John Merrow of PBS helped to make Michelle Rhee the national face of the privatization movement (often mistakenly called the “reform” movement). Merrow featured her on national television a dozen times, often adoringly. Like many others, he was impressed by her tough talk.
But he came to realize that nothing she promised was happening. And he looked closer and found that the DC cheating scandal had been pushed under the rug. He probed more and ran into a stonewall. He has written powerful pieces on his blog, but when he tried to find a national publication to print what he wrote, no one was interested.
He reveals that Rhee has engaged Anita Dunn as her public relations advisor. Dunn was White House director of communications in 2009 and now appears on NBC and MSNBC (the “Education Nation” network).
He decided to drop the Rhee story because his friends told him he was obsessed. So he is moving on.
He writes:
“But Michelle Rhee is not the point of all this. What matters much more is what she failed to accomplish in Washington. She espoused a certain approach to reforming failing schools, a path that she and her successor have followed for six years, and that approach has not worked. That’s the central point: Rhee’s “scorched earth” approach of fear, intimidation and reliance on standardized tests scores to judge (and fire) teachers and principals does not lead to improved schools, educational opportunities, graduation rates or any of the other goals that she presumably embraces.”
Sorry, John, you can’t drop the central narrative of the “reform” movement. Nor can you forget that you, more than anyone else but Adrian Fenty, made Rhee. You owe it to the public to follow the story you made important. Without the national spotlight you shone on her, she would be just another tyro superintendent who tried her way, failed, and landed a job in quiet obscurity.
Instead, she just collected $8 million from the Walton Family Foundation. She is pouring millions of dollars collected from people who hate unions and public education and then making big contributions to rightwing Republicans and a few Democrats who support vouchers.
John, the story remains. It is not finished.
Meanwhile, the Erase to the Top Tour continues across the country, spreading the alternate Rheeality gospel about how to be a great school Superintendent:
Simply channel the Red Queen. Run about yelling, “Off with their heads.” And train yourself to believe impossible things.
Robert…thanks again for the book list you suggested. I have used it now in the handouts for my last few LA talks on Privatization…and many colleagues loved some of the older books, like Gould, which you recommended. Audiences of educators pick right up on the message…others of the public not so much.
Of course, my main recommendations are Diane’s two recent books.
So helpful. It is taking much patience to get the message across to an ill-informed public who only see Rhee on Sunday AM giving her tainted pitch.
the data room lady, whose job it is to make sure everyone is supporting Common Core, at my school did not even know about New York’s test score stuff. I told her to google it.
I am late to the party. . .but at least I am here. A lot of decision-makers still have no clue what is going on around the country in regarding privatization and “reform.” “others of the public,” including educators, where I am.
Joanna…I understand. Last night I was at a local Dem Club meeting where there were two speakers in favor of Common Core. I had asked to be on the program to give other educators perspectives. The male 8th grade science teacher who is supposed to teach all local teachers how to teach CC was so way off the mark it was embarrassing. He kept bad mouthing both teachers and students and flailing about insisting only CC could make public schools worthwhile.
The other speaker was a School Board member who also did not have a clue about the subject, but mouthed the same inanities. Both kept talking about Bush and NCLB, but neither mentioned even once in their over 2 hour schtick, Obama/Duncan and Race to the Top.
When I tried to make a public comment the woman attacked me and said I could “only ask a brief question and then sit down and keep quiet”. It ended badly. I walked out and a group of parents followed me out and we stood and discussed the LAUSD boondoggle over $1000 iPads and no keyboards, and NYC results of the test, and the fact that although we were told in Ca. that the test would be administered in Jan. 2014 to grades 3 – 8, and 11th grade, but no one would be allowed to know the results (surely so that the failures here would not be public like NYC). 2 smart legislators over the weekend offered a bill to hold off testing in our state at least until 2015 so that students could at least have a bit of time to study the course material and learn to use a keypad.
I lost all faith in the undemocratic Dems and these 2 two who should have known better than to be touts to subject matter that is unknown. Neither mentioned Coleman and Pearson or the plethora of questions that teachers across the nation are asking, and they essentially cut me off at the knees in the moment when I pointed this out..
And they said I was sent by the Tea Party to disrupt the meeting. It was one of the most bizarre experiences I have had with a group of Dems who were as undemocratic and ignorant as any Rep I have ever met.
@ Ellen: see my comment at the bottom…
Ellen–
sorry your evening was frustrating.
I have a memory from kindergarten in New Orleans, LA that comes to mind sometimes during this interesting, but odd, CCSS era. This was in 1978. Two children in my class had built a house out of large blocks (outside, plastic ones) and told me that I could not play with them. And then they told me that I could not have any of their “celery” either and they proceeded to take bites out of some yard plant that had a stalky texture like celery. I might not have been high on their list of playmates, but I knew that wasn’t celery! And so, despite their rejection of me, I went and told the teacher that I thought they needed her. And sure enough, they were walked off the playground, vomiting their guts out from their “celery.” Sometimes you just have to watch and wonder.
However, when someone wants to feed non-celery celery to my child, I will not sit back! (I wouldn’t sit back anyway, but mama bear wakes up when her child’s education is at stake).
“Nor can you forget that you, more than anyone else but Adrian Fenty, made Rhee.”
Amen. He’s barely even tried to stand up to her. It hasn’t even been a year since he did his “expose” on Frontline that was supposed to reveal the cheating scandal, but which actually only spent a few minutes addressing it and mostly allowing Rhee the spotlight to twist it her way.
He could take a page from your book and learn what one does when one realizes one has been wrong.
BTW, if his “friends” are telling him to leave Rhee alone, he needs new friends.
Dienne: few words, much said.
John Merrow: you can’t win it if you aren’t in it. The “it”: the race to get back to that place called “personal and professional integrity.”
Those “friends” are probably worse than enemies. I wonder how much they paid Merrow (or maybe threatened him with ???) to “drop” the Rheester story.
Absolutely, the story is not finished! Yes, there is a professional and moral obligation to “follow-up”. Let’s continue to chronical the trail of deceit that Rhee has started.
When I read what he wrote, and he mentioned that he missed something during his access to Rhee (that would have been from 2007-2010) it makes me wonder did the desperation of the economy blind some people during those years? When lots of people were losing homes and losing their savings and losing their investments and struggling to make ends meet, it would have been an easy time to pull a fast one on somebody. Like we were all just holding on, barely, and some sense of somebody having answers felt positive because something needed to feel positive?
Really. . .I mean I have been thinking from the time I first learned of RttT that all of this “reform” is due to the economy. . .and not just in the possibility of intentional Austerity, but more in people either not paying attention or being easily duped (desperation can make you want to believe a lot of things). Perhaps even the leadership who signed states up for RttT was blinded by the dollar signs.
Did the economy’s fall. . .the bubble bursting, the music stopping. . .just make us all dumb for a spell?
I am no John Merrow (just a music teacher in a southern state), but my friends tell me I am obsessed too. I wish I had been paying attention from 2009-2012 when I was home with a baby. I don’t know that there is anything I could have done, but it is like pondering a suicide. . .could I have said something that would have made a difference? An education attorney in NC the other day told me “as far as I’m concerned the public schools of NC are for sale.” And I told him, “as far I’m concerned, the public schools of NC have already been sold. . .when we signed up for RttT.” I hope now that people like Merrow realize they did miss something, maybe some politicians will too. Every person has the right to change their mind about something. . .I wish some people would ‘fess up to RttT not being a great decision. Again, the attitude where I am is that we just have to let it play out. I am not sure what that means, exactly, nor what it looks like.
And so I stay busy doing everything positive I can for the children, supporting the requests brought to me, and just hoping and praying that everything plays out in the favor of the public’s school’s survival.
I believe you have nailed it. So did Naomi Klein in her book Culture Shock. She says that when a catastrophe ( natural or human) strikes and the majority of us are running around trying to figure out what to do, where to go, how to survive, there remains-waiting to pounce- the wealthy, the connected, the entitled. Think : Katrina and the dissolution of public education, the tsunami and the building of giant new hotels for the rich. Think NCLB and RTTP. Her thesis is so correct that I scare myself every time I see it in action.
Joanna,
“. . . I have been thinking from the time I first learned of RttT that all of this “reform” is due to the economy. . . ”
Well, Joanna, that thinking is wrong. It has nothing to due with the economy. These educational insanities have been in the making for a lot longer than just 2007.
Research and rethink, please
Duane
So, then, they always be, huh? I mean if they have been in the works since I was still in school and yet I never knew about it, it stands to reason there will always be this threat of those who do not like public school.
The thing is, I don’t have time to research and rethink anymore than I already do AND serve public school students well AND my own children and family. So I put research and rethinking last. I think I will always be behind in this game. But at least I know who I hope will win. And I hope they do. But Swacker you make it sound like there is no end. Just a constant uphill battle.
?
Joanna,
Yep, pretty much there is no end (see Callahan’s Education and the Cult of Efficiency or Diane’s Left Back-although I don’t like the “tone” of it) although I don’t know if it is always an uphill battle. There for a while in the 80s and 90s the pendulum had swung to site based management, more humane educational policies, etc. . . . But also during that time (really from the 70s when the Christian Coalition was formed and started to get the billionaires money involved) the hardcore right was planning and plotting its assault on public education.
I don’t know that one can look for “winners and losers”, that seems to me to be the edudeformers way of looking at things. As Buzzeti has said it’s an all out war from their point of view while most teachers don’t view the world in those terms. We have to crank it up a notch or two or three or ten.
“Nothing to “due””. . .interesting entendre, there, Dwaynie, btw.
I think RttT is the point where NC sold the farm. Remember, we are non-Union, so our issues are not exactly the same as for the northeast and the midwest. I only taught here as an interim after I received my initial licensure, and then I bolted for Kansas City, MO. So I experienced Union, but then went to Kansas (and we had it there too, but I never really paid attention. . .I was in rock bands and I taught during the day; I didn’t care much about education politics). Then I came back to NC and had a kid and now I care more. But I still think RttT was a turning point.
And, Duane. . .one more thing (since Southerners do like to have the last word when we can). . .does it really matter if I only just now caught onto the issues? I’m slow. I’m southern. What’s your point? I noticed it when the economy turned—it’s a logical connection to make (particularly for those who practice synecticos, which I do (it’s Greek. . .look it up).
And check out this article for you old-time education anti-reform veterans:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/prisoner-claims-cell-block-d-was-much-cooler-two-y,654/
Joanna,
“(since Southerners do like to have the last word when we can)”–heh, heh, don’t we all, its’ not necessarily a Southern trait.
Since the Northerners (at least Northeasterners-I lived in MA for few years) consider me “Southern” due to my “Southern accent” and the Southerners consider me a Northerner-my family and brother and his wife (who live in Jackson, TN went to the Casey Jones museum there for a great Sunday brunch buffet and two of the locals stopped and looked at each other while we’re all in the buffet line and said, in that great Southern drawl, “Damn, we’s surrounded by Yankees” I guess that leaves me in no man’s (or is that woman’s) land, at least linguistically speaking.
Joanna, I never claimed you were slow, and I certainly hope I didn’t imply that at all. But to get to the point of this response, the syneticos “technique”, whether for teaching or coming to a group consensus is interesting. I briefly looked it over and will have to take time to more thoroughly review it. Thanks for the info on that!
“synecticos”
I did look it up Joanna, in two different dictionaries. I can’t find it. what does it mean?
2old: http://coedpages.uncc.edu/theafner/SS%20Methods/synectics.htm
I’m a preacher’s daughter. I grew up listening to sermons that found God in a world where he was hard to find. I got good at it.
I think she has a point. RTTT funds came from the big “stimulus package” and wouldn’t have been available otherwise. Yes, the plans were already in writing–someone on this blog pointed to the Broad Foundation as a source. It was another manifestation of the Emanuel Doctrine: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” (Same docrtine Rumsfeld and Cheney followed when we invaded Iraq after 9/11, same doctrine used to “remake” New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina.)
Also, there’s an apparent correlation between the negative social mood that prevails during a downturn in asset prices and economic activity and other social phenomena such as authoritarianism (e.g., punitive school “reform”), political polarization, saber rattling, and so on. (See the work of Robert Prechter for this–take it with a grain of salt, but “socionomics” can be very compelling.)
Michelle Rhee’s ascendency roughly corresponded with the time period between the stock market peak and the aftermath of the credit collapse of 2008. Check out this Time article from November 26, 2008 (just in the wake of the Lehman Brothers failure), by Amanda Ripley… “Rhee Tackles Classroom Challenge.” The headnote says, “Teachers hate her. Principals are scared of her. How Michelle Rhee became the most revolutionary — and polarizing — force in American education.” Her severe look says it all: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1862444,00.html
The December 8, 2008 Time cover features the famous broom-in-the-classroom-pose. Without the underlying negative mood of the country at the time, I don’t think she would have become such a big deal. If you look at more recent photos of her, she’s grinning more often than not. And of course the US stock market is now near its all-time high (in nominal dollars). But look out below. I’m betting that if stocks fall off a cliff again, so will the stock of the “reformers.”
Randall,
I’m not quite sure of this conclusion “I’m betting that if stocks fall off a cliff again, so will the stock of the “reformers.”
It seems your are saying that their stock had risen during the downturn and that they were able to do things that couldn’t have been proposed before. While at the same time your concluding that the reformers will not be held in high esteem-“so will the stock of the ‘reformers'”.
Am I reading that right? If so, which is it?
Randal and Duane:
Speaking of stock. . .maybe you can speak to this most recent question of mine. How will hedge funds make money on for-profits over the long haul? If the majority of the money is to be made from New Market Tax Credits, and then off fleecing tax payers with EMOs, eventually that money will run out, right? So is privatization of education a temporary project for investors?
As regular readers know, I discuss much of these issues with my husband, who is really only mildly interested in it (if at all). He attempts to appease my worry (as any good spouse would) by pointing out how silly an idea it is that anyone could get rich in education and have it be a sustainable way of making lots and lots of money. I see his point, and yet then I also see the situation with the large contracts (like Pearson), the persuasion that corporate dollars have.
I don’t get the long-term plan for making money on privatizing schools. It’s not a bubble, but it just seems eventually there is no money to be made. So do those of us who are public school supporters just look forward to the time when privatizers go away and then clean up the mess? Maybe this is why, Duane, you say it is never-ending. And the win/lose mentality is faulty because it has a definitive end-point. So the goal should be: keep people who want to profit off a democratic institution involving children through means of manipulation and for personal or corporate gain (as opposed to offering a service and getting paid for it, which is necessary for any economy) out? And the problem is RttT let them in too much, and now ALEC threatens to further the damage by calling the whole thing off and turning it over to privatizers, in which case eventually there will be no money to be made and then communities will be back to square one to establish schools for their children? Am I getting this right?
So it’s a game of let’s not let them burn down our barns so they can collect insurance money type situation and then we have to rebuild the barns? I need a good analogy.
Also, along the lines of Ellen’s comments on this post. . .why are so few people clued in to all of this? Why are we just acquiescing? Or, rather, why have we been? Again, this is how I arrived at my initial comment on this post.
Joanna,
I know less about the vagaries of the stock market than I do about music so I’m not a good person to ask. I do know that the privateers see annual dollars dedicated to public education so they want to get their mitts on that poole while claiming to supply a “superior educational product” which for the most part has never happened. When they are called out on their schemes and the public realizes they are being fleeced is when this nonsense will stop, and yes, the public will have to pick up the “rebuilding”/redoing tab.
Why are so few clued in? Well most teachers are so overworked in their day to day activities, along with, like yourself raising families, that they don’t make the time or have the energy to devote to counteracting the educational malpractices. And overall most teachers are “conservative” not in the political sense but in a social sense in that they basically believe in current social structures (they make a decent living in that structure) and therefore do not see a need to change those structures. Plus usually most have been good at playing the “education game” and benefit from it and do not see the harm that is caused to those who do not play the education game as well. The “go along to get along” crowd is as much a problem as the edudeformer crowd and maybe even more of a problem.
Duane–
thanks for the answer.
When I have asked education attorneys I know in Asheville what they see as the issue, they simply boil it down to “old fashioned racism.” I think as “Democracy” (the reader) commented below by the list provided, it is a very complex situation. The part you tend to comment on a lot, which Democracy addressed, and which I would like to know more about (like how does it happen? by just pure gullibility or what?) is this:
“And let us add them to the mix, especially administrators who jumped on the “data-driven” bandwagon. And the consultants who plied their charlatan wares of “90-90-90 schools,” and “professional learning communities” dedicated to “data” and “common assessments” and testing. One such couple lives on a million-dollar property in an exclusive Virginia lake resort. Indeed.
Duane Swacker:
“I’m not quite sure of this conclusion ‘I’m betting that if stocks fall off a cliff again, so will the stock of the ‘reformers.’”
You’re right. That conclusion doesn’t exactly follow from the way I set it up. What I left out of my reply was something to the effect that Jeffrey Skilling was only jailed after his company’s scam was uncovered. And the scam wasn’t uncovered until there was a stock market decline. During that time companies like Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom were found to be cooking the books to inflate their stock prices. Ditto for the Madoff scheme. It worked for decades, even though insiders–complicit fund managers and whistleblowers alike–knew something was going on. Madoff was safe until the credit collapse unmasked him.
The unmasking of successful charlatans usually happens during times of public discontent, which coincide with financial downturns. US stocks have more than doubled since the low of March, 2009. Since 2010 Ms. Rhee has publicly reinvented herself as a smiling crusader pushing opportunity–in contrast to the tough, no-nonsense boss image that originally won her fame during the credit crisis–and her personal stock is still riding high, coincident with the stock market surge. My bet is that if there’s a big decline in stock prices, the public mood will have shifted, and it’s more likely that the public (and maybe even her moneyed sponsors) will turn against her as the truth of her policies and politics are uncovered.
Mr. Merrow’s public statement that he’s dropping her story indefinitely can be seen as “topping signal” for her public standing. His latest comment on the topic appears below: “Meantime, I hope some of you will use some of your energy getting in touch with Tom Friedman, Maureen Dowd, Diane Sawyer, Nick Kristoff, the Atlantic, Charles Blow, Bill Moyers and other opinion leaders to urge them to report on the central issue: her ‘scorched earth’ approach does real damage to chilren [sic], teachers and schools. Or maybe one of them would report on why no one else is reporting the story?”
I’ll answer that question. The people he mentions are opinion followers, not opinion leaders. Their own personal stock will ebb and flow according to public whim. Even Bill Moyers, who has more integrity than all the others put together, has a constituency of producers, funders, and viewers that he must answer to, which in turn will influence which stories he is able to cover. If a sharp downturn does occur, it won’t matter who’s riding high at the time–many of them will suddenly become a targets of the media (see Alan Greenspan), unless and until they can reinvent themselves anew.
Another note. The ebbs and flows in public mood I’m talking about are subject to human herding tendencies. (This is according to Robert Prechter, now, and his ideas are somewhat speculative, although he did call the 2008 credit collapse and the March 2009 bottom in stocks.) It’s not a rational process. I think that’s one reason that evidence and professional expertise are discounted in the current education policy debates. Whoever is best able to tap into public sentiment has the upper hand. Currently this would be rich people with axes to grind, and canny opportunists. Eventually the trend will be away from authoritarian policies and regimentation (although things could get worse before they get better). It’ll be a new season. Diane’s work is helping prepare the ground for it.
To recap, a big financial or economic shock would shake out the charlatans. Failing that, the “reformers” will eventually see their failed solutions fall out of favor as the public mood turns against them. Meanwhile, crosscurrents in public mood will bring new leaders to the fore, on both sides of the privatization and standardization debates, and their personal stocks will fluctuate. Worst case scenario: monetary deflation could kick in, with the whole climate turning even nastier. That’s when my pension would be in trouble, and public schools and poor children would be even worse off than now. For a while.
Joanna you are not wrong. Perhaps Duane is taking the long view; schemes for returning to untrammeled capitalism & repeal of the New Deal have been around a long time. Trickle-down economics (& ‘A Nation at Risk’) were bought into during the first wave of fear related to decline in mfg; NCLB was passed during precipitous contractions of mfg pursuant to NAFTA; RTTT appeared as the worst of the global recession was hitting. The pushback against public education spending has been brewing in conservative circles since Civil Rights & War on Poverty laws were passed: first they had to get their people in office, & then wait for moments of economic fear to push in legislation.
Joanna & all: remember–ALEC just celebrated its 40th birthday.
You are correct, Joanna, in that “it would have been an easy time to pull a fast one on somebody.”
And that easy time was in the making FOR YEARS. THE PLAN–carefully laid and executed. Do any of you remember the beginning of state assessments? I had to give them to middle school students in the ’90’s–AWFUL questions (given to special ed. students, in my case!), with the questions–following a reading selection– looking somewhat like this:
In 1996, John Kimbrough attempted to swim the Atlantic. John was not successful because:
I. he wasn’t wearing a Speedo.
II. he hadn’t put on sunscreen.
III. he felt a pain in his chest, and stopped.
IV. he wanted to go home.
V. All of the above.
VI . Both I and II.
VII. Both III and IV.
VIII. Both I and III.
IX. Both II and III
X. None of the above.
I exaggerate–there weren’t ten selections–but there WERE those
“Both III and IV” kinds of questions! Asking a student to fill in bubbles, look back & forth at numbers/word questions, the reading selection. The kids and their teachers went nuts!
Anyway, you ARE correct, THEY HAVE been getting their way (& their $$$$), but WE will WIN in the end.
Joanna- You hit the nail on the head. The economy going bust meant state budgets faltered which meant school budgets were cut which meant that people would promise and do anything for “free” money (i.e. RtTT). I was on the front lines La. Education during the RSD takeover of schools in New Orleans. There is no way that would have happened in such full scale without Katrina and the devasation to the city. People gave up the reins because they had other things to deal with – like rebuilding the city – and other people swooped in and took advantage of that (i.e. carpetbaggers and ed reformers eager to create their utopian education world through which they gained great personal benefit$$). And now, even though their reforms haven’t worked all that well, they have complete control over every aspect of education in the state and cannot be removed and have spread this craziness to all parts of the state.
My friends (outside the education arena) think I’m obsessed with this, too, but they don’t have a clue what is happening right under their noses because almost all of them send their kids to private school.
Not sure I want to see how this “plays out.” It’s hard to be optimistic, and when people like Merrow discontinue their bid to right the wrong, it is very discouraging.
Rhee also hired the former Speaker of the California State House, Fabian Nunez, to help her clean up her act. This man who was defeated after it was learned that he was living high on taxpayer money and many will remember the stories of his expensive taste in food and $1500 bottles of French wine. And also his son’s arrest for being complicit in a murder of a student in San Diego.
And now our former LA Mayor, Villaraigosa, has gone to work for Herbalife, the California company that is often in the legal limelight for being a pyramid scheme which mainly defrauds Latinas.
Oh what a tangled web it all is.
Rhee is now a California citizen where she and her current husband who is the Mayor of Sacramento and was up on charges of child fornication some years back, have now shut down 23 schools.
Rhee, the charlatan darling and protégé of Eli Broad seems to duck out on the Merrow exposure of her illegal behaviors in DC, and can keep being enriched by the billionaires she serves such as Broad and the Waltons who are spending huge sums to kill public education and teachers’ unions all over, but particularly in California.
Some months ago, Rhee spoke to the LAWAC and was introduced as the voice of American education by her mentor, Eli Broad, who is on the Board of LAWAC. Thereafter, it was suggested to them that, to be fair and balanced, Ravitch should be invited to speak also, they determinedly refused to invite Diane.
It would be wonderful if Merrow would use his well-respected voice to point out some of this political manipulation.
I certainly hope Mr Merrow reconsiders. His ‘obsession’ with Rhee has certainly lit a fire under so many people, and for that we are grateful. He, however, commands more attention and is in a position to create more change than the average person. His voice is still vital!
Merrow is also doing damage in promoting New Orleans as model for education “rebirth.”
The New Orleans Miracle is a lie, yet Merrow is producing a documentary lauding New Orleans.
In a year or two, will he write yet another post saying he was wrong about New Orleans and abandon his contribution to promoting the lie?
How Merrow can read my work on the Recovery School District lie and continue to promote it is beyond me.
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/category/rsd/
Bill Gates helped fund Merrow’s film:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2012/11/OPP1080582
That might be how he could read your report on the RSD and continue to promote it. 😦 I’d love for someone to prove that speculation incorrect, though.
Another Gates grant to Merrow’s Learning Matters:
Date: July 2009
Purpose: to support reporting on national education issues and the development of video and digital content for broadcast and online distribution
Amount: $525,048
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2009/07/OPPad06
Reporting on DC? New Orleans?
More Gates money to Learning Matters:
Date: November 2007
Purpose: to support production of reports on Washington DC and New Orleans school districts for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
Amount: $308,000
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2007/11/OPP49352
IMPORTANT: This grant ties to reporting on Rhee and DC.
Final Gates grant to Learning Matters:
Date: July 2004
Purpose: to support a documentary production, “Degrees of Excellence, Degrees of Mediocrity,” addressing the linkages between high school and college success
Amount: $200,000
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2004/07/OPP34614
Just think who is friends are, wink wink!
Mercedes, my comment is awaiting moderation, but I posted much of your research and blog posts on the Merrow blog. Thank you for your dedication and expertise.
Nice that all those reformers are making millions while those who actually teach are not and often now fear for the relatively paltry sums they do make.
What is John Merrow’s email and/or phone number? Can anyone provide Mr. Merrow’s contact information? I’d like to contact him, not to badger or harass him, nor to chastise or beg, but rather to first, compliment him for his courage and integrity; yes, of course he was taken in by the crafty and often charismatic Rhee, but usually when people are that “heavily invested” in someone, over a period of years, they’ll rarely disengage for fear of looking dumb, or naive or unprofessional. So, even when they can privately see the truth, they’ll “double down” on the lies and exaggerations, because they’re “now too heavily in to get out”, as many believe.
However, John Merrow DIDN’T do this. He did what honest and truly professional journalists do; he pursued a story when he saw one in the making. He maintained a professional detachment and good judgment. And he realized that the public needed to hear this new story.
If anything, I just want to contact Mr. Merrow to congratulate him, and thank him, for being honest, forthright, courageous and for demonstrating a true adherence to professionalism.
He did this, he knew, at great risk to himself and his reputation in a town where real allegiances and friendships are few and fleeting. Let’s face it; we all need money to live and it’s much easier to live well when you kowtow to those who have a lot of power and influence.
But the final thing I’d like to say to Mr. Merrow is, please, don’t give up. Talk to other journalists, from all over, and they’ll help you get this story out. There are more vehicles today, in the age of the web, than ever before. The story you’ve uncovered is Front Page News: BIG STUFF, and sooner or later, one publication will realize this, and go with it.
The tide is turning on Privatization (formerly known as “Education Reform”.) From the results of this week’s mayoral race in NYC, to the failure of privatization candidates and initiatives all over the country to the already fever-pitch anticipation of Diane’s new book, the time is actually BETTER than it has ever been for John Merrow to aggressively push this story.
Bill Moyers, Ed Schultz, Matt Taibbi, David Sirota, and many more would be fascinated to hear this story—it’s shocking to me that STILL so few people know about her and the cheating scandal among others—and they’ll thank you profusely for getting the ball rolling.
So, please let me know how I can communicate with John Merrow. And maybe if enough of us do this, he’ll realize he has a moral and ethical obligation to NOT let this vital story wither on the vine.
Sorry, you give the man more credit than he deserves. He is far from “honest, forthright, courageous.” Think about it. What choice did he have once the cheating scandal broke? Sure, he “rethought” his position, otherwise he’d look a bigger fool than he is. The man is no journalist. I’m just a public school teacher and yet I saw Rhee for what she was from day one, as did many of us. The fact that he fell for such a ill-conceived and fraudulent effort under her “leadership” speaks to the man’s naiveté, gullibility, and stupidity. That he went on to promote her is scandalous. No teacher worth his or her salt fell for any of it. The man’s a disgrace, and he has thrown in the towel to boot. Coward.
Go to the link provided and leave a response. I did. We’ll see how long it lasts.
And he replied and I give him credit for not taking it down and the others I have posted.
Let’s push Ellen Lubic’s point of Rhee and Ravich one on one. Education discussion of the century is how we will promote it. Watch concepts collide in front of your eyes for full exposure of all. I want this.
Naw, it wouldn’t be the “education discussion of the century”. How can one have a discussion when one side has all the correct facts and the other none. It’d just be a good ol fashioned take behind the wooodshed moment.
You can reach John Merrow at jmerrow@learningmatters.tv
Anita Dunn helped gut the 2009 regulations of for-profit colleges:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/us/politics/for-profit-college-rules-scaled-back-after-lobbying.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The for-profit colleges Dunn promotes are a nasty business. They target veterans and vulnerable unemployed people. They’ve been discredited somewhat here, word eventually got around, but they did some real damage where I live.
Has there been any coordination or cooperation between K-12 public school supporters and supporters of public colleges and universities? Seems like it would be a natural fit, and public colleges and universities are at risk of privatization, too.
Rhee is close to the wealthiest people in the world and the most politically powerful people in the country. Too Big To Fail.
All one has to do is look at how the Atlanta cheating scandal was treated compared to the DC cheating scandal. We didn’t see any perp walks in DC, and we didn’t see any former attorney general running the investigation, either. It took years to get a real investigation in Atlanta, and there it was only a minor league reform celeb.
Chiara…Broad put the lid on the secret report which Merrow published. If the major print media, and even those at MSNBC and CNN did a follow up, Rhee would not only have DC lawsuits to face, but also fraud charges from her DC cheating scandal that she still is denying ever happened. But when the print media is mainly owned by Murdoch and 4 other billionaires, who is left to publish truth?
So the Atlanta Supt. is probably going to prison, and Rhee walks.
I think it becomes very difficult when so many wealthy and powerful people back a single individual like Rhee, because then it becomes a matter of THEM being discredited or humiliated if she is discredited.
Merrow wasn’t just investigating Rhee, he was calling the judgment of all of her backers into question.
Gives the phrase “high stakes testing” a whole new meaning, doesn’t it? How absolutely absurd is it that we’ve ended up here? Recall that ALL of this came out of tests that are given to children. People will go to prison in Atlanta, a journalist has this anguished year-long moral dilemma, and at the end of the day this is about tests that 10 year olds take.
It’s lunacy. I went to public school and I took the Iowa tests. They were a tiny part of the school year. I would never have dreamed that my (future) child’s 5th grade test scores would loom this large for so many Very Important Adults that he doesn’t even know 🙂
Chiara. . .
I like the perspective you put on all of this.
“So the Atlanta Supt. is probably going to prison, and Rhee walks.”
Very, very interesting isn’t it?
I wonder why that is?
Cannot put my finger on it.
“Too Big To Fail.”
NO, “The Harder They Come, The Harder They Fall” Jimmy Cliff
Thank you Diane. He owes this to you, since you fawned over him. PBS is a cesspool owned by Corporate Foundations.We have learned that foundations are vehicles of social and environmental engineering and attract many with their largesse and opportunity. These enchantments are distracting and need to provide the details of their “arrangements”. Some foundations have looked to plant their identities on education with recognitions and projects. There have been two congressional reports on the threat to democracy from foundations when they first reared their heads. I can provide them.
We need to know how this unregulated funding is being used, from where it is coming, and to where it is going.
Joseph,
Please provide the links of which you speak.
Thanks,
Duane
Diane, I applaud you for issuing such an unvarnished and direct challenge to Mr. Merrow. He has let us all down, and doesn’t deserve to be let off the hook. In a way its a bit like Colin Powell’s famous “You break it, you own it” China shop analogy. In this case in reverse. Mr. Merrow, “You made her, you own her.” Now make it right.
Notes to Merrow, re: NOLA..credit to Mercedes and crazy crawfish:
Mercedes Schneider has left many links for you on the Ravtich blog. NOLA is not a miracle. If it earned an F before it still is an F.
Vallas was and is a failure. Once again you are being duped.
NOLA debunked:
Here is the deception: “combined school districts” means RSD and the 17-school Orleans Parish Schools (OPSB), which was primarily magnet schools turned into selective admission charters. Attempts to make RSD look better by combining its data with that of OPSB is nothing new. See this post:
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/in-case-you-missed-it-you-really-didnt-miss-much/
Also, the “50% decrease in dropout rate” is an inflated stat; also, it does not include the fact that the definition of “dropout” was changed to exclude students who after dropping out decided to attend education programs (like night school). See this link:
http://www.thepelicanpost.org/2011/04/11/louisiana-dropout-rate-falls-31-percent/
New Orleans’ Recovery School District: The Lie Unveiled
The school- and district-level data presented in this post unequivocally demonstrates that the state-run RSD is hardly a miracle. It should be an embarrassment to any reformer insisting otherwise. And it should come as no wonder why RSD doesn’t even mention school letter grades on its website.
The history of the state-run RSD in New Orleans is one of opportunism and deceit, of information twisting and concealing, in order to promote a slick, corporate-benefitting, financially-motivated agenda. It is certainly not “for the children.”
To other districts around the nation who are considering adopting “the New Orleans miracle”:
Reread this post, and truly consider what it is that you would be getting: A lie packaged to only look appealing from afar.
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/new-orleans-recovery-school-district-the-lie-unveiled/
Paul’s program in New Orleans was not to rebuild public education after the hurricane, but to create a privatized system of schools.
The NOLA miracle that wasn’t:
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/rsds-watered-down-incremental-miracle-and-continued-fiscal-embarrassment/
New Orleans education reform: a guide for cities or a warning for communities: a grassroots lesson learned (2005-2012)
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3dd2726h#page-1
The problem with the Paul Vallas brand of school reform
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/08/04/the-problem-with-the-paul-vallas-brand-of-school-reform/
Crazy Crawfish’s Blog
Zesty Louisiana Education Politics
Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics and RSD AP
http://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/lies-damn-lies-statistics-and-rsd-ap/
Rhee can spend Gates’ and Walton’s fortunes on PR and her narcissistic image will never change. Tape, brooms, and adult bullying does not help children succeed.
Merrow ate the Rhee/Gates $$$$$ bait – hook, line and sinker. High school students on the newspaper staff would have done better than Merrow.
Frankenstein will chase his Rhee monster no more. Time for the villagers to grab their torches and storm the castle.
I imagine he has been threatened. No matter how noble we claim whistle blowers are, they are generally utterly destroyed.
2old: how? money? exposure of a past secret? certainly not harm? really? that really happens? not just in tv shows?
expound, por favor.
As someone who had to step out of all advocacy activities to take a job because it was the only way to get health coverage for my family after my husband lost his job, I don’t think it’s at all unlikely that Merrow has been threatened or is otherwise under duress of some kind. I don’t think people here should be nearly as quick to take that lightly. My situation is different, but I can see all kinds of ways in which he could be under pressure too intense and too destructive to fight. We ordinary observers have no way at all to know how he might be vulnerable, and we certainly know that he has recently been challenging ruthless, unprincipled, wealthy and powerful forces. I wouldn’t take that lightly.
And, by the way, that’s not to discount or discredit anyone else’s criticism. But to my point, whatever else he’s done isn’t material.
Yes, I agree.
Thank you for helping to expose the “Great Hoax on American Education”t hat has been perpetuated by Rhee and her ilk… Now to spread the word so that the general public becomes enlightened and unites to improve instruction for all US students. Our battle cry…”The business model has no place in education!”
Yes, John – don’t sell out on the Rhee story. You owe it to the children.
John Merrow isn’t the only Journalist who ‘made’ Rhee; Oprah Winfrey and Charlie Rose gave her great coverage.
Everyone did because they were so anti public school teacher they had no problems endorsing the devil.
I cannot feel sorry for him. He helped to create this monster, and when he finally tried to unmasked her, the monster won. Let this be a lesson to all the other reporters and editors out there who are not taking the time to investigate before believing in the spin. We lost our best reporter when the NYTimes banished Winerip from education reporting and there was hardly an outcry from teachers. Not even the BATS raised any hell, and with their numbers you would think they are inundating the NYTimes with emails. Merrow may also have received similar threats and didn’t want to wind up in the Baby Boomer aches and pains beat.
Sounds more like a combination of selling out and cowardice to me. I would think a man Merrow’s age and wisdom would be above such things.
Rhee is a professional finger pointer who knows nothing about education, has no credentials in the field, and contributes nothing of actual educational value. She doesn’t know about the things that she does not know, and she is arrogant and outspoken about what she thinks she knows. She is all about shamelessly promoting and enriching herself.
I thought Merrow was on the path to exposing Rhee for the charlatan that she is, and I’m very disappointed. Perhaps a man of Merrow’s age and wisdom pales in comparison to the wisdom and courage of an 18 year old named Hannah Nguyen. Perhaps Merrow should interview Ms. Nguyen; hopefully his lack of integrity won’t influence her.
The “blame” for the rise of Michelle Rhee is an amalgam.
First in line is Michelle Rhee. She has no shame. She lied, egregiously and repeatedly, about her brief tenure as a teacher, and, it seems, about almost everything else. And she hasn’t repented in the least. She’s still at it, big-time.
The mainstream media failed too. Start with The Washington Post, including its education “reporters.” The Post editorial page was shameless in promoting Rhee, and even after the USA Today investigative piece on cheating in the DC schools, The Post (Jo-Ann Armao) opined that there were a host of “innocent reasons” for statistically improbable, if not impossible, score gains. And boy, did Jay Mathews slobber all over Rhee early on (to his credit, he finally acknowledged that cheating took place and there needed to be a real investigation). Yes, John Merrow is certainly culpable. And poor hapless Charlie Rose (and Tavis Smiley). And clearly TIME magazine deserves a big chunk of the blame (excuse me, but has TIME issued an apology yet?). Throw a dart blindfolded at any of the mainstream media education “reporters” and you’re bound to hit a guilty party.
Blame also the billionaire boys club and corporate “reformers” who profess a desire to help public education, but are virtually clueless about research and best practice. That group includes Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and all their many minions and allies (like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable).
But let’s not forget A Nation at Risk, which set off the latest iteration of school “reform” with its clownish warning that “a rising tide of mediocrity…threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.” That report, which was chock full of misinformation, claimed that “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” There weren’t many who challenged A Nation at Risk, even after the Sandia Report took it apart. The Sandia Report (Journal of Educational Research, May/June, 1993), published in the wake of A Nation at Risk, concluded that:
* “..on nearly every measure we found steady or slightly improving trends.”
* “youth today [the 1980s] are choosing natural science and engineering degrees at a higher rate than their peers of the 1960s.”
* “business leaders surveyed are generally satisfied with the skill levels of their employees, and the problems that do exist do not appear to point to the k-12 education system as a root cause.”
* “The student performance data clearly indicate that today’s youth are achieving levels of education at least as high as any previous generation.”
Not many people paid any attention, and that includes teachers and school administrators.
And let us add them to the mix, especially administrators who jumped on the “data-driven” bandwagon. And the consultants who plied their charlatan wares of “90-90-90 schools,” and “professional learning communities” dedicated to “data” and “common assessments” and testing. One such couple lives on a million-dollar property in an exclusive Virginia lake resort. Indeed.
And, of course, there’s No Child Left Behind (and now Race to the Top), and all the people who pushed it. George W. Bush. Margaret Spellings. Chester Finn. Denis Doyle (who founded SchoolNet, a data tracking software company, since sold to Pearson). Bill Bennett. David Kearns. The list goes on, and it includes people like Tom Friedman (the columnist) and Marc Tucker (the economist), and organizations like the College Board, which continues to pimp its mostly worthless products (and the Common Core).
Much of the push for education “reform” is based on the “economic competitiveness” argument, which at its core is more than weak. Let’s put blame there too on those who keep pitching this nonsense, from Obama and Arne Duncan to the hedge-funders and most of the Republican party. But nonsense it is.
The great education historian Lawrence Cremin wrote this in Popular Education and Its Discontents (1990):
“American economic competitiveness… is to a considerable degree a function of monetary, trade, and industrial policy, and of decisions made by the President and Congress, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, and Labor. Therefore, to conclude that problems of international competitiveness can be solved by educational reform, especially educational reform defined solely as school reform, is not merely utopian and millenialist, it is at best a foolish and at worst a crass effort to direct attention away from those truly responsible for doing something about competitiveness and to lay the burden instead on the schools. It is a device that has been used repeatedly in the history of American education.” (p. 103)
And finally, let us blame ourselves – at least a bit – for letting it (Rhee, and her brand of “reform”) happen and not doing more to curtail it.
As to John Merrow, who helped to create Rhee? If he has any real sense of integrity, he will continue to pursue the Rhee story. For as long as it takes.
Having done some cover-your-ass reporting on a monster he helped create, Merrow now tells us there’s nothing to see here, and move along.
Brought to you by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
See my comment, Michael. I’m really, REALLY surprised that this isn’t evident to everybody. To me it’s like the hostage whose kidnapper has the hidden gun pointed at him and is desperately trying to surreptitiously signal “call the police,” and everyone is oblivious. (Except that in this case there’s nothing anyone can do.)
The man is under threat. It’s a relative few who are able to speak out without jeopardizing jobs or other situations — I used to be lucky in that area, and my window of opportunity closed. Do you NOT think the “reform” sector is capable of ruthlessness and has the power and willingness to destroy careers and lives? And can you not imagine quite a number of potential circumstances that might make Merrow vulnerable?
@Democracy, the reason Jay Mathews acknowledged the cheating and stopped heaping Rhee with adulation is that his wife was the editor at USA Today who oversaw that newspaper’s investigation and expose of the D.C. cheating. There was a powerful personal factor in his life that transcended the forces pressuring and enticing him to fawn over Rhee,and as a high-stature journalist on the verge of retirement (that point is CRUCIAL here), he had some freedom to speak his mind.
As I said in my blog post, when and if there’s more to report about Rhee’s role in the coverup, I will be back on the story. Meantime, I hope some of you will use some of your energy getting in touch with Tom Friedman, Maureen Dowd, Diane Sawyer, Nick Kristoff, the Atlantic, Charles Blow, Bill Moyers and other opinion leaders to urge them to report on the central issue: her ‘scorched earth’ approach does real damage to chilren, teachers and schools. Or maybe one of them would report on why no one else is reporting the story?
My address is 127 W. 26th Street #1200, NY NY 10001. My email is jmerrow@learningmatters.tv
Respectfully,
John Merrow
Thanks for responding, Make sure you’ve always got your back covered.
Not happy to hear that John has given up or surrendered. Anyway, Woodward and Bernstein were obsessed with Watergate and Nixon. We know how that turned out. Just an observation.