StudentsFirst, the organization created by Michelle Rhee to promote her ideas about fixing schools by high-stakes testing and choice, has issued its second state-by-state report card.
The highest scoring states are not those whose students have the highest achievement on NAEP; that would be Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
No, the highest scoring states are those that do what Rhee did in D.C., the nation’s lowest-scoring district on NAEP.
She awards points for “elevating the teaching profession,” which means tying evaluations of teachers and principals to test scores, eliminating teacher tenure, eliminating collective bargaining, awarding bonuses to teachers whose students get higher test scores, and opening teaching jobs to teachers who have no certification or other credentials. In other words, the way to “elevate the teaching profession” is to make teachers into temporary workers whose job depends on the test scores of their students and to lower standards for entry into teaching. I wish that whoever defined this category would read the research on value-added methodology (VAM), like here and here. Tying teacher and principal evaluations leads to narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, and CHEATING.
She awards points for “empowering parents,” which means that a state gets higher scores if it offers charters and vouchers and has a parent trigger so that parents can hand their public school over to a charter corporation. Of course, the report offers no research to support these recommendations since voucher schools do not outperform neighborhood public schools-their advocates, nor do charters, on average. Some charters get higher test scores, because they enroll motivated students who apply. Others get high scores because they exclude students with disabilities and English learners. But on average, there is not much difference in outcomes between public schools and charter schools. The “parent trigger” has thus far–in its four years as state law in California–converted one public school to charter status and fired one principal.
Her third priority–spending wisely and well–promotes governance by the state and mayoral control. In other words, states get a plus if they override or preferably abolish local school boards.
The highest scoring states: Louisiana: #1; Florida (#2); Indiana (#3); Rhode Island (#4); D.C. (#5).
How did the highest performing states in the nation do on the StudentsFirst report card:
Massachusetts: (first in nation on NAEP): D (#21 on Rhee’s report card);
New Jersey: (tied for second place in the nation on NAEP): D (#31 on Rhee’s report card);
Connecticut (tied for second in the nation on NAEP): D+ (#24 on Rhee’s report card).
It is ironic that an organization that wants states to rank teachers, students, and schools in relation to student test scores issues a report card that evaluates states without any reference to student test scores.
Clearly, the rankings have nothing whatever to do with any academic outcomes for students. These are the states that comes closest to complying with Michelle Rhee’s ideological preferences: privatization and dismantling the teaching profession.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I wonder what it would be like if I came up with a very arbitrary grading system(all grading systems are) in which the highest grade a student could earn was a B and I failed most all of my students.
Well, on our teacher evaluation rubric (devil’s, that is) there are seven categories 1-7. We’ve been told that no one will ever get a 7. I think that one is reserved for the devil himself (and all the edudeformers).
Sounds like you work with me in Denver Public Schools. That’s how our rubric works.
No, rural MO community. It’s working it’s way into the “heartland”. Although there is some talk of not using this system next year. HA, four systems in the last four years!
Swacker: “Well, on our teacher evaluation rubric (devil’s, that is) there are seven categories 1-7. We’ve been told that no one will ever get a 7.”
That sounds like a grading systems used in some foreign countries, where no student gets a “7”, because that is reserved for God.
I thought they were doing it to use because the seven was reserved for the devil (you know 666 rounds up to 7)
I know I have said this repeatedly, but as soon as the term “rankings” enters the conversation, you know you are entering the twilight zone—no matter who utters the term. Whenever an individual or organization or governmental entity develops a ranking system it will always involve the application of criteria that begins and ends with some point to prove or promote–there is no god’s eye view to ranking. Even using the NAEP test scores and as a source, presents a perspective on what knowledge is of most worth and how that knowledge will be assessed –granted, the NAEP criteria conforms to an academic standing that I am sure is not present in the criteria developed in Ms. Rhee’s living room over a light martini lunch. Looking over the student first list, it would have more credibility if she just named her rankings: “martini first.”
Please let’s not give adult beverages a bad name by associating them with the Rheeject. They earn a bad enough reputation on their own (innocent though they may be without the human factor) without the added insult of that association.
Alan C. Jones & Duane Swacker: well said.
I have finished my first reading of THE ESSENTIAL DEMING. He pulled no punches when he described MBO [Management By Objectives]/MBR [Management By Results]. One of his main points—as I understand it currently—is that it is a way of avoiding a critical, if not the most important, responsibility of management—
Do the necessary and practical pre-planning and preparation that gives the highest possibility of success, the most important part of all that being [drum roll, please]- – –
to WORK WITH, GUIDE, EDUCATE and SUPPORT the living breathing human beings who will be attempting to achieve those goals.
Current “education reform” does an end-around this essential management task. The editor of the above mentioned volume puts it well:
[start quote] After listening to a corporate executive expound on all the ways in which he was going to improve his enterprise, Deming would ask, “By method?” This disarmed most people. Somehow, once executives had decided that they wanted to improve, the rest would fall into place, they thought. It never does. Zero-stage planning on how something is to be accomplished is the most important stage of improvement—without it you have only wishful thinking. [end quote] [Joyce Orsini, on p. 69, prefacing Chapter 3, “By What Method? (How Can We Being About Improvement?)’]
Simply apply the above to one of the latest trophy projects of the “education reform” movement: the iPad catastrophe in Los Angeles.
And this from the crowd that boasts so many degrees in business management.
¿?
😎
P.S. Señor Swacker: thank you for standing up for all adult beverages. A tip of the glass full to you…
😃
An essential understanding/belief of Deming, which is often missed, was his continual focus on the failure of SYSTEMS, not individuals. When you complete reading Deming, take a look at a series of books under the title the Toyota Way. Again, when something goes wrong on a Toyota production line, they look to the system, not the individuals managing the system. In other commentaries, I have noted that the design of institutional schooling (the school systems we all work in), sets up teachers and students for failure. The century long focus on standardization and efficiency is in direct opposition to how children learn and how we should be teaching. When I look at test scores, I looked at a failed system, not a failed faculty or student body. Of course, the challenge is creating within the institutional constraints of schooling, meaningful educational experiences. As a principal, I was able to create pockets of meaningful activity and curriculum frameworks, I was unable to bring these successful experiments to scale in my building.
Alan,
“. . . his continual focus on the failure of SYSTEMS, not individuals.”
That has to be one of the most important aspects of the failure of most management systems, but especially public education ones. I see it all the time in education. Dealt with our in school suspension last year and it was a clusterfrick of a system. The AP in charge had no clue that it was the system, the delineations of who does what, when, where, why and how that was causing the problems. I set it up for them and all went a whole lot better second semester. Now they’ve gone away from the “system” again this year and it is a clusterfrick again-the AP wasn’t even smart enough to claim credit for last year (although I think it is because he/she is ethical enough not to have claimed it for her own) and continue it this year.
But then again, I’ve had the opportunity that most teachers haven’t had, to be involved in various organizations, business and public sector and had some good managers who understood.
The problem is a cultural one — we are a blame culture—when something goes wrong in an organization we look for someone to fire —For Deming, the manager should be fired not the worker on the line–they are merely victims of the system designed by the manager. From a leadership perspective, after reading Deming, it transformed how I managed/led a school —when something went wrong or when creating a new instructional approach, I began from a systems perspective, not an individual perspective. In other words, how well does our instructional systems—staff development, mentoring, curriculum development, etc.—support what we want to do in the classroom. That is the central fallacy of waiting for superman syndrome–that somehow with the right incentives that super teachers will turn our “failed systems” around—it is an American trait that is our achilles heel now in education. Most private sector industries have moved well beyond the superman syndrome and have embraced systems design that embed workers in work environments that support the qualities pointed out by Pink.
Quite correct, Alan, well said!
One more comment and I will leave this topic alone—returning to systems design and nation wide cheating scandals. When cheating on state accountability exams is discovered investigations are a launched, administrators and teachers are caught, and penalties assigned. Deming would take one look at M. Rhee’s Washington accountability system and observe that she created a system that sets people up to fail—the human response to being placed between a rock and hard place is, in Deming’s words, “cheat.” Instead of looking at this cheating as the predictable (normative response) to an impossible accountability system, we look for cheaters. A student of organizational behavior would have immediately fired Ms. Rhee for creating a flawed system of accountability.
Alan: LOL
A pro-public education friend who has not followed the privatization movement closely forwarded me an email expressing alarm and asking if I knew that “Vermont’s ranking” was low… I forwarded her a link to your book on Amazon.com and told her to read the first chapter would explain “the rest of the story” and urged her to buy the book… unfortunately not enough people understand the motivation behind these kind of bogus rating systems… I’m sure Fox et al will be all over this…
It should be heartening to those of us not in Rhee’s camp that according to her organization’s own metrics, the nation as a whole receives a D+. Maybe that means that public education is not facing extinction at the hands of “reformers” — except at the moment in Florida and Louisianna. Anyone see a wave of Massachusett parents relocating to Louisianna to enjoy the benefits of Rhee’s ideas? Soon, the only teachers in Florida may be those who retire there for the climate.
Please push for another opportunity to debate Rhee on these issues. This failed “teacher” is given a cover on Time and is given a free pass on the scandal she left in her wake and she still is given more credence by the national media than a renowned expert such as yourself. Please, push for a debate so that she can’t just stay to the script as she has done with her ridiculous townhall meetings.
George P… I totally agree. Let Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee and Eli Broad perhaps form a team. Ravitch solo could still hold her own. The challenge should be made in a very public forum too!
George P,
The one thing I feel certain about is that Michelle Rhee will never debate me. I was surprised that she initially agreed, then spent six months bickering about the terms–all of which I accepted–then withdrew because she could not find a third party to sit on the stage as her debate partner. Why no Steve Perry or George Parker or Arne Duncan?
It’s laugh out loud funny, though.
Here’s the student-centered “advice” for the state of Michigan:
“Finally, Michigan should provide all teachers with retirement security and career flexibility by permitting all teachers, regardless of start date, to opt into the hybrid retirement plan, and by restructuring the existing defined benefit plan into a cash balance plan”
Defined benefit plans are HORRIBLE for children, as everyone knows! It reads like it was written by a group of bankers, which it probably was.
Wow! This is so self-refuting that it discredits the reactionary reform and privatization movement—I hope! It would be great if the liberal media like MSNBC could get hold of your post. I suppose it’s too much to hope that PBS would.
The MS in MSNBC is Microsoft. Gates.
Robert, as of mid 2012 Microsoft and MSNBC are completely separate: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/companies/story/2012-07-16/MSNBC-and-microsoft-part-ways/56246728/1
Thanks, William. Good to know!
I promise you will hear no criticism of Rhee on Rachel Maddow and I don’t know why.
For someone as “smart” as Maddow allegedly is, she often fails to show it.
MSNBC has been one of the biggest propaganda tools for the charter movement. A total joke
MSNBC has been one of the biggest propaganda tools for the neo-liberal movement. Worse than a total joke because it pretends to be “really” liberal, when for education it’s “rheally liberal.”
Dee Dee, I haven’t seen that, and I watch entirely too much MSNBC. Chris Hayes did a not bad interview with Diane Ravitch, which you can see here: http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2013/10/diane-ravitch-schools-are-not-doing.html
I’ve seen largely silence—like Rachel Maddow’s on all things educational—rather than reactionary reform propaganda. And I’m talking about MSNBC, not NBC. The silence is upsetting to me, but that’s different from pro-Rhee propaganda, which I haven’t seen.
Important article. You want to read it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/give-childhood-back-to-children-if-we-want-our-offspring-to-have-happy-productive-and-moral-lives-we-must-allow-more-time-for-play-not-less-are-you-listening-gove-9054433.html
Bob Weiss
Ah, a missive from the alternate Rheeality world inhabited by the hucksters at Students Last. Always good for a chuckle.
What is the connection between Michelle Rhee the outspoken critic of StudentsFirst and the influence of her Teach for America experience?
She learned to believe in miracles and claimed that she herself had produced miracles. And if she could do it, so could others.
Erase to the top!
PBS is controlled except for Bill Moyers. I wonder why they have given Bill Moyers free reign? Maybe he is independent now… Rhee will never debate Ravitch because she wouldn’t be allowed to do that. Too much money is invested in her as a propaganda figure. That is like Hitler allowing German professors to debate Goebbels on Nazi policy. Never going to happen. That would be very stupid of the corporate overlords.
William, in case you haven’t noticed, most of the public is busy watching “the Kardashians”, “The Voice”, uploading “selfies” to their Facebook accounts or fiddling with their cellphones as Rome burns. Who is going to be discredited in front of whom? No one is watching (except for a few teachers). It’s a done deal. Many of us read these updates just to keep track of the carnage. Someone should print this out and store it somewhere for future archeologists to piece together and figure out how America fell. We are just documenting the destruction. We are presenting an alternative path that will never be followed, an alternate future history…(What if?) America has always chosen the path of private gain over public good. This is the American way! Individualism! Makers and takers… Our current system will always be this way.
Moyers doesn’t have free reign. His is a very controlled “opposition”.
Such is the state of journalism in the United States that rankings this self-refuting will be widely reported on completely uncritically.
How to become an effective schools chancellor, a lesson from Michelle Rhee:
Just channel Lewis Carroll’s Red Queen: Practice believing six impossible things every morning before breakfast and stomp about yelling, “Off with their heads!”
Just channel Lewis Carroll’s Red Queen: Practice believing six impossible things every morning before breakfast and stomp about yelling, “Off with their heads!”
this!
Thanks, Emmy
“Off with their heads!”
Which ones???
A teacher friend shared this with me today Made me sick . We need to start showing support for all our great teachers and students . We need to show our appreciation. they are not feeling so good these days. Let.s start this movement.
And the winner in the category of most absurd report by the leader of an education deform organization is. . . .
I know, it was a tough field this year. Lots of competition there.
DC: #5: She sure works hard to try to justify her past work.
The criteria for these “ratings” are ludicrous and obviously biased. Yet if that were not enough, the “disclaimer” on the site is hilarious:
“Accordingly, StudentsFirst does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information linked within this Website. The information is provided “as is” and “with all faults”, and is furnished with no warranty, express or implied. Further, StudentsFirst disclaims all liability to any person for any loss caused by errors or omissions in the information provided.”
‘Nuff said?
Just like anything spouted out by that organization, eh!!
StudentsFirst has a sadly warped agenda that is neither based on evidence or values worthy of the name. I also found an error on the seniority section for Wisconsin where they misread the applicable statute. I wonder how many other factual errors are in their publication.
So glad to see my state with an F (Nebraska). Can’t be all bad, this is not a list I want to top.
Congratulations to Nebraska!
I guess it’s ironic to be asking this, but is there any academic grounding to the work of Students First? Do they point to any research that says that this is the way to help improve student performance?
I’m suspecting not, but maybe there are folks who know?
I would add that the blog at the Students First website doesn’t accept comments. Not a promising sign for getting your point of view across.
Has anyone seen this story on any news outlet today? Last year it was all over the place, but tonight not a peep from the major stations. Non-news already? One can hope.
Bill ~It made the news here in Las Vegas. Probably because we never rank at the top of any “good” list. Just our luck the one time we do land at the top (She gave spot #13), it’s on this list. Ole Blue Eyes wanted luck to be a lady. Well, she was. Name is Michele Rhee. 🙂
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/jan/13/advocacy-group-says-nevada-right-track-education-r/
“Has anyone seen this story on any news outlet today?”
If you do a google news search, it shows up in maybe a couple dozen local/regional outlets in the past two days.
It was all over the local news today in Utah, bemoaning our D+. No critical questioning of the organization or anything else.
I agree with what many others have said – how does this woman have any influence? Her viewpoint makes no sense to anyone with any experience in education. Marketing, propaganda… she is masterful.
Diane, why don’t you and other respected educators publish your own list? Yours would be based on the facts.
Linda Johnson, the Network for Public Education is planning to rate the states by different criteria. And it will be done by reputable scholars.
Great! Thank you.
Ravitch: “Linda Johnson, the Network for Public Education is planning to rate the states by different criteria.”
You advocate for wraparound services connected to childhood education (ch. 27 of your recent book). Will this rating system recognize and measure such efforts?
There are plenty of components to a good education system, but this point seems to be the most fundamental. If one accepts Maslow’s model of human needs, there are plenty of critical needs that must be met in children before education can take place w/o distraction of those fundamental deficiencies.
Wdf1, we will know more later.
Her comments on California kind of set me off. I hardly ever blog, but this “inspired” me to tonight. I even held back a bit.
Her chief complaint about CA is that we don’t evaluate teacher’s meaningfully. But in the words of Inigo Montoya….
I really don’t know how Michelle Rhee gets up in the morning and can stand to look in the mirror. This report card is absolutely laughable.
Maybe there is a connection that isn’t as random as it first appears. My understanding is that Rhee received her introduction and “in-depth” training in education with Teach for America. That her foray into educational research is so superficial is a logical consequence of that rigorous preparation.
That and Dr. Ravitch’s observation above:
“She learned to believe in miracles and claimed that she herself had produced miracles. And if she could do it, so could others.”
Here in Las Vegas a local “education reporter” prints almost everything related to school “reform” including this recent “report.” What is so disingenuous is the fact that the newspaper has yet to print similar items from reputable local/national scholars. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/jan/13/advocacy-group-says-nevada-right-track-education-r/
I don’t know why but No Child Left Behind Law suddenly comes to mind.
Anyway, I find it really strange and suspicious how Michelle Rhee issues this ranking reports without necessarily giving out details of how exactly she went about it.
What bothers me most is the fact that she’s opening teaching jobs for ‘teachers’ who have ‘no certification or other credentials’. Whoa!
I’m not undermining anyone’s ability to impart knowledge, but to think that we’re talking about rankings, comparisons, and gauging individual student performances?
I’d say its rather reckless.
It’s funny… Gates, Broad, Rhee, et al are always pointing to test scores, test scores, test scores, MORE AND MORE TEST SCORES…. for pointing out that schools a dropout failures, and unionized teachers are failures… blah, blah, blah…
but then, when they have their rankings of “the best” states for “school reform”… not a peep about test scores. It’s like they don’t even exist.
As Diane points out, the states that adopt all the so-called “education reform” policies have the worst scores, and the states who don’t have the best scores.
Ms. Rhee is a bully, plain and simple.
And a well-paid bully at that.. Michelle Rhee makes more in an hour of bashing public school teachers & their unions as the average starting teacher makes in a year—with the outrageous stuff her supporters claim about how self-less and noble she is..
Below, we can read as one of them blathers about how Rhee is now “shunning high salaries” to “improve the lot of our nation’s students,” and how she was targeted and victimized in D.C. because she “put students first.”
Check out what WAITING FOR SUPERMAN director Davis Guggenheim wrote in his blurb accompanying her page in TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Important People list for 2011:
(CAPS are mine… Jack… it’s in the last paragraph)
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066128,00.html
—————————————
DAVIS GUGGENHEIM:
“She (Michelle Rhee) SET A GOAL TO IMPROVE THE LOT OF THE NATION’S STUDENTS, and she has stuck to that. And she PAID DEARLY FOR IT, stepping down from her D.C. post in 2010 after Mayor Adrian Fenty lost his bid for re-election, a public rejection that some saw as A REPUDIATION OF THE TOUGH STEPS to raise the standards of the city’s public schools.
“Subsequently, SHE SHUNNED ANY HIGH-SALARY OFFERS that resulted from her high-profile tenure and INSTEAD FOUNDED HER OWN ORGANIZATION.
” ‘PUTTING KIDS FIRST’ could be a pithy slogan. (For many it is.) FOR RHEE, IT’S A LIFELONG COMMITMENT.”
—————————————
Hey Davis, you know who else has to “pay dearly”? The folks who have to pay to have this woman speak for an hour or two!
Ms. Rhee may have “shunned any high salary offers” after the voters of D.C. ran her out of town, but she sure isn’t shy about lapping up her $50K / hour speaking fees!
It’s nice that her “lifelong commitment” to “putting kids first” pays so well.
http://caaspeakers.com/michelle-rhee/
——————————————————————-
“In the ever-evolving landscape of education in America, Michelle Rhee has been working tirelessly for the past two decades to give children the skills and knowledge they will need to compete in a changing world. From adding instructional time after school and visiting students’ homes as a third grade teacher in Baltimore, to hosting hundreds of community meetings and creating a Youth Cabinet to bring students’ voices into reforming the DC Public Schools, Michelle has always been guided by one core principle: put students first.”
——————————————————————
Wow, Rhee has “been guided by one core principle: put students first.”
How touching and noble of her? Given that moving statement, I’m sure that—like Dr. Ravitch—Ms. Rhee probably donates her time to give speeches and make appearances… at most only asking to have her expenses covered.
Wait a sec. I just found something on-line. It says that… Ms. Rhee… NO, I DON’T BELIEVE IT… she actually CHARGES MONEY (???!!!) for her speeches?
Say it ain’t so!
And that, when giving speeches, she is represented by the top Hollywood agency C.A.A., Creative Artists Agency?
Well, I’m sure her pay is just a small honorarium… as, like you, Dr. Ravitch, her true motives are to improve the educational lives of children, and to make sure every child has a great teacher at the front of his or her classroom, and to “put students first.”
What’s that? It’s NOT just a token honorarium. Let me guess…
$1,000?
$2,000?
Higher? You gotta be kidding!
$5,000?
$10,000?
Get outta town!
$15,000?
$20,000?
What? She gets more than that just for an hour or two of speaking and answering questions?
Really? It’s actually higher?
$25,000?
$30,000?
Okay, someone’s just winding me up here. There’s NO WAY she charges more than THAT!!!
$50,000!
BINGO!!!!!
$50,000???!!! I don’t believe it.
Somebody’s gotta be making that up to discredit Ms. Rhee. It’s probably some evil defenders of a failed status quo who put adult teachers’ interests ahead of children/students’ interest who are making up and spreading these lies in an effort to harm Ms. Rhee’s reputation, and protect their own selfish interest and cushy jobs-for-life.
Apparently not.
Some enterprising writer named Molly Bloom at the on-line publication STATE IMPACT actually got a copy of the contract that Rhee uses for her personal appearances and posted it on-line.
Gimme that link!
http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2011/10/10/michelle-rhee-to-speak-at-kent-statestark-prompts-faculty-to-organize-counter-event/
What’s that? Just scroll down and you can see
a scanned copy of Rhee’s boilerplate contract? Hmmm….
Yep! There it is… In the contract posted, $35,000 is indeed what she’s getting paid to speak at Kent State, plus a bunch o’ FIRST CLASS expenses. .. (She claims she discounted her usual $50,000 / hour fee because the venue, Kent State, was “a school.”
The contract posted is the actual one used for Ms. Rhee’s appearance at at Kent State University,
Why that’s second worst atrocity ever associated with that school. (“Four dead in O-hi -o… “)
I like how the Purchaser—the entity or person who hires her— sends the payment to:
“Rhee Enterprises, LLC” (PAGE 2)
Helping improve the education of children and “putting students first” is Big Business, apparently.
There’s more on PAGE 3:
——————————————————————
“a. Purchaser shall provide the Artist with one (1) First Class round-trip, unrestricted, fully-refundable airplane tickets, or cash equivalent, at Artist’s election;
“b. Purchaser shall one (1) VIP hotel suite; Purchaser to make and confirm reservations in consultation with the Artist; Artist reserves the right to choose hotel;
“c. Purchaser to provide the Artist with meals and all reasonable incidentals;
“d. Purchase shall provide Artist with a towncar and Professional Driver for round-trip transportation from the Artist’s home to the airport, airport to hotel, hotel to engagement, or any combination thereof;”
——————————————————————
Yes, that’s right… Rhee demands not just a hotel room, but a “VIP hotel suite” at a hotel approved by her, as well as a towncar with a chauffer to drive her around???!!!
Come one. Be fair. You need all that if you’re going to be “putting students first.”
Item 6 is telling. Michelle or her agent crosses out the following:
——————————————————————
“6. RESPONSIBILITY for EVENT-RELATED TAXES. Purchase agrees to pay any and all local, State, and/or Federal rental, amusement, sales or other taxes as required by law.”
——————————————————————
Next to the crossing out, Michelle or her agent scrawls, “TAX EXEMPT”, as Students First is a non-profit organization.
Awww, that’s too bad. That money would have gone to the state’s general fund for education, as Ohio schools are hurting for cash right now.
Item 9 is interesting:
——————————————————————
“9. ARTIST’S MERCHANDISING RIGHTS. Artist shall have the right, but not the obligation, to sell souvenir programs and other merchandising items on the premises on the place of the presentation without participation by the Purchaser, subject to local venue’s contract requirements, if any, of which the Artist is notified in writing.”
——————————————————————
(INSERT JOKE HERE… it’s too easy… i.e. Michelle Rhee T-shirts, action figures, etc.)
There’s also a pay-or-play clause, which means that if the event is cancelled for any reason, you have to pay Michelle her $35K anyway.
Reading this I feel like I’m watching a scene from the end of “THE WOLF OF WALL STREET”, where the slimebucket and convicted Wall Street felon Jordan Belfort now makes a cushy living as a “motivational speaker.”
God save us all!
@Jack: Interesting. So in other words, putting students first (for fun and profit)?
“Artist”
That would be, as in “con artist”
Reblogged this on Naked Teaching and commented:
Michelle Rhee is a bully, plain and simple.
A state report card on education should include some information on student achievement. I am not a person who believes in evaluating schools solely on how they perform on standardized tests but I definitely think it would be something I would include if I were creating a report card on state’s schools. I briefly looked at the website and right away I saw pictures of Bill Cosby and Maggie Gyllenhal. Star power and provocative headlines are always a way to get people’s attention and to the average person it may seem like the report cards are worth paying attention to. It is worrisome that many people don’t do further research in to a topic and are content to follow along with something like this. The Students First method of rating states and creating the report cards may have some key points that should be included in rating schools but overall I think they are missing many things that lead to higher levels of student achievement and success. I would like to know how student’s do on standardized tests, graduation requirements and rates, what sports, clubs, performing arts schools have, and how many enter four year colleges to name a few.
Those in education identify bullies and attempt to correct their behavior.
Those in education “reform”identify bullies and make them their standard bearers.
To understand just how flimsy and inept Michelle Rhee’s “Report Card” is, just glance at her “top ten” education states (with their StudentsFirst GPAs):
1 Louisiana B- 2.92
2 Florida B- 2.71
3 Indiana C+ 2.48
4 Rhode Island C+ 2.40
5 D.C. C+ 2.38
6 Tennessee C 2.10
7 Colorado C 2.06
7 Hawaii C 2.06
9 Michigan C- 1.96
10 Ohio C- 1.92
In the report, Rhee asserts that while “there continues to be a strong interest in strengthening accountability policies,” much ore is needed because America is so far “behind such countries and regions as Hong Kong, Singapore, Estonia, and Poland.”
Let’s consider this nonsense. The United States is a nation with 314 million people (of all ethnic stripes) and has a GDP of $15.7 trillion. Yet, according to Rhee, we must be fearful of our future because nations like Poland (pop. of 38.5 million, GDP of $489 billion, 3 percent of the U.S. GDP) and Estonia (pop. of 1.3 million, GDP of $22 billion, .001 percent of U.S. GDP), and city-states like Singapore (pop. of 5.3 million, GDP of $274 billion, 1.7 percent of US. GDP) and Hong Kong (pop. of 7 million, GDP of $263 billion, 1.6 percent of U.S. GDP) are just eating our lunch in test scores? This just doesn’t even pass the smell test.
Rhee insists that her report is “informed by research.” Yeah, but not very much. The “research” she relies on comes mostly from public education haters like Eric Hanushek, Jay Greene and Paul Peterson. And that goofy Chetty-Friedman-Rockoff study, which made causal inferences based on small correlative measures, gets cited multiple times. Worse, Rhee misrepresents the CREDO study on charter schools. CREDO found that about 17 percent of charters provide better educational opportunities than regular public schools, nearly half had achievement results that were no better than regular public schools, and 37 percent had achievement results that were “significantly worse.” Rhee says, however, that “public charter schools now meet or exceed the performance of their traditional district school counterparts in student achievement.” Uh-huh.
Rhee says upfront in the report that “Ultimately, one of the desired outcomes of the SPRC [Report Card] is to spark a conversation.”
So let me start that conversation: Is Michelle Rhee a simpleton (and a charlatan), or what?
oops…”…much more is needed…”
This lady is so full of Bull……..I respect not one word that she has to offer…Not one…Someone should be suing her for this shady map of shame.
Why respond to this lady ? Does anyone really cares what she says?? Not one thaat I have seen? However…Her report card is grounds for lawsuits..Who is first?
Let me correct the morning grammar..
Does anyone really CARE what she says? (or thinks)..
OK..Need a little more caffeine before I start these conversations..
Why respond to this lady? Why? Because she captured and strangled the dialog while we were busy not responding to her.
Diane, Your first sentence should end after the word “her”. Rob
LOL. Yes, that’s what Ms. Rhee does”: “Call the reporters. I have someone to fire.”
Diane,
Have you seen this? http://www.salon.com/2014/01/15/the_most_scathing_questions_from_michelle_rhees_doomed_twitter_qa/
She has zero credibility. How she keeps coming up as the go to on education reform, I don’t know. Asking her to fix education is like asking John Boehner to introduce legislation to increase funding on entitlement programs.
I think that the rankings on this report card are based on where she can see making the most money for $tuden$fir$t