Dear APS board: Go get Michelle Rhee

Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this piece! I’ve been telling all of my friends about this all week. I moved back to Atlanta after living in Washington, D.C. less than a year ago and Michelle Rhee is absolutely fantastic. I hope and pray that the people of Atlanta have enough sense to at least make Rhee an offer.

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Had Rhee been properly vetted, she probably would not have been appointed DC schools chancellor. It is unlikely she could survive the oversight process in other large US cities and those cities already know that. And, BTW, nobody cares that Oprah supports her. Her endorsement is worth less than Wheezee’s and Chris Carter’s.

Kyle, snap out of it.

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As a teacher in APS, the last thing we need is top down management from a person that only lasted a couple of years as a teacher and has demonstrated that she has little respect for the people in this profession. Her approach to evaluating effectiveness through standardized testing is not only archaic but completely inequitable. Some teachers have the blessing of working with highly motivated students and their results will typically be on the high end. The teachers that work with students that have low achievement and must try to lessen the gap are the ones that will suffer the consequences. Does that seem fair? Do you know much about education or is it your job to evaluate us with little knowledge of the profession? One trend I’ve always noticed is how novice or poor teachers are typically the ones that teach the low students. Maybe it’s because those students don’t have advocates for them in the classroom. Uninvolved parenting is one of our biggest issues and no matter how hard we try we still get resistance from the community. Yep, more top down management for education so the system of class can be maintained in this country. I do agree that there should be swift action rather than brow beating on the CRCT issue. Plain and simple, all administrators involved should be removed from their positions and all teachers that were involved should be disciplined for following those orders. One final note, Rhee taught for two years and moved on. If she was so effective, why did she crap out after two years? It’s easier to sit on the perch and bark orders than it is to sit in the trenches and dodge the shrapnel. Real leaders put themselves in the line of fire, not site behind the veil of politics. Think before you make bold statements about a person who wields a broad sword rather than try to use precision to deal with the situation.

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Kyle, you need an intervention. Snap out of it.

Don’t you find it odd not a single school system in the country has been reported to have expressed any interest in having Michelle A. Rhee lead them? Could it be they know something about her you don’t? Could it be Rhee stands no chance of surviving any serious vetting by a major school system, the kind of vetting Rhee successfully avoided in DC? If these systems are clamoring for her, as her supporters claim, why are these same supporters aggressively trying to bully the incoming DC mayor into keeping her in DC? Riddle me that.

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We might want to consider the factors that caused Mayor Fenty’s electoral loss in D.C, the primary one of which was Michelle Rhee’s arrogant, abrasive, authoritarian and corporationalist attitude to reforming the schools. Instead of taking a reasonable approach, Ms Rhee, 40 years old, like almost all authoritarians, wanted fast results, better for HER career ‘doncha know,’ and attempted to impose her own, personal ideas on an entire D.C. school district that consists of thousands of teachers every bit as well educated and knowledgeable as herself.

Thus, instead of instituting the sort of democratic system whereby the teachers would assist in the actual management of the schools, she attempted to institute a dictatorial scheme by which she in fact attacked the teachers instead of attacking the system, thus making hostile the very people whom she should have been working with instead of working against. I would venture to say that in general such confrontation usually produces only short term results, even if effective.

Far better, in my own view, to initiate a system of democratic school management in which the teachers actually participate in a voting system of management whereby teachers get to express and to vote on their own opinions as to the efficacy of any particular solution or policy. I suggest this idea because in 35 years of teaching, I have personally heard or seen almost all of the suggestions now being proposed by ‘reformers,’ and those ideas were proposed as many as 35 years ago when teachers were suggesting ideas like smaller class sizes, mandatory after school mentoring for students having difficulty, [paid] teacher internships for prospective new teachers, greater teacher control of curriculum, more effective parental and community involvement, et al.

The 19th century corporationalist system of school management that presently adheres in US schools, where administrators are appointed if they’re sufficiently conciliatory to the school board and whereby teachers are customarily ordered about and expected to follow orders, is in my judgement the single most destructive element in American public schools. As Churchill once noted correctly in one of his more honest comments, “Democracy is the worst form of governance, except for all the others.”

jim crawford
Westwood NJ

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Politicians R Scum. It’s obvious that you associatedthe actions of a choice number of idiots with all teachers just because we work for APS. I don’t need to cheat to get my results and I’ve worked hard to be a legitimate teacher. I love all of your facts and how having a master’s degree automatically makes a person a good teacher? Have you ever taught in an actual public school setting? It’s not about standing up and lecturing the entire time. I’ve seen the best educated people completely falter in this profession because teaching is more about classroom management than it is about content and I am extremely well learned in my content. We have to address the needs of all of the students and specifically their different learning styles. As a science teacher, the two main issues I have are a lack of parental involvement and lack of capital (as in materials). I spend at least $1200 a year on my own supplies because the system is so completely disorganized but I teach by choice. Of course I can’t reach every child, it’s an almost impossible task but I make the effort every single day. Why not look at the inequity that’s been set up in schools. The best students get set up with the top teachers because their families demand them. I get the best students because I’ve established myself as a good teacher. I’ve also requested the so-called “tough” students because they’re the ones that really need my work ethic. Rather than sit back and name call why don’t you get more involved in the system and help us make some actual change. Take a tour of a random number of schools (not the good ones) and see what the teachers have to deal with on a daily basis. See how a school must make the adjustments when class size is no longer limited (I average 36 in each class now). See the struggle of not having a teacher replaced when they leave and how the parents have to threaten to sue in order for the district to hire a person. Learn that all of the great technology that is provided doesn’t amount to squat if it’s used as a diversion from the curriculum. I do agree, a master’s in education is completely useless, I’ve learned to refine my skills by sitting in the middle of the battlefield and by making the necessary adjustments.

As for Rhee, top down management is the last thing that any school district needs and the data shows that scores have dropped under her tenure. She’s a media hound and cares little for the needs of those in education. Her credentials are sketchy at most and look at her association with people. She’s a corporate representative and is romantically linked with a person that has had numerous investigations into illegitimate business practices.

We need increased involvement and accountability for all stakeholders in education. Those that were directly involved in the cheating scandal, enjoy the unemployment line. Those that were coerced, some action but most of all grow a spine and say no when someone directs you to break these types of rules. In the end, it’s rhetoric from individuals such as yourself that does little because it’s all talk. Education is about every child, not the black ones, white ones, Hispanic ones, or Asian ones. It’s about every child and their right to a quality education so they can achieve their dreams.

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