Learning From the Rise and Fall of Michelle Rhee

[proud2BlibKansan]

At some point, we need to stop believing in miracles, at least in education. While we’re still getting over the RICO indictments handed down in the Atlanta cheating scandal comes the revelation that the success Michelle Rhee achieved as the “no excuses” superintendent of Washington, D.C.’s public schools was the product of massive cheating. Those asking why Rhee isn’t under indictment just like her former colleague in Atlanta are missing the bigger question: If she’s an example of its success, is the theory behind market-driven education reform valid?

Rhee attracted a lot of attention before getting the top spot in DC. When Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed her superintendent, she went from managing an education non-profit with 120 employees to running a school system with 55,000 students, 11,500 employees and a budget of $200 million. She’d never even been a principal before, and her only classroom experience was Teach for America.

She did not let seem daunted by the stage. She bragged that she only answered to the mayor and put principals on notice to get those test scores up. Rhee fired more than 1,000 teachers and 36 principals who failed to raise test scores and gave $276,265 in bonuses to employees who performed well.

Passing rates rose, and she became the “it girl” for education reform. Time and Newsweek put her on the cover. Oprah called her “a warrior woman,” and Barack Obama called Rhee “a wonderful new superintendent.” When Fenty lost re-election, Sec. Arne Duncan intervened in an attempt to keep her on the job because her reforms “absolutely have to continue.” When Rhee quit, he issued a press release so laudatory it almost included pom-poms.

more . . . http://www.cagle.com/2013/05/learning-from-the-rise-and-fall-of-michelle-rhee/

As a first year teacher, Rhee laughingly tells the story about taping her students' mouths closed as they walked to the cafeteria.
http://www.rheefirst.com/

What Rhee’s comments about her children say about her
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/michelle-rhee/what-rhees-comments-about-her.html

As chancellor of DC schools, after laying off 266 teachers, Rhee told the press they were child abusers
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2010-01-23/news/36923458_1_rhee-teacher-corps-laid-off-teachers

Michelle Rhee invites reporters to film her as she fires a principal.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002714439

Erasuregate!
http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com/news-mainmenu-2/1-latest/5829-testing-fraud-at-heart-of-michelle-rhee-success.html

[Starry Messenger]

1. k&r

[MichiganVote]

2. This administration has totally sold kids out relying on Rhee to be the poster child of

idiocy. Seconded only by the total bonehead Duncan who couldn't think himself out of a box. In fact he is a box. A box of rocks.

Michigan has more charter schools than anywhere else. That's no accident. And these fuckwads want more.