Honing in on DPS teacher quality
A national teacher quality group tonight will present its assessment of the effectiveness of Denver Public Schools’ teacher management system.
In a nutshell, the New Teacher Project calls it “meaningless.”
Click here to see a four-page executive summary and the 51-slide report, now available on the DPS website. Staff from the New Teacher Project will present the findings to Denver school board members.
Among key findings:
– Less than half of brand-new teachers say they clearly understand what is required of them to earn tenure or non-probationary status. But 97 percent are at least “somewhat confident” they will.
– They’re right – DPS chose not to renew the contracts of just 3 percent of probationary teachers for performance concerns between 2003 and 2008.
– Once they’re earned tenure, teachers are virtually guaranteed jobs – only 1 percent of evaluations between 2005 and 2008 result in a rating of “unsatisfactory.” That’s 32 unsatisfactory ratings out of 2,387.
– Yet 30 percent of teachers and 70 percent of principals say there is a tenured teacher in their school who should be dismissed for poor instructional performance.
– Teachers lack confidence in the district’s ability to gauge their performance – only 38 percent agree the district’s evaluation process accurately assesses their performance.
– Principals think it’s too hard to dismiss ineffective teachers – 81 percent of administrators say the time, effort and resources required to dismiss tenured teachers for poor performance is too high.
– Of the 32 tenured teachers who entered remediation after receiving an unsatisfactory rating, only 7 successfully completed the process. Five didn’t finish and 20 failed to show adequate improvement so most resigned or retired.
Data from DPS was included in the New Teacher Project’s national report, The Widget Effect, released last year. In addition, the group has released a report on Pueblo District 60’s teacher management system.
Check back later tonight for Ed News Colorado’s story on the DPS report.
