Education

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October 15, 2010 | 3:58 PM | By

Memorable Words from Michelle Rhee

While reading for, thinking about and writing this post about the Georgetown Public Policy Review‘s interview with Michelle Rhee, I found this Washington Post piece called “Michelle Rhee’s Greatest Hits“:

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee gave us many reasons to remember her when she is gone.

There’s the schools she closed. The teachers she fired. The contract she signed with the Washington Teachers Union. Her frequent use of the word “crap.”

Here’s some quintessential statements that Rhee made as chancellor. Thanks for many of these to my colleague, Bill Turque, who often stood alone in his strong coverage of Rhee’s tenure.

The quotes include anecdotes like the famous masking tape incident as well as excerpts from speeches and interviews. Definitely worth a read.

FILED UNDER: Education, Michelle Rhee, Schools
October 15, 2010 | 2:34 PM | By

Michelle Rhee, a “thank you” and a promise.

Angela N.

A DCentric reader who works for the Georgetown Public Policy Review helpfully sent in a link (thank you!) of an interview that they did with Michelle Rhee yesterday. The questions include, “How do you want your term as DC Chancellor to be remembered?” and “What would you say to education reformers disheartened by your resignation?”. I will admit, I am not familiar with this organization, so to get a sense of what point of view the interview/er was coming from, I surfed around– and didn’t have to go far.

The post which precedes the interview is titled, “Of Hereos (sic) and Villains: A review of the film “Waiting for Superman,” directed by David Guggenheim”. It was penned by the same person who conducted the Rhee interview by email: Padmini Jambulapati. I tripped over the last two sentences of her review:

…in light of Rhee’s resignation, one cannot help but feel that our villains have struck again. But, if the real heroes of Waiting for Superman have taught us anything, it’s that we should continue to hope and aspire for good, in spite of the bad guys.

Our villains? The bad guys? In Jambulapati’s piece, she links the words “our villains” to this Politico article by Ben Smith: “Teachers union helped unseat Fenty“. So the villains are the Teachers Union. Got it. I went back and re-read the interview with that in mind but it felt like it came from a relatively neutral place, despite that review paragraph. This is the portion of the exchange I was most interested in:
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FILED UNDER: Education, Michelle Rhee, Schools, WAMU
October 7, 2010 | 1:17 PM | By

Rupert Likes Rhee

World Economic Forum

The list of famous people who are fans of Michelle Rhee now includes media baron Rupert Murdoch:

In a speech…He said more people like Rhee need to stay in place to overhaul an educational system that overspends to protect ineffective teachers through their unions and the politicians who support them. He said no business could ever operate like the monopolies that school districts have become, without performance goals or consequences when those goals weren’t met.

“Let me be blunt: There’s not a single one of us in this room tonight who would allow one of our children to be randomly assigned to a Washington, D.C., public school,” Murdoch said.

WaPo reader “UrbanDweller” was not impressed by Murdoch’s endorsement and commented accordingly:
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FILED UNDER: Education, Michelle Rhee, Schools
October 1, 2010 | 1:58 PM | By

FREE Early Education Spots Still Available in D.C.

notorious d.a.v.

Head Start student

Just received an email with important information I want to pass on…if you live in the District and have a 3- or 4-year old, there are still spaces available for D.C.’s Early Education program, at public schools all over the city. From their site:

Our nurturing pre-school program (for 3-year-olds) and pre-kindergarten program (for 4-year-olds) provide stimulating activities and learning experiences that prepare children for success in kindergarten and beyond.

All 85 elementary schools in DCPS offer pre-kindergarten, and most elementary schools also offer pre-school.

DCPS pre-school and pre-kindergarten programs operate on the regular school system calendar for the length of a typical school day, and are free of cost to residents of the District of Columbia.

Please call 202-478-5738 for more information.

FILED UNDER: Education, Children, Schools
September 30, 2010 | 2:00 PM | By

Race and Education Reform

Wayan Vota

D.C. Charter School

The always eclectic PostBourgie blog asks “Should We Avoid Race When Discussing Education Reform?”

…in so many discussions about education reform — a topic that seems to be inescapable right now — the issue of race is avoided…

You can see this at play in the documentary Waiting for Superman, in which the achievement gap is mentioned, but only as it pertains to class. But there are racial disparities in student achievement, even when controlling for parental income. In fact, when the movie talks about the halcyon days of American education in the 1950’s and 1960’s, there’s no mention at all of school segregation or desegregation or how they’ve impacted how American schools function.

I’d also add that bringing up race means inviting one of those predictable conversations in which the problems facing youth of color are chalked up to dysfunctional pathology. Still, it seems hard to ignore the role race plays in the achievement gap, as the disparities in performance often persist even when when the black and brown kids are middle class with college-educated parents.

FILED UNDER: Education, Race and Class, Schools
September 27, 2010 | 1:49 PM | By

A Former D.C. Teacher Discusses “What’s Wrong”

Mr. T in DC

Bell Multicultural High School, part of CHEC

I just stumbled on this blog called “An Urban Teacher’s Education”, where I found an interesting (and long) post from an ex-DCPS Educator discussing issues at the Columbia Heights Educational Campus (CHEC)– and D.C. schools, in general:

All of the administrators that I worked closely with began their careers with Teach For America. This program is very clear about the beliefs it holds about education: the only purpose of a teacher is to raise student achievement (read: raise test scores). It seemed to me that very few of my administrators had much classroom experience…their aim was to identify teachers who they believed should be fired. This, and a significant lack of experience, is a trend across the district. Just this summer at School Without Walls, a twenty-six-year-old counselor was promoted to assistant principal despite the fact that she has no teaching experience. Nevertheless she will be responsible for conducting IMPACT evaluations and somehow providing teachers feedback they’re supposed to use to improve.

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FILED UNDER: Education
September 27, 2010 | 11:55 AM | By

President Obama on D.C.’s Public Schools

President Obama being interviewed on TODAY.

Earlier this morning, on NBC’s TODAY show, Matt Lauer sat down with President Barack Obama to discuss education. The President took a question posed by a woman from Florida who asked if his daughters would get the same “high-quality, rigorous education” at one of our city’s public schools as they currently receive at “their very elite private academy“.

The President said:

Well thanks for the question. I’ll be blunt with you, the answer is No right now. The DC public school systems are struggling. Now, they have made some important strides over the last several years to move in the direction of reform. There are some terrific individual schools in the DC system. And that’s true by the way in every city across the country….some great public schools on par with any private school in the country. But…a lot of times you’ve got to test in or it’s a lottery pick for you to be able to get into those schools, so those options are not available for enough children.

I’ll be very honest with you. Given my position, if I wanted to find a great public school for Malia and Sasha to be in, we could probably maneuver to do it. But the broader problem is for a mom or a dad who are working hard but don’t have a bunch of connections, don’t have a lot of choice in terms of where they live, they should be getting the same quality education for their kids as anybody else. And we don’t have that yet.

FILED UNDER: Education, Obama, Schools
September 24, 2010 | 6:17 PM | By

Well, if Oprah thinks so…

erin m

Michelle Rhee at the Pride parade

We just posted about Michelle Rhee and now we get to do it again– today, on her show, Oprah Winfrey suggested Rhee for Superintendent of Newark, NJ schools. The current Supe, Clifford B. Janey was told this summer that his contract would not be renewed. Interestingly enough, Janey was Rhee’s predecessor. Adrian Fenty fired him to make way for the woman with a broom. But back to Oprah:

Winfrey, who has called Rhee a “warrior woman,” made the recommendation on her show airing Friday. Other New Jersey education advocates have suggested the same move.

Rhee spokeswoman Safiya Jafari Simmons says the chancellor had no comment on Winfrey’s remarks.

Simmons says she could not confirm whether Rhee has made trips to New Jersey or plans to do so. She says Rhee will be in New York for the next couple of days to participate in NBC’s education summit.

Hmmm. New York is awfully close to Newark…I’m just saying.

FILED UNDER: Education, Michelle Rhee
September 24, 2010 | 4:18 PM | By

Serene Gray, Uncomfortable Rhee

Screen capture from Washington Post video

When I told a good friend of mine about my new job blogging for WAMU, he gave me one piece of advice: read Bill Turque. Turque is an education reporter at the Washington Post and my friend is made out of integrity, honesty and puppy dog tails, so I took his endorsement very seriously. He wasn’t wrong. So now you know why there is much love for Mr. Turque on DCentric (that link in the first sentence will leave you filled with respect for him too, seriously).

Last night, Turque reported on the Meeting with a capital “M” between Mayoral primary winner Vince Gray and DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee, which focused on education issues vs. whether Rhee would stay or leave:

Gray said the two will likely meet again within the next couple of weeks, a message reinforced by Gray advisers, who emphasized that the meeting was never intended to resolve the issue of Rhee’s tenure. Gray won the Democratic primary Sept. 14 but still faces, at least nominally, a general election vote Nov. 2.

“This was always supposed to be just a first meeting to discuss where school reform goes from here,” said Mo Elleithee, a senior Gray campaign strategist. “But he’s been pretty clear: On his end, he’s not making any decisions until after the election.”

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FILED UNDER: Education, Michelle Rhee, Vince Gray