WASHINGTON — With independent audits showing too many D.C. school students were promoted when they shouldn鈥檛 have been, the city鈥檚 school chancellor is trying to figure out how and why it happened. And there鈥檚 growing concern that teachers simply felt their jobs depended on passing students, whether the promotion was earned or not.
Even if that perception wasn鈥檛 a reality, D.C. Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson told teachers this week student performance will not factor into their evaluations this academic year.聽
A memo sent by Wilson said the city will study policies and performance measures to determine what鈥檚 most appropriate for evaluations starting in the next academic year. The move is applauded by David Grosso, D.C. council member and education committee chairman.
鈥淭his is one small way that he can try to fix that,鈥� Grosso said.
鈥淚t was such a small percentage of the weight that was put on 鈥� whether or not you passed a student on to the next grade. But they said clearly in my hearings that teachers felt pressure so I鈥檓 glad he鈥檚 doing something.鈥�
Grosso concedes there is pressure coming down on to teachers from the city鈥檚 central office, and that if part of a teacher鈥檚 measurement was 鈥渕oving students on, then I guess they used that as a proxy for what actually was happening with a student鈥檚 abilities,鈥� he said.
As Wilson and others in the city鈥檚 central office try to re-assess the city鈥檚 evaluation methods, Grosso said he hopes the city will spend more time looking at what he describes as a student鈥檚 鈥渓ongitudinal data鈥� from other years.
鈥淩ather than judging a teacher鈥檚 performance on how well a student does that one particular year or class,鈥� it would be better to assess how much growth a student shows over the course of a year compared to where they were academically at the start of the year, Grosso said.
鈥淟et鈥檚 say a student presents herself in the eighth grade math class being on a fifth grade math level, and that teacher actually moves her up to seventh grade. So she moved to two grades in level, but they don鈥檛 get any credit in their IMPACT (the evaluation system) for that because she didn鈥檛 actually get her on to the ninth grade level. And that is still progress and a good thing because the student moved two grades. But we haven鈥檛 measured that very well,鈥� he said.
That鈥檚 just one idea for addressing what Grosso acknowledges is complicated and difficult to measure.
鈥淚t鈥檚 clear that the folks in central office at DCPS did not do a good job training teachers and administrators in the school buildings on grading policy, on attendance policies, and on this credit recovery stuff. And the fact of the matter is the chancellor now has an opportunity to turn that around and do the proper training and he鈥檚 going to do that,鈥� Grosso said.
