Michelle Rhee was interviewed by “The City Paper” in Nashville.
The story describes her thus: “A Tennessee transplant, she is turning her attention to schools in her new state.” It also refers to the “roots” she is “setting” in Nashville. Apparently, she never told the reporter that she lives in Sacramento, not Nashville. She describes herself as a “public school parent” because one of her daughters attends public school in Nashville. But she did not acknowledge that her older daughter goes to an excellent private school, Harpeth Hall School (“Nashville, TN’s only independent, college-preparatory school for girls, grades 5-12”).
One can hardly blame her for choosing Harpeth Hall. It has an 8:1 student/teacher ratio, with a median class size of 13. Class sizes in public schools in Nashville and other cities are much, much larger.
I bet that Harpeth Hall does not give standardized tests and does not evaluate teachers based on their students’ test scores.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Michelle Rhee became an advocate for small class size, and for the same goals and purposes for all children that she wants for her own child?
Read here the inspiring mission and purpose of the school in the Faculty handbook:
Harpeth Hall is an independent college preparatory school for young women where each student
realizes her highest intellectual potential, becomes fluent in the sciences, the humanities, and the
arts, and discovers her creative and athletic talents. Harpeth Hall develops responsible citizens who
have global perspectives and make a meaningful contributions to their communities and to the
world. With a tradition of excellence and a commitment to lifelong learning, Harpeth Hall educates
young women to think critically, to lead confidently, and to live honorably.
Our Core Purpose is to nurture a sense of wonder, to cultivate a will and facility for learning, and to
promote cultural understanding, environmental stewardship, and service to others. The pursuit of
these goals will inspire students and faculty to combine knowledge with goodness and reflection
with action.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Oh, these must be the daughters who were publicly humiliated by their mother (“My two girls play soccer. They suck at soccer.” As the children sat “cringing” in the audience) so she could make a political point about how US schools aren’t harsh and cruel enough.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jul/18/state-of-education
Her daughters, and every public school student in the nation, would be far better off if this woman simply disappeared into the vaults of the Koch brothers with her pedophile husband.
No high-performing public school or charter for Ms Rhee? It’s private school for thee. One question I have for the reporter. Why not discuss the custody arrangements? If I were a Mom, I would have tossed a hissy fit if my kids were 2,000+ miles away. It also appears that there isn’t any shared custody. Hummm… troubling.
We can only hope her daughters are able to get into a better school than Cornell. The saddest of the Ivies.
Oh snap!
She talk the talk, but she don’t walk the walk……..
It’s time for the parents, teachers and school administrators to stand up to the bullies in our government and take back our schools. They, people like Rhee and Huffman, are not interested in making sure that our children are getting a good education in our public schools or even creating education reform that will truly make a difference.
I am not a fan of charter schools or the voucher system or teacher tenure. If charter schools in Nashville are so great, then why, on greatschools.org which uses our TCAP scores to rank our schools, is the highest ranking only a 5 out of 10? Even my son’s middle school ranked a 7! Tell me how a voucher system is going to help our public schools? In real terms, not this alternate universe that our government lives in.
I am a big fan of reducing class size. If we could reduce our actual class size down to 15, like many of the private schools, that alone would change the classroom climate and would give our children a better environment in which to learn.
I am a fan of the elimination of standardized testing. If we stood up to our government officials and made them stop standardized testing, our teachers would be able to teach to learn instead of teaching to the test, which hurts our brightest students as well as the children who struggle everyday. It would also save the school districts millions, if not, billions of dollars, which could be to put to better use.
I am a fan of teacher, student and parental accountability. In the public school environment, we all have to work together to make sure our children are getting the best possible education. Our teachers have gone on too long in a failing system and it is our responsibility to help them change the system. If a teacher isn’t effective in their classroom, we need to, first, make sure that the subject(s) they are teaching are actually the subjects they excel at teaching and second, we also need to be able to remove teachers that aren’t effective regardless of how long they have been in the classroom. Our teachers have been so busy being graded on how our children perform on standardized tests; they have forgotten how to actually teach! One would hope that the report card our children come home with every nine weeks would be an accurate account of what they learn and where they need to improve.
@Michele Kelly – why is the “public school system” failing? We have educated 90% of our citizenry, and our middle to upper class kids outscore the rest of the world on many international, low-stakes tests. There is nothing wrong with U.S. public schools, other than in urban environments, where students score down with Mexico on those same international, low-stakes tests.
We have a poverty problem – which is not a problem with our public schools at all – rather it is a problem with the politicians and billionaires that run this country. We have a problem with kids that have special needs, that don’t even speak our language – a problem that is solvable with the right support services.
I agree with all you’ve said except that little statement about teacher tenure. You realize that tenure only affords a teacher due process. That is, he/she can’t be fired on the spot for say- scrunching up their nose at someone like Rhee or disagreeing publicly with some of the reform/educational nonsense out there.
Well Said.
The teachers haven’t forgotten how to teach. They are not being ALLOWED to teach and are then being held responsible for not being insubordinate and teaching.
A separate point. Tenure does not protect ineffective teachers. Tenure protects effective teachers, especially the ones who are not butt butterers, from being fired for things the principal does not like about them–age, race, sex, weight, not local, smarter than the principal, standing up for her children, etc. Tenure frees teachers to teach creatively and take on the most difficult students without being afraid of losing their jobs.
Why does Rhee refer to herself with the archaic term parent? I believe the correct reform term is UFSU, upbringing funding source unit.
Get a load of this awkward rheesponse of what should be two easily answered questions:
Zelinski: “You mention your kids, are they attending public school?”
Rhee: “What I will say is that I am a public school parent….”
Zelinski: “I’m just wondering, do your kids go to a traditional public school or a charter school?”
Rhee: “I would rather … I keep my comments to, ‘I’m a public school parent.'”
Wow. And this from a woman who has no qualms about exposing the private lives of others to the world, of firing administrators on camera and demanding that student evals be made public.
teacher evals, not student evals
Link? Was this in the frontline special?
It really DOES pay to be shameless, doesn’t it? Until a critical mass in the education community changes that fact, this woman will continue her chicanery.
Once I read the biography of a very successful person whose impoverished mother was determined to give her son a good education. So this woman copied the actions of her wealthy employer and tried to provide her son with many of the educational advantages the more privileged child enjoyed (read-alouds at home, local magnet school, dinner time discussions etc.). When the mother got a better job, she provided the son with music lessons, tickets to concerts and plays and summer camp. The mother also enlisted the help of the community and took advantage of free activities at the library and museums.
If Rhee and her ilk were truly interested in helping poor children, they would attempt to give these kids some of the advantages their own children enjoy. True, the poor will never enjoy the same advantages of the rich, but we can at least head in that direction. Think of the good Bill Gates et al could do if they started with one city (say Seattle) and provided every poor child with health care, infant monitoring, high-quality preschool and community schools with small classes, fully qualified and experienced teachers and social and medical supports. And of course these schools would “nurture a sense of wonder” and help each child achieve his potential. They would not be test-prep academies.
“By their fruits you shall know them.” Rhee and her cohorts have shown us that they DO know what a good school is. They just don’t want the same for other people’s children.
An “easy” way to improve the schools would be to start with the highly rated ones in Scarsdale, San Marcos and Palos Verdes and try to spread some of that good stuff around. And yes, any improvement would have to include the efforts of parents and students.
A simple exercise for those don’t like the tone of this and similar blogs and feel that the charterites/privatizers have the “magic sauce” [as Edushyster puts it].
Click on the link provided above by Diane for Harpeth Hall School. Then go to the websites for schools like the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, Cranbrook, Sidwell Friends, and U of Chicago Lab Schools. Ascertain how much $$$ it costs to send a child to those schools.
Think throwing money at a “problem”—or at your child’s education—doesn’t matter? Or even worse, is a waste of resources? Understand that fabulously wealthy Silicon Valley executives, the President, very well-paid celebrities, powerful politicians, etc., send their children to those schools—and these are the poster people for informed parents; they know that they are paying top dollar for top quality.
I have a passing acquaintance with Cranbrook. I still remember, well, from Cranbrooks’ own website: “Greek Theatre
This outdoor theatre – a recreation of classical Greek architecture – was built by the Booth family as a place to hold amateur theatrics. Today, it’s used by the St. Dunstan’s Theatre Guild for its summer performances. Surrounded by lush pine trees, the spot offers seclusion and a rare opportunity to step back in time. Accommodates 250 people.”
Then look at the charter schools that brag about what wonderful things they are doing with “students that are just like those that go to any public school.” Notice anything missing? Like education abroad, numerous artistic and athletic opportunities, extensive after-school activities and field trips? And I am not including everything.
After a perusal of the websites, ponder this: how much of an advantage do the graduates of those schools have over the vast majority of students who graduated from charters? Remember to factor in one of the recently-forgotten slogans of the charterite/privatizer movement: “We are going to give poor kids the same opportunities their rich counterparts have enjoyed for so long.”
So gloryosky! Michelle Rhee’s children are in Harpeth Hall School! So disappointing, when she was hoping that most of their teachers would be recent TFA recruits. Or that there might be a nearby KIPP school available. Well, at least she can be consoled by the fact that when her children are young adults they will start life on third base while so many other young people will be hoping just to come up to bat.
Life is just so unfair but what can done, oh what can be done…
Nice, and applicable commentary. Thanks.
It’s all about money, obviously, and comparisons with private schools are always instructive — e.g., how much money is spent per-student? What does it cost private schools to get class sizes down to 12? Would that cost be comparable for public schools? I would assume that teachers at the Harpeth Hall School do not have defined benefit retirement plans, pay a lot more for their healthcare than most public school teachers, and are at-will employees.
I was trying to find this out about DC public schools, but there seems to be some controversy. Several sources say that the school system spends more than $29,000 per student. That is more than the tuition at u of Chicago’s lab schools. Is the $29,000 figure correct?
Seems high. NYC Is about 22,000, and I can’t imagine DC is higher.
I tracked that figure down and it seems to come from this blog entry:http://www.cato.org/blog/census-bureau-confirms-dc-spends-29409-pupil
Education department financial reporting in big cities is very opaque, but that is stunning if true.
@ME, here is the link, it was in the Nashville City Paper:
http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/michelle-rhee-talks-charters-vouchers-and-getting-reprieve-school-boards#comment-368763
Thanks.
Hmmm…I guess it wasn’t as coincidental as I thought that on the link provided I see this:
“Starr Rhee chose to explore the relationship between cuisine, resource availability, and culture in Latin America. Basing her work on extensive research, she produced an informational PowerPoint which explained the origins of cuisine in three Latin American countries. Furthermore, she produced a video in which she demonstrated how to make three dishes that represented the culture and resources of each country. Also, in order to further develop her considerable language skills, Starr chose to present her project entirely in Spanish. (mentor: Martha Lund)”
Isn’t there even one issue she can answer to directly. Where she lives? Whether her children attend public school? Whether or not she tried to cover up a sex scandal for KJ?
http://rokdrop.com/2009/11/23/michelle-rhee-linked-to-kevin-johnson-sex-scandal-cover-up/
Isn’t there one topic out there where she doesn’t have to spin, obfuscate and detour around the topic? So many stories and lies to keep track of….one with a conscience would be exhausted, but not this pariah.
Linda is so sadly right! Sad because the 4th estate, in all it’s variations, are anathema to performing their vital task of investigating the “leaders” and verifying OR showing the sophistry and lies so often witnessed by the various corporate business invasions of what was always public. What would Rhee do to a teacher or principal that outright lied, and/or obfuscated facts, or just refused to answer? She would indignantly fire him/her and enjoy, with pious self-righteousness her “fun” part of leadership! She should be atop her own petard~
Further to Diane’s post, below are some more samplings from the faculty handbook at the Harper Hall School:
“Dental Insurance: Group dental insurance is available for faculty, administration, and
maintenance staff and their dependents. All premiums are at the employee‘s expense and may be deducted pre-tax from the employee‘s pay through the School‘s Section 125 Premium Only Plan.”
“Health Insurance: The School pays the full cost of the employee-only coverage
under the Base Plan and employees have the option to ―buy up to another plan. With the Buy Up Plan, for employee-only coverage, the School pays the cost equivalent of the Base Plan premium and the employee pays the difference in cost between the Base Plan premium and the Buy Up Plan premium. Dependant coverage is also available at the employee‘s expense.”
“Retirement Plan: The School‘s regular retirement plan is a defined-contribution annuity plan. For all eligible employees (as described in the Summary Plan Description in the Business Office), Harpeth Hall contributes an amount equal to 10% of the employee‘s annual salary into an immediately vested, tax-deferred annuity in the employee‘s name. The employee is able to choose from a wide variety of investment opportunities within TIAA-Cref or Valic.”
“Personal Day: During the academic year, each full-time teaching and non-teaching faculty member, including Maintenance and Dining Hall employees, may have one personal day with pay and with the school paying the substitute.”
“Employment contracts for teaching faculty for the following year are issued by the Head of School in early March. . . . Full time faculty may be asked to take additional duties after the date of the contract, again because the enrollment picture may be unclear earlier. . . .”
“An employee may reasonably expect his or her contract to be renewed on an annual basis unless any or all of the following conditions exist:
* demonstrated incompetence
* lack of professional integrity or conduct
* abuse of the academic process
* behavior affecting professional performance in a demonstrably deleterious fashion extended mental or physical illness that prohibits the employee from carrying out assigned responsibilities after accumulated sick leave is used
* detrimental influence on students or faculty
* failure to maintain professional growth as outlined by SACS/SAIS
* conduct which brings discredit to the school
* poor review by the appropriate evaluator
* conviction of a felony or of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude or drugs.
“In addition to these areas, the contract for a member of the Harpeth Hall faculty may not be renewed for the following:
* student enrollment changes that necessitate a cut back in the number of employees
* program changes instituted by the administration or financial exigency
* curriculum changes that result in the discontinuance of the teacher’s subject area. The teacher’s total qualifications will be reviewed and the teacher may be assigned different responsibilities.
“The decision of the Head regarding the shift or elimination of specific faculty members or positions or as to the reallocation of resources, etc. is subject to review only by the Board of Trustees. The decision of the Head or Board on such matters shall be final.”
Crickets.
So what’s your analysis here, compared to what public school teachers receive. I know it may differ from state to state, but maybe you can compare this information to what you receive in your state.
To be clear, I’m not a teacher. But no NYC public teacher would agree to these conditions. No pension (and only 10% matching). No dental. Health insurance for families is likely expensive. No tenure (just one-year contracts that the school can choose not to renew for almost any conceivable reason). This is how the fanciest private schools can get class sizes of 12 while also being able to afford first-rate facilities.
Doesn’t MS Rhee’s ” X ” husband reside nearby?
The Rednot is a small bird that can fly from one end of the Earth to the other. An amazing feat for any living creature. It relies on the eggs if the Horseshoe Crab that
comes ashore from the ocean and nourishes the Rednot for stamina to make it’s
improbable flight.
Red Klotz is a small redheaded man ( 5’7″ ) who for over sixty years traveled around the world with the world famous Harlem Globetrotter Tours as a professional basketball player/coach/owner of the opposition team. Introducing the sport of basketball where it was unknown and helping to spawn an international sport industry of huge economic influence as well as a one world initiative for the connectiveness of the people of our planet. He was encouraged and nourished by his wife of 70plus years who he met on the beach while a teenager.
These were improbable relationships for the Rednot and the Redhead with remarkable accomplishments by both, made possible by the support and encouragement of another living creature that had it’s own purpose. Ahhhh! The mystery of nature. Often it is what we don’t know about the possibility of another for the contribution to the whole or underestimate their importance.
The one size fits all education formula of people like Michelle Rhee, who for the sake
and likely more financial reasons known to her, would limit the gifts of those human
learners who some have called “slow learners” or “nonstrivers” or “idiots” or “dumb”
“stupid” and other harsh critical names. Because they struggle to meet another person’s or business agenda and time frame. How arrogant and intellectually elitist, disingenuous and deceitful, unRheesonable!
It is my opinion that she and others like her take a very Rheesonable search for good learners and an unRheesonable approach by sorting through the munchkin patch for
their design of the ideal global worker. They miss the importance of patience and
tolerance while teaching each child to their potential and possible contribution to the
whole and inspired purpose within themselves. Therefore, a better worker with a greater possibility for a diverse creative resource of human contributors.
There is no discussion on stealing dreams or the romantic notion that a person may not want to fit a pattern or purpose of someone elses agenda. Enlightening a young mind and teaching for a strong foundation of intellectual knowledge in order to make
choices as life requires. But a pesonal search through self expression, life experience, family genetics, along with valued nourishing influences, etc., is the wholelistic route for a more valuable sustained viable result then the arrogant approach of molding (whether you like it or not) worker of tomorrow.
There is order in the universe and there will not be a shortage of what is needed now
or tomorrow. This movement is more about how fast we can meet the goal of a global contract between nation states and their economic and survival interests. A corporate pact which transcends human dignity or individual freedoms or choices. A fast track without concern for laws or ripping apart the fabric of a country or its people.
This is reckless abandon by throwing everything at the wall and hoping the strongest
will survive and the weakest will fight for the scraps and devour each other. A two
tiered world which appears to be abandoning the poorest and weakest to the
not so secure charitable whims of those that can and maybe will. The Michelle Rhee’s
of the planet who exemplify a desenitized approach and call it disciplined and ordered. The unintended consequence is they might miss the creative dreamers like a Sir Branson, Albert Einstein or Mark Twain, Winston Churchill or Bill Gates, some learning disabled, school dropouts, struggling learners, gifted dreamers and non conformists.
Michelle Rhee and others need to be Rheespectful and Rheesonable when it comes to the Rheealization that one size fits all does not and will never work. Multisensory learning is essential for some while other learning techniques are essential for others.
Whatever learning style there is we can teach and nourish the potential for the sake
of the learner and the rest of us. Rheespectfully submitted by an advocate for the
disabled.
Nicely done.
It is interesting that you refer to “..one size fits all education formula..” of charter school supporters where I see the one size fits all formula to be the domain of the traditional school with geographically determined admissions.
That’s because you have a one track mind and take every opportunity to promote charter schools here. The OP said nothing about charters. The one size fits all approach is a problem in regular public schools as result of the narrowed curriculum and limitations on pedagogy, due to high-stakes testing, the Common Core, and the “college for all” focus. Most charters are free from those kinds of regulations, depending on the district.
I would also say it is a problem is that everyone in the geographic neighborhood must fit in to the local school. No doubt it works for most students, but not for all.
“Harpeth Hall is an independent college preparatory school for young women where each student…becomes fluent in the sciences, the humanities, and the arts, and discovers her creative and athletic talents.”
How is that even possible?
The students are also dosed with Five Hour Energy.
As for the rest of the population, “let them eat cake.”
Michelle Rhee – The famous former Washington DC School District Chancellor
Michelle Rhee on OPRAH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPsqO17f6Lw
Michelle Rhee on abc’s ThisWeek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nep1mcaFthU
Michelle Rhee on The DailyShow with Jon Stewart
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-february-4-2013/michelle-rhee
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-february-4-2013/exclusive—michelle-rhee-extended-interview-pt–2
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-february-4-2013/exclusive—michelle-rhee-extended-interview-pt–3
pbs.org FRONTLINE: The Education of Michelle Rhee
http://video.pbs.org/video/2323979463/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/education-of-michelle-rhee/
Why Teach For America works – Michelle Rhee
A Two-Tier Proposal for Teacher Pay – Michelle Rhee
Time Magazine: Rhee Tackles Classroom Challenge
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1862444-2,00.html
Michelle Rhee Discusses “Waiting for Superman,” Charter Schools And Sch… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLih24QdwH8
Stanford University: A Conversation on “Waiting for Superman” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzrjo7Fvs1A
“Radical” Fighting to Put Students First should be a must read for all studentsfirst.org members! Michelle Rhee’s new book, “RADICAL: Fighting to Put Students First,” is now in stores! For more information about where you can find it, to read an excerpt from the book, and to share your story about education in America visit the official site at http://www.edradical.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/edradical.
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/michelle-rhee/510ff3b02b8c2a138f000747
Michelle Rhee at the ACE 2011 Spring Luncheon https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=mO9F-amHDuw
Michelle Rhee and Kevin Johnson (4/20/11) https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=OCcNzh7C_Tk&feature=endscreen
Michelle A. Rhee 03.17.11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD0g8Jb9l78
Cornell Alumni: Olin Lecture 2012: Michelle Rhee ’92https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwFD-wkAEi8
Harvard Public Health: Michelle Rhee, Former Chancellor of Washington D.C. Public Schoolshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH0twXcxNUY
http://fora.tv/2013/02/07/Michelle_Rhee_Fighting_to_Put_Students_First
Geoffrey Canada – Conversations at KCTS 9
Geoffrey Canada interviewed by Julian Bond: Explorations in Black Leadership …
“Waiting for Superman” the documentary and Bloomberg documentary “Risk Takers” Michelle Rhee should a required screening for all studentsfirst.org members. I saw them on Netflix and became an instant member of studentsfirst.org and Michelle Rhee follower.
“Won’t Back down” the movie is another example to screen to all studentsfirst.org members.
Share the reasons you fight for education reform. Your story will inspire others to get involved. So tell us: Why are you working to put students first? http://www.studentsfirst.org/facebook-story
Check out today’s blog by StudentsFirst staffer Charity Hallman, “One size fits all, or so they said,” on The Fordham Institute’s “Education Gadfly Daily: FLYPAPER” blog.
To view the Fordham study, “When Teachers Choose Pension Plans: The Florida Story,” visit http://www.studentsfirst.org/fordham-study-on-fl-teacher-pension-reform
Watch MAKER videos on StudentFirst Founder Michelle Rhee visit http://www.makers.com/michelle-rhee
I wonder why only one of Michelle Rhee’s daughters goes to an elite private school while the other is in public school. Does she love one more? Like she loves rich kids more than poor kids?