Reform With Rewards

Again, in The WaPo today, Tuesday, July 8, 2008; Page A14, it says:

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Teachers in both categories would get raises, but only those willing to forgo tenure and the salary steps of seniority would be in line for thousands of dollars in bonuses and special awards. Compensation for teachers in this new [green] tier would be linked to their effectiveness in the classroom, as measured by student achievement. Teachers could almost double their salaries, in some cases earning up to $131,000.

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Teachers who are planning to leave DCPS and are retiring soon may not let this pass. And I am very sure that there are mid-level highly qualified and talented teachers too who are very tempted by this proposal. But before diving in, I would like to know how DCPS expects the special education and ESL teachers to measure or assess the achievement of our special needs students. For most of our special education students, DC CAS is not an appropriate assessment given their level f disability.

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What efforts are underway to help these students meet new achievement goals, as well as to meet state and federal accountability requirements? Some states have tried alternative ways, and have been successful, I hope we can do that here in DCPS too.

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- 1. To use alternative assessments such as portfolio assessments, which is one of the best ways (according to research) to measure if the student is learning the standards being taught. This kind of alternative assessment is a portfolio of work to measure how well the students are mastering state learning standards in reading, writing, math and science. There has to be a cadre of carefully trained educators to review and score the portfolios. This allows students with profound disabilities an alternate way to show they are learning and achieving commensurate with the expectations in their individual education plans.

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- 2. Another flexibility for special needs students could be to allow them to take a developmentally appropriate test to meet federal accountability requirements. For example, a seventh-grade student may take a fourth-grade DC CAS test if the student's individual education plan team determines that is an appropriate option.

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3. New graduation requirements which offers an alternate path to the high school diploma for some special education students. Students will be able to demonstrate their skills and abilities to earn this alternate certificate in a number of ways - specifics will be spelled out in each student's individual education plan.

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There is a proper way to measure the student achievement of special needs students, as have proven effective by the rising student achievement (by the numbers) in Washington State which ranks #8 out of 50 states, (see Education Report Card and 2008 State Report Cards where DC was dead last). Let us make it happen here in DCPS. Hear me...hear me...I humbly request.