The DC Miracle Continues to Unravel

October 1, 2013 //

Valerie Strauss reports that the DC principals’ evaluations are in and half got low ratings. Only 11 percent were “highly effective.” As Strauss puts it, time to blame the principals for the disrict’s achievement gaps and low scores.

Categories Education Reform

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Alex Berg says:

October 1, 2013 at 1:56 am

..and yet Kaya Henderson, current DCPS ‘chancellor’, and protege of MICHELLE RHEE, was EXTOLLED and FAWNED OVER just a few weeks ago on MSNBC’s MELISSA HARRIS PERRY show for having ‘achieved’ something or other… and not one word about the coverup of Rhee’s conduct in office, including test score cheating, mass and cruel firings, unnecessary school closures, budgetary malfeasance, including kickbacks to her first hubby’s TFA knockoff, and history of fixing allegations of child sexual abuse for current hubby Kevin Johnson, founder of the St. Hope charter franchise in Sacramento….

….but I digress…

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Robert D. Shepherd says:

October 1, 2013 at 3:01 am

Obviously, the problems in DC schools are all due to the fact that chancellors in the past haven’t been tough enough. They haven’t been nearly Radical enough.

Time to Rheevaluate everyone. And fire them all.

And test more. A LOT more. Nothing motivates kids–nothing fills their bellies and gives them hope and decent living situations and decent clothing to wear and people to love them and two parents at home and money in their parents’ pockets and freedom from fear and stimulating life experiences and direction in life and passion for learning like a good test!

And a rigorous curriculum, of course, in prenatal Algebra (or whatever–anything rigorous will do as long as it seems, to kids, completely irrelevant, completely out of any meaningful context). No excuses!

Oh, and we’ll be needing a LOT of pimply white TFA teenagers from the privileged suburbs to train students in the bubbling of bubbles, which is perhaps THE KEY 21st-century workforce skill.

And when the test scores aren’t what they’re spozed to be, well, there is a solution to that too, a real bee-eater solution–Erase to the Top! You heard me: Erase to the Top! No need for excuses there (heh heh).

Am I making sense here? Then gimmie a great grate.

Well, whatever. I am the Red Queen. I can believe six impossible things before breakfast, and Mr. Walton and Mr. Gates pay me HANDSOMELY–oh, so very HANDSOMELY–to do that for them. Off with their heads. Off with their heads, I say! Wait. Don’t take their heads off until the reporters get here with their cameras. What do you think? This profile, or this? Mirror, mirror on the wall. . . .

Don’t get all squeamish on me, now. Do as I say or I will turn all red in the face and stomp around a lot. That’s what a RHEEL schools chancellor does.

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- neanderthal100 says:
  
  October 1, 2013 at 5:39 am
  
  LOL…You are brilliant!!!
  
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- Join the Revolution says:
  
  October 1, 2013 at 6:09 am
  
  Robert…………have you ever googled the word rigor? It gave me goose-bumps! Educrats banter these words about and we follow along not seeing the forest from the trees. Instead of pushing expectations down on children whom are already stressed from unrealistic expectations (AND sucking their childhood from them-imagine the “memories in 60 years of the good old days when we used to bubble in scantrons”), why don’t we make high school 6 years instead of 4? Students would start college with more maturity, and “age in-appropriate” material would stop filtering down. Maybe kids would STAY in school if it was interesting and relevant to their developmental stages. We are now producing widgets. But we are expected to produce perfect widgets with no quality control. Those of us in the field for 20 or more years better rise up and stop this craziness as newbie hires grateful for jobs have no idea what is going on. We must use word of mouth, Facebook, letter to editors, emails, protest rallys, etc., to stop our country from becoming a science-fiction movie.
  
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  - Deb says:
    
    October 1, 2013 at 10:52 am
    
    rig·or noun \ˈri-gər\
    rigors : the difficult and unpleasant conditions or experiences that are associated with something
    
    : the quality or state of being very exact, careful, or strict
    
    Full Definition of RIGOR
    
    1
    a (1) : harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment : severity (2) : the quality of being unyielding or inflexible : strictness (3) : severity of life : austerity
    b : an act or instance of strictness, severity, or cruelty
    2
    : a tremor caused by a chill
    3
    : a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable; especially : extremity of cold
    4
    : strict precision : exactness
    5
    a obsolete : rigidity, stiffness
    b : rigidness or torpor of organs or tissue that prevents response to stimuli
    c : rigor mortis
artseagal says:

October 1, 2013 at 5:35 am

Thanks Robert D. Shepherd for a good early morning laugh! Wish the basis of this fodder didn’t exist in the first place! Just heard on the early am news that the DOE will be on furlough. Hmmmmmm…. permanent furlough with lobotomy for Duncan?

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- Linda says:
  
  October 1, 2013 at 9:48 am
  
  Duncan has always been of furlough for the students, parents, teachers and public schools. I am sure Eli and Bill will take care of Arne. He has nothing to worry about.
  
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Chiara says:

October 1, 2013 at 6:49 am

I don’t understand how the teachers scored well but the principals scored poorly. Isn’t it all based on the same sets of test scores?

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- teachingeconomisot says:
  
  October 1, 2013 at 7:17 am
  
  The evaluation includes observation of the principals by instructional superintendents, amoung other factors.
  
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gfbrandenburg says:

October 1, 2013 at 8:41 am

Keep in mind that nearly every single one of those principals are ones hired by Rhee & Henderson.
Rhee famously proclaimed that she could tell in a 5-minute interview if a candidate for principal had the right stuff.

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- Deb says:
  
  October 1, 2013 at 10:55 am
  
  I could tell in LESS THAN 5 minutes that Rhee is a condescending fraud.
  
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DeviledEgg (@1BATMom) says:

October 1, 2013 at 12:36 pm

One of the reasons this is happening is because principals are NOT so quick to label teachers ineffective and developing. This is “go after the principals” because they will not go after the teachers….
~Carol Burris~

I was just going to say that very thing. Most principals are much more collaborative and respectful of their teachers than the reformers would ever like to admit. Four years ago, we saw signs that the FL Legislature was going to go after principals in a negative way. The laws have been written –they will lose their jobs based on high stakes test scores, etc.

Principals are extremely vulnerable – they are not allowed to join the union and have very few protections and they are among the most highly paid professional staff in most districts. Giant target. The reformers have been hammering teachers for a good 15 years now in this state. They have seriously damaged the profession and hurt the souls of some very dedicated folks. In order to fully take down public education, these guys will discredit anyone who stands in their way.

So next in line will be principals, administrators, school boards. School boards are the real prize. Stripping them of their power and marginalizing their authority will rob us voters of our right to local control. We are already moving to a standardized charter contract (ALEC) which means that districts will no longer be able to negotiate, deny or accept contracts with Education Management Corporations like Charter Schools USA. The current obsession/crisis over state’s rights is a deliberate device meant to hijack “local control” and redefine it to mean the state capitals in about 30 states.

It’s not a pretty picture, sadly.
~Kathleen Oropeza~

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NYS Teacher says:

October 1, 2013 at 3:40 pm

Principal’s walk a very fine line. They tend to be non-confrontational because they require our cooperation.

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LLC1923 says:

October 1, 2013 at 6:33 pm

Is Options “public” charter school considered one of DC’s miracles? Let’s ask Rhee and Duncan. Who evaluated Donna Montgomery, executive director? Does DC consider her “highly effective”?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/charter-school-officials-diverted-millions-lawsuit-alleges/2013/10/01/05fdc4f2-2aae-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_story.html

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