Schools

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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 12, 2010 | 11:02 AM | By

One of these things is not like the other.

Jon Haynes Photography

In today’s Washington Post, Petula Dvorak points out that like their disadvantaged peers, privileged children are stressed out, too, in “No class boundaries to childhood stress“:

Three in 10 living in the nation’s capital are feeling the weight of adult problems every day.

Those kids rarely have a carefree moment. The pressure of their situation squeezes them constantly, putting the joy of a simple exhale beyond their reach.

But wait a minute. Isn’t that almost exactly what we hear from many of their more privileged peers?

They describe a life in which they aren’t given the time to just go out back and play. They are crushed by their obligations and crippled by stress.

I’ll give it to Dvorak– this column could have been grating. It’s not exactly gracious to compare the problems of the haves with the have-nots, but she carefully avoided that pitfall.
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FILED UNDER: The People, Children, Money, Schools
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 | 3:30 PM | By

Hunger-Free Kids Act…would leave kids hungry

Justin Knol

SNAP cuts mean it would be hard to buy fresh fruit.

Annie Lowrey at The Washington Independent spoke to anti-Hunger activist Joel Berg about Congress’ attempt to cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (i.e. food stamps). The cuts are being made to fund a Child Nutrition bill championed by Michelle Obama. The whole article (which includes a transcript of Lowrey and Berg’s conversation) is a sobering read. Of course, I excerpted the saddest bits for you below (emphasis mine):

TWI: And what will the impact be for kids?

Berg: This cut is taking something away from every other meal for children in low-income families, to help get them a better lunch. Someone in the White House last week, I saw, claimed that the child-nutrition bill will dramatically reduce child obesity.

That’s ridiculous. They are cutting the budget from kids at home to pay for kids in school. If kids eat in school every day, in a year, that’s still only 16 percent of their meals, because there are weekends, there are holidays, there are nights, there is summer. There is no way that marginally improving 16 percent of your meals is going to dramatically change your diet — especially not if you are taking away from the rest.

People want to claim victory. They want to make exaggerated claims that the child-nutrition bill will help. The most heartbreaking thing about it, for advocates, is that this is supposed to be our great champion bill that was going to solve everything! We thought it would dramatically decrease child hunger. But, the fact is, you have hunger advocates lobbying against its passage. Our emotions are ranging from outraged to heartbroken. I’m really just gobsmacked that this happened.

More:
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FILED UNDER: The People, Hunger, Money, Poverty, Race and Class, 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 | 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 22, 2010 | 9:45 AM | By

No longer living under Rhee’s spotlight

The always-edifying Bill Turque has more on last week’s abrupt resignation of D.C.’s State Superintendent of Education, Kerri L. Briggs (for which she gave approximately 24- hours notice):

Even in a post-primary environment where scores of Fenty appointees are likely to be moving on, board members expected at least some advance notice…

“I had no idea this was coming,” said board chairman Ted Trabue (At Large). “At this level of professionalism, it is uncommon for someone to leave without significant notice.”

Briggs said in an e-mail Tuesday that she informed Fenty of her plans in mid-August and offered to stay on until Oct. 1 to ensure a smooth transition. But Fenty, perhaps reluctant to disclose a major resignation before the Sept. 14 primary, kept Briggs’s departure under wraps.

FILED UNDER: Education, Michelle Rhee, Schools