Michelle Rhee

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December 15, 2010 | 1:44 PM | By

Kaya Henderson to “smooth things out”

Perhaps the city residents who miss Michelle Rhee shouldn’t worry so much? Here’s the Washington Examiner on interim D.C. schools chancellor, Kaya Henderson:

“People keep asking me how I’m different from Michelle Rhee. I’m different than her because she’s a petite Asian woman and I’m a large black girl,” Henderson told The Washington Examiner.

But the style of leadership that was necessary in June 2007 is different than what people crave now, Henderson says. “Rhee had to come in and break some china,” she says. “We’re tired of breaking china.” Rhee’s job was to create a revolution of reform; Henderson’s job is to smooth things out.

So she smiles more than Rhee, and she meets with skeptical education boards in the various wards, broaching topics like “healing” and “acknowledging missteps.”

But as Rhee’s deputy chancellor, Henderson was silently pulling the strings of the most high-profile, and most controversial, reforms that Rhee — and Mayor Adrian Fenty — took the public hit for.

Henderson was D.C. Public Schools’ chief negotiator of the union contract, which allowed Rhee to fire 165 teachers rated ineffective during classroom observations. Henderson led the team that developed Impact, the teacher evaluation tool that determined those firings.

FILED UNDER: Education, Kaya Henderson, Michelle Rhee, Schools
December 6, 2010 | 1:00 PM | By

Rhee’s Next Project: a National Advocacy Group, “StudentsFirst”

D.Clow - Maryland

Michelle Rhee

If you were wondering what Michelle Rhee is up to, head to Newsweek’s abundantly-titled “What I’ve Learned: We can’t keep politics out of school reform. Why I’m launching a national movement to transform education“:

The purpose of the teachers’ union is to protect the privileges, priorities, and pay of their members. And they’re doing a great job of that.

What that means is that the reform community has to exert influence as well. That’s why I’ve decided to start StudentsFirst, a national movement to transform public education in our country. We need a new voice to change the balance of power in public education. Our mission is to defend and promote the interests of children so that America has the best education system in the world.

From the moment I resigned, I began hearing from citizens from across this country. I got e-mails, calls, and letters from parents, students, and teachers who said, “Don’t give up. We need you to keep fighting!”…

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FILED UNDER: Education, Michelle Rhee, School Reform
October 18, 2010 | 11:11 AM | By

Maybe Teachers’ Unions aren’t the Problem

IITA Image Library

I just had a thought-provoking conversation about my Georgetown Public Policy Review/Michelle Rhee interview post with a DCentric reader who was a teacher at his high school alma mater– a “failing urban public school”:

(Jambulapati’s) post is another example of the ongoing villainization of teachers’ unions, which have increasingly become the favorite punching bag of would-be urban school reformers like Rhee. While Teach for America types may position merit pay and increased accountability as the keys to saving America’s inner city youth, my time as both a student and teacher in a failing urban public school has taught me no amount of creativity or passion can be substituted for parents that take an active interest in their parents’ education.

Put simply, America’s schools are not failing because of unions. They are failing because Americans don’t value education. If you need further evidence, just contrast the way teachers and schools are revered in places like India and China with the way many Americans take pride in their anti-elitism and disdain for academics, nerds and other pointy-headed types.

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FILED UNDER: Education, Children, Michelle Rhee, School Reform, Schools
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
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