Washington Teachers Union Rallies for Access to IMPACT Information

The Washington Teachers’ Union rallied Tuesday against new District legislation which would prevent researchers from having access to IMPACT evaluation data, which is used to make decisions about curricula, school closures, and testing for students. Although Councilmember David Grosso said in a public statement that the legislation’s language did not apply to DCPS teachers, but those in charter schools, the bill’s language was not amended to make the evaluation process more transparent. WTU president Liz Davis emphasized her concern that the new legislation would block any researchers, including those from the union, from accessing any of the information which has been used to close schools and terminate teachers throughout the past few years. “They’re spinning this as though we are trying to take private information and make it public,” she said, “but even a year ago when we filed our FOIA requests, we asked for redacted information.” Davis continued to say that the WTU hopes to amend the legislation. "We want the language to be clear," she said, "to make sure that researchers have access to this data."

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