mortiz050

As a DCPS parent I have had the good fortune that my daughter has been taught by some really great teachers. She's now in sophomore year of high school and I've been at this since Pre-K. I've felt the happiness and security of knowing that my daughter loved those teachers, enjoyed being in their classrooms, and was doing important and interesting work with them. Her second grade teacher went

I’ve taught in six DC public schools under the supervision of six different principals who had six different ideas of what constitutes 'quality' or 'effective' teaching. My experience makes me very concerned about what I hear is the enhanced principal authority to get rid of teachers they don't like in the proposed contract. Current administrators may or may not be the best judges of quality

Kerry,You’re dead on target. Last week, I attended the quarterly meeting of the DC Area Writing Project (DCAWP) which is comprised of over 250 of the best and brightest teachers in our school district. When I arrived, teachers were discussing a letter writing campaign to our union leadership about the trade-offs proposed by Chancellor Rhee. The consensus was that such trade offs; (specifically

A week ago Friday, teachers received a letter from Chancellor Rhee summarizing what she had given out at a press conference the day before. The letter began with: “Ensuring that our students—no matter what their challenges are—receive the education they deserve is the most important task that we face as a city and a nation.” No disagreement there. That’s why I became a teacher. But then she got

The next meeting of "teachers and parents for real education reform" will be October 14 at 5:00 PM at the Lamond-Riggs Neighborhood Library - 5401 South Dakota Avenue, at Kennedy Street, N.E.. Please join us!

Turnout was good on Tuesday's meeting, with lots of teachers who had not come to previous meetings. The agenda included an update on negotiations including a clarification that the letter that teachers had received from the Chancellor on Friday was merely a continuation of negotiations by other means. The bulk of the meeting was devoted to deepening our common understanding of what this

Our next meeting will take place this Tuesday, October 7, at 5:30 at Lamond-Riggs Neighborhood Library, 5401 South Dakota Avenue NE, at Kennedy Street, NE Washington DC 20011. All teachers and parents who believe in real education reform that is focused on improving the quality of teaching and learning, and doing it with teachers, are welcome to attend.

The following was posted today on "Eduwonkette" one of the nation's most respected education blogs, hosted by Education Week Magazine:October 6, 2008In the Name of Reform? A Lesson About Michelle Rhee's Big Plans from Art SiebensReporter: “The teachers’ union is saying that their concern is arbitrary firing…. that it just isn’t possible to give everyone sort of a level of fair scrutiny.Rhee: “

For those of you who could not attend Saturday's meeting, I wanted to give you an update. We had a group of approximately 20 teachers and parents who came to the meeting, which was quite impressive considering that it was planned with such short notice. Even more impressive is that we had teachers and parents on the same page and articulating a shared vision of education reform in DC. We decided