Upping The Ante On Schools

Anyone who thought that Mayor Adrian Fenty would throttle back his version of school reform can forget the thought.

Last week, Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee announced a new round of firings that rattled the school system again, 10 months after more than 275 teachers were fired in a controversial budget move.

Now we have a better alignment between how we are performing [for the children] and how we are evaluating our teachers, Rhee said in an interview with NBC4.

Asked if she thought the fast-paced reform efforts were too much for the city to handle, Rhee was her usually blunt self.

I think if you look at the way the District had performed for kids prior to the mayoral control, she said, I think anybody would say that theres no way you can move fast enough to make sure were putting a great teacher in front of every single child. We cant do that fast enough, in our opinion.

Another 550 or more teachers were rated minimally effective and face being fired next year if they dont improve. Those teachers will lose any step increases in their pay for the coming year.

On Fridays WAMU Politics Hour at noon, Washington Teachers Union general vice president Nathan Saunders agreed with an angry caller that there is a racial aspect to Rhees dismissal of the teacher workforce, which is majority African-American.

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