Someone in the District of Columbia education department leaked a memo to John Merrow about the cheating scandal. The memo warned Chancellor Michelle Rhee about the likelihood of widespread cheating in the DC Public schools. Rhee did not act on it. She should have. The allegations were not investigated. They were brushed aside.
This is a very important post.
It is a bombshell.
Merrow calls the post “Michelle Rhee’s Reign of Error.” It is funny that he borrowed the title of my new book, which will be published September 3. The “Reign of Error” applies not only to Rhee but to No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the whole lot of “reforms” that are in reality a soul-crushing, data-driven approach to education. The so-called reform movement is bad for students, bad for teachers, bad for principals, and ruinous to education.
A little dessert morsel for you tonight m’dear
Sent from my iPhone
Dessert morsel! LOL!
Wow! Thanks Diane…very Important post indeed. Hope this gets to the media nationwide. I will do my best to get this info out into cyberspace.
Ellen
I have to give props to John Merrow for being persistent in his pursuit of the truth! After his last Frontline on Rhee, I was not sure he had it in him. So glad he kept at it!
Now lets see if he’s prepared to do a follow up on Frontline, where his voice can really make a difference…
Rhee’s love for data is coming back to haunt her… from the article: ” 5.7 WTR erasures in reading and 6.8 in math, significantly above the district average of 1.7 and 2.3.” When will folks who AREN’T the experts understand that what means the most in education CANNOT be measured.
Guess this is why she’d hired Reid Weingarten. She’ll need all that $$$ she gouges from Michelle–I mean–Students First. Have at it, John Merrow!
Oh what a tangled web we weave……..
Not only does Merrow have his post up, Greg Toppo has written this at USA Today, and I explore both pieces in Michelle Rhee was warned about scope of DC test cheating, in which I offer some words of my own.
I only hope that this memo can be of help to Brewer in his case against Rhee!
Maybe we should request that Duncan investigates the DC scandal. If he covers it up, we could do a Nixon on him “I am not a crook”!
Not request, Tim, DEMAND.
It truly is a bombshell of a disclosure. It would be a wonderful thing to see Michelle Rhee’s whole enterprise exploded by a full investigation. Will the liberal media pick it up? I doubt it, because Obama is the media’s darling, whom it protects, and Obama’s darling is Arne Duncan, and Arne’s darling is RTTT, and Race To The Top’s darling is data.
Readers of this blog, however, will not take from the DC cheating the lesson I do, namely that the personnel of the public schools cannot be trusted with anything as important as the education of our children. The moral cave-in to the “Asian bitch” is fully characteristic of the unionized public bureaucratic person, the aparatchik of government system, under the Czar and then under Stalin. One couldn’t be more in the USSR than one is in the DC school system. The liberal mind even functions as a party membership. If you don’t worship at the altar of socialist utopianism, and profess as social justice commitment you probably won’t be hired, and certainly won’t be kept on. If you COULD save everyone by economic manipulation of the environment, it would be a wonderful thing. But it’s not possible, and certainly won’t be possible with the current debt President Obama wants to leave the country with when he leaves. But none of you can accept that.
The current administrative overhead Merrow mentions is another aspect of the corruption of government institutions. I also see it as symbolic of the entire culture of DC, especially with President Obama in charge. Nothing is being done right, and when the deluge comes, as surely it will nationally as it has in Atlanta and now possibly in DC, it will be after the perpetrators have escaped to Hawaii or Sacramento. The fish rots at the head.
There is not moral leadership in Washington at the moment, among Democrats for sure, and among a goodly number of Republicans as well. If there were any integrity among Republicans, cloture on the gun bill wouldn’t have passed. As in the DC cheating scandal we hope to see, the principles and teachers went along to get along. Same problem with the pedophile priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Cover up Bishops, and cover up principals. It’s essentially the same thing, and it is why education “reform” continues to progress, even though a lot of students are being sold to corporations.
If the public schools had had real integrity, reform would have gained no traction. But even tender hearted teachers won’t escape their bad Karma. They are still eagerly swilling the Kommon Kore Koolaid while hauling down defined-benefit pensions that are leading to bankruptcies in Chicago, Stockton, and Detroit.
If any teachers were really putting students first they’d have already joined the Tea Party.
You know, Harlan, not even you can make a case of how everything is good for your cause. You are as batty as those people who said in 2008 how every piece of news was good for John McCain. Also, most of the press in its ownership and editorial pages is not liberal – their endorsing of Obama over first McCain and then Romney is, rather, evidence of how far from reality the proposals of those men were.
There are many examples of liberal media that have criticized Obama on educational policy. You can start with the vast majority of educational blogs. And lest you think blogs do not have reach, I know for a fact that during the 2008 campaign the Obama foks were reading some bloggers, including me. I am proudly liberal – I claim the word because it is liberals that gave this country Social Security, the 8-hour day, the environmental movement, helped end the war in Vietnam, rightly opposed the invasion of Iraq, supported civil rights, supported women’s right. Oh, and by the way, your beloved Tea Party is full of people who do not support equality for women, regularly offer racist and homophobic expressions, do not believe in paying taxes for the common good, and so on. The first outburst that lead to the Tea Party were from folks at the Chicago Board of Trade because they were upset that the Obama administration wanted to help homeowners, not merely bail out the vultures in the banks and financial firms that created the financial crisis that almost tanked the world’s economy. And much of the Tea Party is far from grassroots, having been organized by Dick Armey using money from the Koch Brothers. You’ve been had.
Teacherken,
Thank you for giving Mr. Underhill such a pithy, succinct, and accurate education in the truth about “liberals”.
What he may be referring to are the “neo-liberals”, but anyone who has an ounce of humanism knows that it’s just a label dressed up to promote individualism vs. collectivism.
And here is another fine quote from Mr. Faux Intellectual himself:
“They are still eagerly swilling the Kommon Kore Koolaid while hauling down defined-benefit pensions that are leading to bankruptcies in Chicago, Stockton, and Detroit.”
Harlan, schools and teachers don’t have a choice when it comes to implementing CCSS. If they show opposition, all sorts of sanctions kick in from the State and Federal government. As for pensions, are you not retired in Michigan. You taught English, I assume, in a public school district? Do you derive any pension whatsoever from your job, and at your age, can I assume you have tapped into Social Security, or at least contemplating it?
Pensions are a good thing, Harlan, and I pay into mine heavily. What’s bad are off shore tax havens, hiring foreign tekkies from New Delhi to land here and replace workers at IBM for 1/3 the price, paying an average of 2.1 million dollars per minute to invade and democratize Iraq, bailing out Wall Street instead of letting the free market absorb and reinvent itself through real Keynesian dynamics, such as “big fish eats little fish”, being forced to buy drugs for Medicare from a monopoly of American-only companies, and taxing Warren Buffet at a rate that’s a little less than half of his secretary, who earns about 250 times less than the rate of his pay.
And it was a liberal mindset indeed that won the 8 hour work day, bathroom and eating breaks, weekends. . . . you know: all the wonderful things that prevented us from turning back into Edwardian England or current day Louisiana. The liberal mindset and the labor of everyday people in their unions created and sustained the middle class.
Of course, I can’t say that any more about the AFT, but that’s another post.
Teacherken uses the adjective “batty” to characterize your thinking.
I, however, have run out of adjectives, from formal to colloquial to slang.
But keep on writing, Harlan.
Please don’t ever stop!
This whole reform stuff can get depressing if we let it, and thank goodness we have you to keep us amused and giggling.
You are wrong, teacherken, about the provenance of the economic trouble that almost tanked the world economy. It arose from government threats to banks of being labelled as racist if they didn’t lend money to poor risks. The Wall Street vultures then repackaged those loans in securities which they sold worldwide with the implication that they were safe because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were backed by the U.S. Government. Wall Street is not without blame, since they KNEW those loans were worthless, but the original fault was with the government.
Nor are the Tea Party people I meet in my local group much more than everyday common people RIGHTLY upset by the levels of taxation being imposed on the country by Obama’s spending and borrowing. Your liberalism does have some commendable things in its history, but it is no longer so. Your stereotyping of the tea party movement is 99% wrong, especially on women’s rights and gay rights and race. You may enjoy comforting yourself with the thought of your virtue on these matters as opposed to those nasty, rural reactionaries, but it is not so. Rather, you are clinging to a rotting flag in the service of a truly evil slowly metastasizing tyrannical government. It is as if you did not understand the value of liberty.
Your blind liberalism, the blind liberalism of so many teachers, blind to the crimes being committed in the name of progressivism, is exactly why, replicated 6 million times, the public schools are no longer trusted by the actual majority in this country to be responsible for the education of the nation’s children.
Perhaps you have read about the German family requesting political asylum in the US because of German laws against homeschooling. The administration is now seeking to deport that family back to Germany on the grounds that parents do not have an intrinsic right to homeschool. I suspect that you would support that decision, implying that children belong to the state. I believe otherwise. Where do you stand on that question? If you do not support granting that family political asylum so they can homeschool in peace, then your “liberalism” is utterly worthless.
obviously Harlan you know as little about economics as you do education. You could take every single mortgage loan ever made to a person of color in the United States and have them default and it would be a minor hiccup in the economy compared to the developed of untraceable mortgage-based securities aka derivatives, which were unregulated, largely at the urging of then head of Goldman Sach Hank Paulson, which is why it was a true example of karma that he was the Secretary of Treasury that had to deal with the crisis that created.
What you have just demonstrated is the depth of racism inherent in the Tea Party movement.
You have also just demonstrated why you are not worthy of the attention of any serious person on this blog.
I gave up a long time ago. Maybe Harlan can start his own blog. Can we ignore his rants? They make little sense to me, but I don’t read them anymore.
As yes, the resort to the charge of “racism” when you can’t refute the reality. You are less principled than I took you for, teacher ken.
About the only thing I can agree with Harlan (did I just say that???) is that, if I am understanding his sentiments correctly, the “State” has turned its backs against the people.
If that’s what he feels, then I overlap with him. But the state and private entities have become blurred. The latter caused profound harm to the citizenry (i.e. corporate America) and the former has cooperated or has been cavalier in its control over copororations.
As far as I’m concerned – and I’m wondering IF we all agree on this – corporate America is the unbridled, spoiled, car thieving teenager who wreaks havoc on our blocks, while MOST government (in the last 5 to 10 years) in either party is the parent who overlooks his kid’s behavior, is in denial about it, or doesn’t care because it’s far more work and risk to control his kids behavior than to let it go.
As for the rest of Harlan’s thinking and writing, it’s too bad he can’t be as well informed as he is articulate.
Tea Party members see some things the same way the rest of us liberals do, but from a totally different angle.
However, they also want all the rights and privilges of individual freedom to the extreme point where they refure to participate in the responsibilities and moral obligation toward their fellow man. They make an exception if that fellow man is right in their own backyard to some extent, but for them to extend it on a national or societal level is anethema to them, and one can only conduct their lives that way if you don’t live in a nation with other states, provinces, counties, etc.
We humans are social animals, not islands unto ourselves. Even David Brooks said it in one of his columns.
Harlan, come join the human race. We’ll support you if you do.
You are correct in that I’d prefer to see devolution of several things the feds are doing back to the states, especially education. There are essential services, and inessential services. The tea party people, from my impression, simply want more individual responsibility. Nothing inhuman about that. You misunderstand the extent of the social contract. Everyone is not responsible for everyone else. Tyranny lies that way. But if it pleases you to reject balanced freedom, that’s your privilege as a voter, misguided though you may be.
Okay HU, you’ve come up with some dandies (both good and bad) here, let me start with your last statement.
“If any teachers were really putting students first they’d have already joined the Tea Party.” The Tea Party is nothing more than a coalition of regressive folks (who cower at the thought of a black president) who want to regress to a time that never was as they imagine it was. I asked a TPer, after she said we should go back to the original constitution, whether she was willing to give up her right to vote and she answered “Yes, because the bible says that women should subject themselves to the domination of the their husbands”. Yep, TPers, a vast majority white middle to lower class group being exploited by the ultra wealthy to do their bidding.
“Readers of this blog, however, will not take from the DC cheating the lesson I do, namely that the personnel of the public schools cannot be trusted with anything as important as the education of our children.” The absurdity of that statement needs no further comment and can only be taken seriously if you think that only white xtian regressives are the ones to be trusted to educate the children of this nation.
“The liberal mind even functions as a party membership. If you don’t worship at the altar of socialist utopianism, and profess as social justice commitment you probably won’t be hired, and certainly won’t be kept on.” Excrement of an equine origin. If the powers that be in my district had known that I was a Free Thinker, I wouldn’t have been hired in this rural regressive supposedly xtian community. One has to drink the xtian cool aid to get ahead in this district, hell, one former superintendent is now a preacher.
“If the public schools had had real integrity, reform would have gained no traction.” You know HU I have to agree with you on this statement if by “public schools” you mean the educators. Every administrator or teacher and/or board member with whom I have spoken agrees that the NCLB and RATT are complete insanities but they refuse to challenge it because they know who/what “butters their bread”.
“There is not moral leadership in Washington at the moment, among Democrats for sure, and among a goodly number of Republicans as well.” I have to agree with you here also and there hasn’t been any “moral leadership” in DC since Ford pardoned Nixon, which was the start of this whole “look forward and not backward” attitude toward various crimes committed by all the administrations since.
Duane
I can’t tell if this is real or an Onion Point Counterpoint.
Harlan, seriously. As a teacher, I think Rhee should be investigated thoroughly (but , boy, would this damage the “reform movement” because she is the Billionaire Boys’ Club poster child.
I think the Common Core is highly misguided in many ways. It has some good ideas but there are some major problems.
I deplore administrative cost as a ratio of district spending. (Fortunately, I work in a district that cuts administration when there have been other layoffs.) Of course, realize that things like NCLB and RttT have necessitated a need for more administrators.
And saying that union mentalities have led to following people like Rhee is beyond ridiculous. And as a teacher, I never consider my union status (for now, we are RTW now!) when I do my daily tasks.
Your fundamentally misunderstanding of schools and the profession is somewhat amazing.
Have fun with your ideology. I’ve noticed that people with inflexible ideologies are the biggest fools. They don’t account for nuances and changing situations. Let me know when you arrive in the 21st century. It’s really not that scary.
Congratulations, John Merrow, on a brilliant article of fact finding and exposure! This
may well be the most explosive and important of all Diane’s Blog pieces. Media has
played a huge part in this scandal. They have often acted as cheerleaders to this travesty. Hopefully, they will find some collective courage and will to continue this outing of the unraveling of our education system here and abroad.
On the personal side for the individual players from the administrators, to teachers, to staff, and so on, it could be called ‘The Carrot and the Stick Expose’…it reaches into the halls of our highest levels of government both federal and states. A betrayal of the most
innocent and most powerless, children. I do believe it is the Civil Rights issue of these
times and like a horrible creeping infection has touched millions of people, both big and small, with the potential for destruction on many levels.
I think the slippery slope in this tortured mess is how it has massively corrupted a place held by many as having the full faith of people, school. We have found ourselves sinking into a culture of deceit and deception by those institutions which take us to our core beliefs. It would seem that ten little rules are too difficult for people to follow. Instead, the collective cry of many has been that what they are doing or have done
has been for the good of children and the country. Follow the money is written all over
this mess and we are now perched at the very edge of the cliff waiting to either be pushed over or step off by our own apathy or fear. Check out the huge scandals of these times all seemingly too big to fail, but exposed never-the-less. The financial institutions, religous institutions, education institutions, so forth and so on.
The courage (yes it takes huge courage) to speak up and expose corruption and risk life, livelihood, and liberty, is not for the faint of heart. But with collective will and hands and heart it can be done. Leaders have and are emerging in this battle to correct and redirect what is being exposed as a well constructed manipulation of a system and the people, all in the name of children. Diane’s Blog and others are the Paul Revere’s of our times, the John Merrow’s and other reporter’s who will investigate and balance fact against fiction leaving the readers to their own conclusion and actions are invaluable, media willing to make those exposures, the People standing tall for the future of
children and a healthy tomorrow.
Thank you John Merrow!
except the credit belongs to John Merrow. Also, Merrow shared the memo with Greg Toppo of USA Today who also quickly got a story up.
I am happy to acknowledge Diane spreading the word, but even she would acknowledge that the real credit belongs to Merrow, who has stayed on top of this story for some time.
I’m blown away by the article. Ive been waiting to read an article like this for years. This is outstanding. The man deserves an award. M RHee is an unethical person who put people through hell for her own gain. Its time to clean out the US DOE.
“Okay, well, we’re about to take the next test anyway so let’s just make sure that the proper protocols are in place for next time” was Rhee’s attempt to escape accountability… but I wonder how many districts, buckling under the pressure to indicate performance but not publicly ousted for manipulating results, will continue these practices in the next wave of tests? How much more evidence do we need that high-stakes testing is doing more harm than good?
“How much more evidence do we need that high-stakes testing is doing more harm than good?”
Well considering that the evidence has been there for quite awhile it seems to me we don’t need any more. See Wilson’s 1997 dissertation “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 for a complete destruction of these concepts (as well as “grading” students) as valid educational practices.
Harlan I completely agree with you on the corruption of the Obama administration. I only voted for him because the other devils are worse devils. Both sides are now bought and sold by the same groups. This is all caused, in my opinion, by the public and specifically in education by the lack of professionalism by the teachers, CTU excepted. My friend, Richard Arthur, was one of the founders of UTLA, He negotiated their annuities and health benefits. He is disgusted with what teachers have done to the union they created. This is war, not patty cake.
Ronee as usual is right on. She has real experience in what happens for many years at all levels. I alway trust what she says and her judgment.
This memo that I just read is devastating and explicit. The warnings are detailed and the keep it under cover is astounding in its criminality. Are not people now being prosecuted for this in Atlanta? Why not her. We will see how corrupt the D.A. is in D.C. Now she is married to the mayor of Sacramento, Ca. and he has a history of problems with young girls? Well, Rhee gave up custody of her own children. Something like “Two peas in a pod”, isn’t it?
Why do we put people in jail for stealing bicycles and pizzas and not for destroying our youth and hundreds of million and billions, as at LAUSD, and nothing happens?
Time for that to stop. Break the child abuse law, JAIL. Test cheating, JAIL. Misspend the public’s money, JAIL. That is all these arrogant criminals understand. When you really look at this they are organized crime. Read the Federal RICO or organized crime statute and you will understand. Time for hardball with them, they are playing hardball with us. Tuesday at LAUSD we are going to take them on concerning “Teacher Jail.” We will have people there with the facts as a friend has a data base with over 600 teachers falsely charged and terminated or to be terminated breaking every law and due process and procedure in the book. We will have at least 3-5 of our cameras in the room that day for this event. An unedited clip will be up on George1la within the next day. It is time for more than CTU to fight back especially teachers if you still want to be teachers. Just today released is the vote at UTLA on 93% not supporting Deasy and his agenda. Is that a high enough vote? Stand by for more fun. After all if you cannot have some fun with serious issues you should probably not do it. I am right now reading about 15 legislative bills a day. Most do not have to do with education but issues which relate and are a part of what we call “Community.” We have to know precisely what is in a bill before we write our letters of support or opposition. We do not work any other way.
We need to flood the USDOE will calls, tweets, emails, letters for an investigation into
Rhee and cheating in DC…how can we best coordinate?
They already investigated it (poorly). Maybe we can get them to reopen it?
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/09/5101508/federal-probe-found-no-test-score.html
I would like to see us get to the root cause of this nonsense – how do we end high stakes testing?
If the Federal Government had done its job when they investigated the cheating, Ms. Rhee would have fallen earlier this year. We can only hope this is the end of her popularity, but unless this gets major press, the Waiting for Superman fans won’t even know about it.
It would be hard to ignore the article by John Merrow. It is something so rich in information, resources, and logic that sending it to every newspaper (local or national) for the attention it and the subject
deserves is something we can collectively move to do. From coast to coast, we can forward it or hand this to every editor, newsroom manager, etc. and make the point that the cat is out of the bag. If it is ignored without comment or concern you will get a reality check of the in bed nature of media to the current dismantling of this country for privitization in almost every area of function. Which, by the way, begs the question of Why!? Seems to me privatized system changes to corporate interests that have created the biggest gap in wealth since the beginning of the last century is either flawed thinking or contrived manipulation pushed onto an apathetic public.
Apathy does not suit us!!!! Action based on educated and well researched fact and information (like Merrow’s article or George Bruzzetti’s research), resources and logic, all of which has taken time and skill to produce and now provide the public.
Passing on information to each other has value, acting in concert with each other makes the difference. Know what or why you are asking for before you ask a question. There is enough proof, research, and information to reasonably argue for the education, health and welfare, and even safety of the children. The parent’s of Newtown, Conn. have proven that even in their darkest hour.
As an advocate for the disabled for nearly forty years I have seen
some courageous educators and parents fight for a level education playing field for the children who were left behind. Once again they
are being left behind by selection and along with them the chance for the poor, disenfranchised, immigrant children as well. There is no
excuse in this magnificent country to cause this to happen. This is a follow the money, race to beat other countries created system change, while leaving millions behind and in a long term wrecked state of inadequate survival. Things that last take time to create in order to get long lasting value. If we do not have time for the children wecan kiss our promise for a better tomorrow good-bye. It will only be for a limited few and that might not include your child or grandchild. For the children I advocate for the hands of the clock are running slow to reverse!!
That’s a great point. After reading yor reply, I Just E-mailed Time Magazine. I will send a few more E-mails today.
Good for John! Now to get to the bottom of all of that and expose Ms Rhee for the fraud she is.
On another note, Diane, in service to my clients (as a consultant….after years as a teacher and building administrator, a union leader and a superintendent, a policy director for a REL, a member of an education dept at a higher ed institution, and now running my own business), I have studied President Obama’s budget proposal. Virtually all K-12 monies are being put into pots that would be competitively bid!! Are you kidding me? What about poor school districts who don’t have grant writers at their elbow? What about the fed’s role in EQUITY and leveling the playing field??? Can you write about this?
Peg,
Do you have more information on the “competetively bid” educational funds? How does that work? Links?
Thanks in advance,
Duane
The budget proposal can be found here:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/document-obama-budget-proposal-2014-full-text-89869.html
Now there’s an RTTT for colleges.
The devil is in the details and none are provided, so it looks like a lot of fluff. But if anyone learned anything from this neo-liberal president and his DoE henchman it’s that competitive bids means there are major STRINGS ATTACHED and it’s not worth the money.
Kudos to John Merrow for his relentless, professional, investigative reporting.
Arne Duncan, it’s time to stop praising Rhee, and do your job!
To criticize teachers and districts for not “standing up against” the testing … is absurd. We were never given a choice. If you mean that we should have abandoned our jobs and begun hunting for new jobs in this economy, only to find that we couldn’t, you’d be criticizing us for being leeches on society. Where does it stop? We are given our marching orders by the school board and superintendant, who are obligated to the state and federal governments for dollars to operate the schools, teach those with learning disabilities, etc. It is not possible to just “say no” to the “reforms” even if you HATE them.
I agree. As a parent, I am very much against high stakes tests, but I am reluctant not to have my child participate when the time comes because I worry about hurting my school. I don’t expect the teachers to stand up to the testing, I expect me as a parent to stand up to it, but I am worried about the harm it could cause my school in terms of funding.
Diane, thanks so much for sharing this. It brought up so many memories for me of my own classroom teaching experience. I linked to you in my blog post about it. Thanks so much for the great info!
Diane, thanks for posting this. I read it last night, and have been thinking about my own experience in the classroom. I just linked to you, and wanted to say thanks for all the great posts.
http://www.edspiration.net/2013/04/standardized-testing-and-idealistic.html
John Merrow, keep in hot pursuit. I’m smelling Pulitzer Prize or more!
A reinvestigation SHOULD be the next step… Duncan is now at the crossroads where Rhee was when she got the initial internal memo. As Merrow wrote: “Getting at the truth would have required bold action. The essential first step: a deep erasure analysis[7] to determine whether the erasures showed patterns, because patterns are very strong evidence of collusion… While (a thorough investigation of 70 schools) would have been messy, it would have been dramatic evidence that she truly did put the interests of children above those of all adults, including her own.” If Arne (and by extension, Obama) believes testing data should drive decision making, he should emphasize how important HONEST testing data is by launching the kind of investigation Sonny Perdue did in Georgia. Based on Merrow’s thoroughly researched piece I think an investigation will show that the results in DC were as bogus as the ones in Atlanta.
Rhee’s slogan:
Walk softly and carry a big eraser…see pix:
Probably the best news is that numerous other articles in the popular press have appeared today about the memo and Rhee’s DC cheating scandal.
See: https://www.google.com/news/story?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=michelle+rhee&ncl=dROS-J60xsPrniMSKmT9mHRoaMbrM&cf=all&scoring=d
Take a look at this article in Esquire today: MICHELLE RHEE’S TERRIBLE AWFUL DAY http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/michelle-rhee-cheating-scandal-041213
Notice how many of the articles published today refer to a report on a new DC cheating scandal involving 18 classrooms at 11 schools last year: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teachers-in-18-dc-classrooms-cheated-on-tests-last-year-probe-finds/2013/04/12/b1a57e7c-a3a3-11e2-82bc-511538ae90a4_story.html
The story that finally went up at the Washington Post is about the new scandal, and mentions Merrow’s piece only in passing.
This one post at WaPo today is about the Memo and Rhee: “Memo could revive allegations of cheating in D.C. public schools”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/memo-could-revive-allegations-of-cheating-in-dc-public-schools/2013/04/12/9ddb2bb6-a35e-11e2-9c03-6952ff305f35_story.html
I meant besides the one by Valerie Strauss: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/12/why-not-subpoena-everyone-in-d-c-cheating-scandal-rhee-included/
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes had John Merrow on his 4/12 evening show, ALL IN and the conversation was simply brutal towards Rhee….Chris very articulately pointed out how M Rhee rose to the top of the Ed Reform movement with only 3 years of limited personal experience in education. He ended his commentary by noting, in detail, how DC schools are in far worse condition today because of Rhee’s questionable policies……… like a cool breeze in a desert!
John was fabulous….Chris Hayes noted he would be following up with John Merrow in the future…stay tuned! http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/51362794#51523921
Look at this news, Hearing Set on Cheating Claim in Capital: “The City Council in Washington will hold a hearing next week after a memo warning officials of cheating on standardized tests during the chancellorship of Michelle A. Rhee surfaced Thursday night.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/education/hearing-on-test-cheating-claim-in-washington.html