Teachers Being Held Accountable At Douglass Middle High School

Adrianna Iwasinski, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The students aren't the only ones being held accountable at Douglass Middle High School in northeast Oklahoma City, so are the teachers.

The high school's principal said the school is in a transformation process right now where they are instituting performance standards for all of their teachers. As a result they've had several teachers either quit or get fired, and he anticipates more terminations.

"We have 15 vacancies," said Dr. Brian Staples, who's been the Principal at Douglass Mid High since 2008. "We can potentially have 15 more if the teachers being monitored don't meet performance standards."

Pamela Greathouse is one of more than 50 teachers here who are being put to the test to raise the bar in her teaching so her students can succeed.

"The teacher should be the primary example of being a lifelong learner. And that's what we're doing," said Greathouse.

Dr. Staples said he's determined to have an effective teacher in each and every classroom.

"Good teachers want to be held accountable," said the high school principal. "Our kids deserve an effective teacher and it's so critical for them that they have that and they have an opportunity to learn."

But the transformation process has left the school using a lot of substitutes lately. Parents like Sonja Caddell, who's the president of the Parent Teacher Student Association, said it's worth it in the end.

"But as long as the parents and teachers pull together and not against each other, then I think it could be done," said Caddell.

The school is providing professional development training for their teachers to help make them better as well as giving them regular performance reviews on their progress.

The school was awarded a $1.3 million federal grant to help with the teacher improvement.