After decades of excuses we are finally seeing leaders put the interest of children ahead of the staff paid to teach them. We don't need to keep employees with poor performance in the public or private sector when there are those who can do the job better left unemployed. If we have to layoff teachers, then let us keep the best and not just those who had the job longer.
Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced Friday that she has fired 241 teachers, including 165 who received poor appraisals under a new evaluation system that, for the first time, holds some educators accountable for student growth on standardized test scores.
I think it was a good move for many reasons. First the teachers were fired based on performance including student improvement. Second seniority was not the main factor, they simply did not fire the newest hires like New York City and other school systems who had layoffs. This has the added benefit of reducing the total number of teachers being dismissed because of the salary difference between senior teachers and new hires.