School officials in Washington, D.C. say 95 teachers have been fired after receiving low scores on a key evaluation instrument. According The Washington Post, the teachers, who account for less than 3 percent of the school system’s 4,100 teachers, were dismissed this week.
The teachers did not perform well on the IMPACT evaluation, which links teacher pay and job security with classroom performance and student achievement. Some union leaders and teachers, who criticize the system, say it is rigid and overtly dependent on test scores. The Washington Teachers’ Union President Nathan Saunders said IMPACT is flawed, but has been improved through recent years. Almost 400 teachers have been dismissed from the D.C. Public School system since 2009 due to poor performance.
