the University of Pennsylvania estimates that, “nationally, on average, about 20 percent of new public school teachers leave their district to teach in another district or leave teaching altogether within one year, one-third do so within two years, and 55 percent do so within five years.” In DCPS, by contrast, 55 percent of new teachers leave in their first two years, according to an analysis by DCPS budget watchdog Mary Levy. Eighty percent are gone by the end of their sixth year. That means that most of the teachers brought in during the past five years are no longer there. By comparison, in Montgomery County just 11.5 percent leave by the end of their second year, and 30 percent by the end of year five. DCPS has become a teacher turnover factory. It has a hard time keeping teachers who are committed to their school and the community it serves.

According to Tom Carroll, president of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, “Teaching is no different than any other profession — experience matters. Researchers have found that teachers reach peak effectiveness with about seven years of experience. But 80 percent of the teachers hired by D.C. this year will be gone before they get there.” Carroll estimates that “the District is burning about $12 million a year on teacher churn — $12 million that is spent hiring and replacing teachers with no gain in school performance.”

Three aspects of the Michelle Rhee-Kaya Henderson reforms contribute to higher rates of teacher churn: unstable school budgets from year to year; greater freedom for principals under the IMPACT evaluation system to identify teachers for dismissal or transfer; and school closings. But most of the turnover comes from teachers leaving voluntarily, not those excessed like Sylvia.

For years, researchers, such as Jane Hannaway of the Urban Institute, have advised DCPS that turnover can be a good thing because odds are that replacement teachers will be better than the ones who leave. But I’ve begun to wonder if perhaps the wrong teachers, in some cases great ones, are being pushed out.

Now, a significant new study by researchers Susanna Loeb of Stanford University, Matthew Ronfeldt of the University of Michigan and Jim Wyckoff of the University of Virginia upends Hannaway’s assumption. The study, “How Teacher Turnover Hurts Student Achievement,” concludes that, separate from the relative quality of teachers who may be brought in to replace those who leave, teacher turnover itself harms a school. Turnover affects morale and the professional culture at a school. It weakens the knowledge base of the staff about students and the community. It weakens collegiality, professional support and trust that teachers depend on in their efforts to improve achievement.

In March, Post reporter Bill Turque penned an insightful profile of another demonstrably terrific teacher, Sarah Wysocki from MacFarland Middle School, who was fired from DCPS after getting low scores in her IMPACT evaluation. The mechanical process of IMPACT insults good teachers and doesn’t do justice to the complexities of good teaching.

If the reform strategies in place in DCPS were working, then perhaps a resolute and unsympathetic response to so-called “soft issues” of staff morale and workforce culture would be understandable. But gains in student achievement in DCPS have stalled. The dropout crisis continues. It’s not that reform isn’t a good idea, but these modest results call for some humility. They might even call for listening to the wisdom of accomplished teachers we can’t afford to lose.

The writer is a DCPS parent, the former president of the Montgomery County teachers union and an education policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute. He blogs at realeducationreformdc.blogspot.com "

The Tyranny Of DC's Sousa Middle School Principal Dwan Jordon

Dwan Jordon: Bully With A Capital B ?

Featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence

On July 6, 2010- Stephanie McCrummen, a Washington Post writer featured a story about Sousa Middle School Principal Dwan Jordon, titled : "D.C. Principal's hands-on tack transforms Sousa Middle but also ruffles feathers" Sousa Middle School is located at 650 Ely Pl. SE, Washington, DC. The problem with McCrummen's story is that it reads like the political propaganda that we have come to expect from the Washington Post with Jordon being featured as Superman who comes to save the day of course courtesy of Chancellor Michelle Rhee who handpicked him. At first glance, I couldn't help but wonder how this local story made the front page of a major newspaper but it is to be expected given the Post's unequivocal history of supporting anything Chancellor Rhee. As DC activist, Robert Brannum reiterates in his DC Examiner column, "major newspapers like the Post are all too often willing to advance Chancellor Rhee and her protege's as innovators who all by themselves save public education." McCrummen unjustly portrays Sousa's former teachers in a demeaning light by using one example of a teacher being physically abusive towards a student when she digs her fingernails into him and other negative laden adjectives describing teachers as resistant to Jordon's strategies and emotional when she refers to them as humiliated and traumatized. At no time does this reporter take the time to examine what positive attributes (other than Jordon) these teachers had at their disposal that contributed to their ability to significantly raise test scores at Sousa before they were terminated or left of their own accord. Even the sub headings in this story credit Principal Dwan Jordon with positive captions like "Prove Everybody Wrong," " It's Beautiful" and "What's Wrong? " while teachers were conveniently featured under the one heading of "Feeling Humiliated". The problem with this type of reporting is that it is a fairy tale that doesn't exist and as Conducting the Inner Light teacher turned blogger writes: "it is fluff reportage that only compounds the problem DCPS has, a problem that will not improve through such one sided reporting nor one sided debates."

Quite naturally McCrummen's reporting led to complaints from Sousa teachers who were interviewed for the Post's story. Washington Post writer Jay Mathews attempted to save the day with a follow up piece on his Class Struggle blog in which he asked whether "Jordon is a hero or bully? His Post newspaper column had a noticeabley different title than his blog with the same story and appeared as "Results of D.C. principal's controversial methods need to outweigh criticism." I imagine that Mathews was trying to appease the would-be complainers and in order give the appearance that the Post is committed to some modicum of objectivity. As Mcrockett1 posted on Mathew's blog on July 13: "The question that Jay Originally posed - hero or bully?about Dwan Jordon seems to have been answered by the posters: Bully with a capital B. If even half of what the various posters have said is accurate, Jordon does not belong in an administrative position (or in any position in education) no matter what test scores are achieved. Give a person like that a gun and a badge, and there's an incident waiting to happen. "

Having first written about the Sousa story last July 2009 on The Washington Teacher blog, McCrummen's article sparked my curiosity so I asked some of the former Sousa teachers I know to enlighten me about their side of the story. What intrigued me most is that no matter what negative attributes Jordon and the Post ascribe to the former teaching staff, we all must admit that 'teachers raise test scores, not principals.' Principals create the conditions for good teaching and learning to occur and isn't it their job as our educational leaders to do just that ? So unless Jordon is willing to admit that he cheated on DC-CAS standardized tests, I am perplexed as to why he didn't attribute not one iota of praise on Sousa's former teachers who helped to improve their school's test scores. Whether you buy into Jordon's portrayal (as written by McCrummen) of Sousa's former teachers as humiliated, resistant, abusive, traumatized and incompetent, these former DCPS teachers helped to make the highest DC-CAS gains within DC Public Schools in school year 2008-09, like it or not. Here's to the hard work of Sousa Middle School Teachers (former and to those who still remain from SY '08-09) ! The reading scores for Sousa in spring 2008 was 22.84% and in spring 2009 they went up to 39.42%. The math scores for Sousa in spring 2008 was 16.75% and they went up in spring 2009 to 41.83%.

I agreed to publish an account from a former Sousa teacher because I think the general public has the right to hear both sides of our public education reform story not just the picture of us living and working in the world according to Chancellor Rhee that the Post is so intent on portraying. I am slightly disappointed that this former teacher shared mostly about the tyranny Sousa teachers endured under Principal Jordon instead of how they persevered in spite of Jordon and ultimately were successful in helping DCPS students achieve. Perhaps that's a story for another day. Due to the climate of fear that exists within DCPS under the Rhee administration, I am not at liberty to reveal this teachers' identity. Here's the other side of the Sousa story as told to me first hand.

The Other Side Of The Sousa Middle School Story

as told by a former Sousa MS Teacher

" On Monday, July 12, 2010, Dwan Jordon, Principal of Sousa Middle School was the subject of an article by Jay Matthews in the Washington Post. The basis of the article was AFTER Sousa had the highest DC-CAS gains in any DCPS middle school in 2009, why in the world would most of his staff leave? Well, Candi, I was there in 2008-2009, and let me tell you--it was the worst work experience of my life. Many of my colleagues and I , would rather dig 12 foot ditches filled with foulness, then ever come upon the likes of Dwan Jordon again.

A total of 50 teachers and staff members left the year that I was there. Jordon terminated 10, but 40 left on their own.To have 50 staff members leave from one school ( Sousa) is unheard of in any district. We complained to the union, and they were helpful but overwhelmed by the sheer volume of complaints. Our union Field Representative was either taking complaints or doing mediation at Sousa at least twice per week in school year 2008-2009. There were at least 45 complaints filed with the WTU and DCPS central office about Jordon. A lot of the staff, including me, worked around the clock to increase the test scores. Prior to Jordon coming to Sousa, we always had a lot less resources and many more students. When Jordon arrived our enrollment was down 60 students. All of our class sizes ranged from 10 to 25 students at most. Also, we did not have any other administrators (i.e., asst. principals) many years before Jordon came. When Jordon arrived, he was given two assistant principals, two coaches, and a dean of students. We only had 230 students with over 56 staff.

Mr. Jordon was very gifted at analyzing data and implementing longer school days. Some teachers even came to work from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily to please him. We were scared as he threatened us with being fired at least three times weekly. In Jordon's (July 6) front page Washington Post article written by Stephanie McCrummen, he wanted to paint a picture of all of the 10 teachers he fired under the 90 day plan as being incompetent. Yet, four teachers retired and six were given their jobs back because many of them had never had a bad evaluation prior to him. Also, Jordon lied and omitted many components from staff evaluations. Based on the 2010 IMPACT preliminary Final Report, these are the ratings of the six teachers who Jordon fired but were reinstated with the help of the WTU: one teacher Minimally Effective, three teachers Effective, and two Highly Effective.

Jordon was very cruel. For instance, one teacher that Jordon did not like had an allergic reaction and needed medical attention. Not only did Mr. Jordon refuse to call the ambulance after the teacher begged him, but he walked down the hall and told the other staff members who witnessed it that they would be in trouble if they gave helped to stabilize the teacher.

Jordon would regularly demean teachers by screaming and yelling at them in the hallways right in front of students as he saw fit. Jordon intimidated many teachers by standing outside of their classroom doors during their lunch periods. Many teachers would go into the bathroom for privacy. It was not uncommon for teachers to be found crying in the halls.

It was very common for most teachers on the 90 day plan to be observed at least three times a day, yes three times a day. Jordon illegally used his Literacy and Math Coaches who both still work at Sousa to officially observe teachers. The teachers had a meeting with the union field representative for Sousa, and the field representative explained to him that the coaches are ET-15's and cannot officially observe teachers.The next day Jordon went to every teacher's classroom that was present in that meeting and wrote them up if they did not have their lesson plans. The Math Coach reported to Jordon all the names of the teachers that were at the meeting. We did not want the coach at our union meeting as she was a snitch; however, the union allowed it because she was also a member of the union. The Literacy and Math Coaches still continued to officially observe teachers until the end of the 2009 school year. All their observations were placed in the teachers 90 day plan file with Jordon's forged signature. Even when asked by teachers, It was seldom that the Literacy and the Math coaches modeled effective instruction.

Jordon was always saying how unprofessional the 2008-2009 staff were; however, he was one of the most immature men that any of us had ever met. Jordon would talk about teachers negatively (without saying their names) in front of their faces almost daily in our morning collaborative meetings. Additionally, he told our students that he was going to get rid of certain teachers, and sure enough those teachers were terminated. Jordon would also bring you into his office, along with his administrative team, to question you if he thought that you talked about him to anyone. Jordon continued to bad mouth many of the former teachers after they left Sousa. Jordon lied on many of our evaluations just so that many people could get bad ratings. He never gave positive references when other administrators called. He even bad mouthed teachers that he did not terminate. However, the few teachers that Jordon liked were given good evaluations and special privileges. For instance, there was a white female teacher that Jordon liked who still works at Sousa. She had no classroom management, was an average Language Arts/Social Studies teacher, but had an Ivy League degree. If a student so much as hiccuped, Jordon would get the student out of her classroom immediately and she never got into trouble. Yet, he would write up other teachers if students misbehaved in their classes. This teacher ended up being on Jordon's administrative/recruitment committee to interview new teachers, and received an Exceeds Expectations rating at the end of 2008-2009.

In contrast, there was an African-American male teacher, who had received many Ward 7 Teacher of the Year awards, had the highest test scores averages in the entire building, and had the best classroom management ever as he dealt with the most behaviorally challenged students at Sousa. He was the best teacher in the building in terms of academic rigor and integrating technology. His students loved him. Jordon even offered to nominate him for Ward 7 teacher of the Year in 2009. However, this male teacher had integrity and continued to still speak and interact with many teachers that Jordon did not prefer. Jordon did not like that he could not control this excellent teacher. Therefore, Jordon got back at this teacher by giving him a lesser rating of Meets Expectations rating at the end of 2008-2009.

Jordon would try to discourage many of the teachers from talking to each other. He would even tell teachers that other teachers had said bad things about them. Yet, he would never identify the teachers in question. Also, Jordon had many very questionable personal relationships with female administrative staff members that we could not prove. Yet, he called himself a role model.

Jordon never rewarded his staff for our hard work except once during the year. Once during Teacher Appreciation Week, he got his Math Coach to bring in 3 dozen stale donuts, which none of us ate. An 8th grade parent felt so bad for all the teachers' that she used her money to cater us lunch from Chick-Fil-A that week. Jordon tried to stop the luncheon. Jordon was reported to the union for not returning the teachers' $400.00 in hospitality dues as he never even sent a card to any sick person in 2009. Also, one teacher had to come out of her pocket and pay $40.00 in cash for a missing textbook in June 2009. None of these monies were ever returned. Yet, he went to "Things Remembered" in Pentagon City and purchased plagues for his two assistant principals, dean of students, and coaches with our hospitality money in 2009. We are still waiting for him to return our money. He blamed it on a former counselor by saying that she was responsible, and took the money when she quit before the school year ended. He also promised us an end of year luncheon but he did not even buy us water in 2009. However, the last week of school in June 2009, he took his administrative staff ( Asst. Principal's and Coaches) to Jasper's Restaurant in Largo, MD using the remaining teacher hospitality funds.

In Closing Candi, Jordon will never mature and teachers will continue to be tormented and ridiculed at Sousa. He has such a high turnover rate that many teachers will never know the full extent of his terror."

DC's Departing Principal Pope Soon To Get The Boot By Rhee

12/5/09 UPDATE: The story of Mr. Pope's ousting has been officially confirmed. Dana Nerenberg will be taking over Hardy's school and leaving her post at Hyde-Addison elementary school at years end. Pope is slated to head up the development of a new arts school but no word on this from Principal Pope just yet. Unfortunately, the Washington Post failed to cover this story today as a news article but did mention it in their Metro Briefs section of the newspaper. Might I add the information in the Washington Post newspaper was brief and buried in Saturday's newspaper. Some say offering Pope another position is only a smokescreen for Rhee's ousting another competent administrator.

 

Principal Patrick Pope of Hardy Middle School Was On Rhee's Hit List

I received an tip from a confidential source that Patrick Pope, Principal of Hardy Middle School has been terminated by Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Hardy middle school is located at 1819 35th St. NW in Washington, DC . It is my understanding that Dana Nerenberg of Hyde Addison elementary school has already been selected as the new principal at Hardy middle school.

Most of us would not be surprised at this as Hardy under the helm of Pope was the recent subject of the Wash. Post blog (DC Wire) on December 1 in which Rhee stated a major announcement would be discussed about the future of Hardy middle school.  Hardy parents met with Rhee on Friday to discuss what she has in mind for the school. According to Bill Turque, staff reporter in The Wash. Post online DC Wire:  "Rhee kicked up considerable uncertainty and angst - after a Northwest Current article in October quoted her as promising to "turn" the school, which has a 70 percent African American enrollment drawn from across the district. Some Hardy parents took this to mean that Rhee wanted to turn the complexion of the student body and make it more appealing to families at the predominantly white feeder elementary schools in the area." Rhee denies this allegation.

Posted by The Washington Teacher, featuring Candi Peterson - blogger in residence