Michelle Rhee is stepping down as head of Students First, a group that she started to aggressively lobby for and back candidates who support an education reform agenda. . The investigation focused on a single school out of the dozens of schools where high rates of test erasures were reported. To disagree with her meant to stand up for the preexisting view of American education, a view that measures teacher quality by so-called “inputs”—whether teachers have advanced degrees or a bevy of years in the classroom—and throws up its hands at the notion that these could ever be expected to yield tangible results. Many critics argue that she was too eager to fire teachers and administrators. George Parker, president of the teachers union, called Rhee's statements "reckless," said they had no factual basis, and demanded that Rhee apologize to the 266 teachers for making these remarks.Opponents of Rhee, arguing that she had not genuinely improved education in D.C. schools, maintained that improvement in test scores must have been due to cheating, and attempted to show that changes made on some students’ tests, in which wrong answers were erased and correct answers substituted, indicated a systematic pattern of answer-changing, presumably at Rhee’s direction.In 2013 the U.S. Department of Education released the results of their investigation finding that there was no evidence of widespread cheating in the D.C. public schools. ”Radical: Fighting to Put Students First” by Michelle Rhee (Harper) Rhee rode into town in 2007, hired by another lightning rod, then-mayor Adrian Fenty, to clean things up. Also, the Post indicated that "Rhee's efforts to raise the quality of teaching through improved training, evaluation, and dismissals might be gaining traction as well. 11 Challenging Politicians 245. Why wouldn't we take those things into consideration?" Others argued that she closed schools without hearings, withheld complete budget figures from the D.C. Council, and failed to involve parents in much of her decision-making process. © 2020 TPM MEDIA LLC. Who Knows? Front-End Developer: Johnson is also a former professional basketball player.
PREVIOUSLY: Former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee has told people close to her ... who still make the case for reforming tenure and judging teachers in accordance with their students' standardized test scores. She earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell and Master of Public Policy from Harvard University. Under this new agreement, Rhee fired 241 teachers, the vast majority of whom received poor evaluations, and put 737 additional school employees on notice.Rhee's style of reform created a great deal of controversy.
From 2008 to 2010, Rhee's approval ratings decreased from 59 percent to 43 percent. In 2007 the D.C. Board of Education was stripped of its decision-making powers and turned into an advisory body, and the new office of chancellor was created—so changes in the public school system could be made without waiting for the approval of the board. The quality and availability of books and other instructional materials is viewed as less of a major problem by all parents, dropping from 67 percent to 48 percent." She later explained that her goal would be one billion dollars over a five-year period. Director of Technology: Since 2007, secondary schools have improved their standardized test pass rates by 14 percent in reading and 17 percent in math, while elementary school pass rates have improved 6 percent in reading and 15 percent in math. What People are Saying About This. The two met when she was on the board of St. Hope’s, an AmeriCorps school that Johnson led for a period of a few years. Part III The Promise . One common criticism disputes her assertion that, while a teacher, she dramatically increased students' average scores from the 13th percentile to the 90th. View Michelle Rhee’s profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. Raised in Toldeo, Ohio, she graduated from the exclusive Maumee Valley Country Day School. Michelle Rhee is an education reform activist, former Chancellor of the District of Columbia public schools, and spouse of Kevin Johnson, the former Mayor of Sacramento, California. That is, the defenders of this system got in Rhee the opponent they deserved. 12 A Radical's Vision 267.