In November of 2013, I published a blog post about a “working paper” released by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and written by authors Thomas Dee – Economics and Educational Policy Professor at Stanford, and James Wyckoff – Economics and Educational Policy Professor at the University of Virginia. In the study titled “Incentives, Selection, and Teacher Performance: Evidence from IMPACT,” Dee and Wyckoff (2013) analyzed the controversial IMPACT educator evaluation system that was put into place in Washington DC Public Schools (DCPS) under the then Chancellor, Michelle Rhee. In this paper, Dee and Wyckoff (2013) presented what they termed to be “novel evidence” to suggest that the “uniquely high-powered incentives” linked to “teacher performance” via DC’s IMPACT initiative worked to improve the performance of high-performing teachers, and that dismissal threats worked to increase the voluntary attrition of low-performing teachers, as well as improve the performance of the students of the teachers who replaced them.

I critiqued this study in full (see both short and long versions of this critique here), ultimately asserting that the study had “fatal flaws” which compromised the exaggerated claims Dee and Wyckoff (2013) advanced. This past January (2017) they published another report, titled “Teacher Turnover, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement in DCPS,” which was also (prematurely) released as a “working paper” by the same NBER. I also critiqued this study here).

Anyhow, a public interest story that should be of interest to followers of this blog was published two days ago in The Washington Post. The article, “I’ve Been a Hostage for Nine Years’: Fired Teacher Wins Battle with D.C. Schools,” details one fired, now 53-year old, veteran’s teachers last nine years after being one of nearly 1,000 educators fired during the tenure of Michelle Rhee. He was fired after district “leaders,” using the IMPACT system and a teacher evaluation system prior, deemed him “ineffective.” He “contested his dismissal, arguing that he was wrongly fired and that the city was punishing him for being a union activist and for publicly criticizing the school system.” That he made a significant salary at the time (2009) also likely had something to do with it in terms of cost-savings, although this is more peripherally discussed in this piece.

In short, “an arbitrator [just] ruled in favor of the fired teacher, a decision that could entitle him to hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay and the opportunity to be a District teacher again” although, perhaps not surprisingly, he might not take them up on that  offer. As well, apparently this teacher “isn’t the only one fighting to get his job back. Other educators who were fired years ago and allege unjust dismissals [as per the IMPACT system] are waiting for their cases to be settled.” The school system can appeal this ruling.