Rhee's 'Plan B' Targets Teacher Quality

Gist, who as state superintendent can set professional standards, has proposed amending the District's municipal regulations to make most licenses non-renewable. Teachers would be required to get a new "advanced teaching credential" by demonstrating classroom effectiveness through criteria she will determine during the next six to 12 months. Her plan would also broaden the range of accepted teacher education programs to include such nonprofit groups as Teach for America.

The proposed rules would give Rhee "maximum flexibility in selecting and placing candidates," according to a PowerPoint presentation on the state superintendent's Web site.

Gist has been working on the revisions through the rulemaking process, which does not require review by the D.C. Council or the D.C. State Board of Education. The revisions were posted on the D.C. Register Aug. 8 and become effective this week. Parker said he had no idea what Rhee's "Plan B" entails but that any attempt to use the licensing process to weaken tenure protections was unacceptable.

"It really appears to be a backdoor process of firing teachers," said Parker, who sent an e-mail to most of the District's 4,000 teachers last week warning them of the proposal.

He added that there is no evidence that the proposed revisions would apply to non-unionized charter schools. "If this is so important, how come it doesn't apply to charter schools?"

Parker said he had no indication that Gist and Rhee, who meet regularly, were acting in a concerted fashion to develop the new licensure rules.

Asked for an interview last Wednesday, Gist said she first had to receive clearance from Carrie Brooks, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's chief of staff. Gist, who reports to the mayor, did not respond to the request. Brooks did not return a phone message.

Rhee is free to unilaterally overhaul the school system's "Professional Performance Evaluation Process," and even Parker readily acknowledges that it needs work.

Instructors judged by principals to be underperforming can be placed on a 90-day "improvement plan" and assigned a "helping teacher." What follows during the three months is a series of classroom observations, each of which must be preceded by a principal-teacher "pre-conference" and then a follow-up meeting. All must take place within precise time frames, a challenge for often harried, distracted administrators.

"You blow one deadline, you go back to ground zero," said one principal, who asked for anonymity because she was speaking without authorization. She said she has used the 90-day plan just once in nearly a decade.

Asked last month how many tenured teachers the District fired for poor performance last year, former Rhee spokeswoman Mafara Hobson initially said only one. She subsequently said the number was not correct but did not provide a revised total.

Union leaders say administrative bungling and principals with little expertise in evaluating teachers enable the union to reverse many firings through the appeals process.

"It's very poorly implemented," Parker said. "This is what frustrates me. A lot of times teachers and unions get blamed for holding on to poor teachers, when the bottom line is they haven't trained the principals correctly."