{"id":2283,"date":"2012-12-07T09:25:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-07T13:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coreeducationllc.com\/blog2\/?p=2283"},"modified":"2012-12-07T09:25:02","modified_gmt":"2012-12-07T13:25:02","slug":"is-dcps-a-model-urban-school-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coreeducationllc.com\/blog2\/is-dcps-a-model-urban-school-district\/","title":{"rendered":"Is DCPS a model urban school district?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The New Teacher Project<\/a> (TNTP) has recently released a new report, Keeping Irreplaceables in D.C. Public Schools: Lessons in Smart Retention<\/em>, which holds up the reforms begun in DC public schools<\/a> by former schools chancellor Michelle Rhee as a model for human capital reform.\u00a0 The main thrust of the reforms highlighted concerns good teacher retention through new processes of teacher evaluation and compensation.<\/p>\n

TNTP was founded by Michelle Rhee in 1997, and current DCPS chancellor Kaya Henderson is also a former TNTP executive, so it may come as no surprise that TNTP supports the reforms that have been taking place there, but the findings merit serious consideration because DCPS is \u201cthe first large school district in the country known to be retaining far more of its Irreplaceables than its low-performing teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report claims that schools lose their best teachers due to the combination of \u201cweak school leadership, poor working conditions, and restrictive policies.\u201d Most school districts\u00a0 retain good and bad teachers at about the same level\u2014bad news for students.\u00a0 But since the reform began in DC in 2007 under Rhee, according to the report, DCPS has retained 88% of its \u201cIrreplaceables\u201d and kept only 45% of its lower performing teachers (2010-2011); both statistics are markedly better than other similar, large school districts.<\/p>\n

These statistics are also important because they contradict the main worry that many had about the reforms put in place by Rhee, namely that in the attempt to remove poor teachers, higher performing teachers would also be driven away.\u00a0 In fact, the \u201cIrreplaceable\u201d teachers, according to the surveys of teachers, principals, and reviews of teacher evaluation results used in the report, feel more valued and have the chance to achieve compensation to the tune of $100,000 per year after at least four years of experience.<\/p>\n

Finally, the report makes three recommendations about how to continue and extend the recent successes in DCPS:<\/p>\n