District of Columbia Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced the suspension of the practice of evaluating teachers by their students’ test scores. This practice was considered the signal policy initiative of Henderson’s predecessor Michelle Rhee.
Henderson described the move “as necessary in order to allow students to acclimate themselves to new tests built around the standards established by the Common Core.”
The Gates Foundation applauded the retreat on test-based evaluation, as did Randi Weingarten of the AFT. The U.S. Department of Education released a statement expressing its disappointment. It said: “Although we applaud District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) for their continued commitment to rigorous evaluation and support for their teachers, we know there are many who looked to DCPS as a pacesetter who will be disappointed with their desire to slow down.” Since test-based evaluation is the centerpiece of Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top, this is surely a setback for Duncan and his theory of change. On the other hand, D.C.’s test scores have been stagnant since 2009, which does not speak well of test-based evaluation, whether pushed by Michelle Rhee or Arne Duncan.
By the way, Michelle Rhee has apparently changed her name to Michelle (Rhee) Johnson.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And now she’s Michelle Johnson. It will take more than a miracle to rebrand slime.
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2014/08/11/former-d-c-schools-chief-joins-scotts-board.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bizj_columbus+%28Business+First+of+Columbus%29
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@Linda1746: @BostonActivist no miracles no growth with abuse from @MichelleRhee boycott @MiracleGro http://t.co/8VYaTePYmz
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the moment I saw this yesterday, I just about lost my mind – it has 1000 lives, just like a roach
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She just joined the Board for “Miracle-Gro” fertilizer…
An Jon Lubar said in the COMMENTS section:
“OMG, the irony of her working for a fertilizer company almost slipped right by me! LOL! She and her agenda were full of it!”
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“Johnson, I need a market analysis by Friday but before that I need a compelling account of your childhood.” This quote was of course proceeded by: “…As you grow up in this world you realize people don’t really give a **** about what you feel or think.” – David Coleman
And now Rhee has become Johnson. I feel like this whole Common Core thing has finally swirled full circle… down the the toilet.
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Well, let’s see what really happens. Is there a hidden agenda?
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Michelle Rhee is now Michelle Johnson?? How about Michelle Albatross? She’s running away from dismal school failures hanging from her neck. So, now she will become a Board member of Scott’s Miracle-Gro, after failing to grow learning in DC and elsewhere. This demonstrates again that agents of the billionaire boys’ club, hedge-funders and corporate looters of the public sector, there is no risk to being wildly wrong and destructive. The vast wealth of their backers will float them no matter how badly their school shenanigans crash and burn. Looking at John White in NY or Duncan, you might wonder, how can they say and do such senseless things? Answer: they have nothing to lose and everything guaranteed.
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Watch out —Teachers are the ones who think every student grows. Rhee uses garden tools such as standardized test to wilt them so their schools are ripe for Charter pickin’.
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This was announced a couple of months ago.
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I have to say it. It is too good to let this pass without comment. A thorn by any other name is still a . . . (you can fill in the rest).
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The house of cards wobbles a little more…
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And the sand* on which that house was built is continually shifting.
*The epistemological and ontological basis of that educational malpractice as shown by N. Wilson to be fraught with error and fallacies.
“Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A description of a quality can only be partially quantified. Quantity is almost always a very small aspect of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category only by a part of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as unidimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing the descriptive information about said interactions is inadequate, insufficient and inferior to the point of invalidity and unacceptability.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other word all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. And a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any
result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it attempts to measure “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
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Re: unchanged DC schools’ test scores: is that surprising? Have the PUBLIC schools level of poverty changed in the last decade, or have many of the middle class kids gone to Charter schools??
JVK
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She’s working for Miracle Grow??? Oh, the irony!
Doesn’t that company know that the only miracle growth in her test scores was gained by cheating the system?
My heart breaks for the poor employees at Miracle Grow who shall wither and wilt under her greedy, green thumb.
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No surprise there. They are big Right wing political donors.
In 2012 they were fined 12 million dollars for criminal violations on pesticide regulations.
“Criminal” is unusual but of course nothing happened to them other than the fine. We just let companies pay their way out of trouble now. Prosecutions with actual criminal sanctions are for the little people.
I didn’t know ed reform involved lobbying for lower corporate tax rates and deregulation of the agricultural chemical industry. They must be diversifying.
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She’s working for Miracle Grow??? Oh, the irony!
Doesn’t that company know that the only miracle growth in her test scores was gained by cheating the system?
My heart breaks for the poor employees at Miracle Grow who shall wither and wilt under her greedy, green thumb.
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Diane, I hope you’ll forgive my post below with scatological humor. I have done my best to clean it up.
The reference to garden tools and fertilizer reminds me of a humorous poster I put in my office about 15 years ago (pre-internet). It was written from a business perspective, but my colleagues and I saw its connection to education. You can substitute the word “Teachers” in place of “Workers” and it nicely describes the current climate in reform education these days:
THE PLAN
In the beginning was the Plan
And then came the Assumptions.
And the Assumptions were without form.
And darkness was upon the face of the Workers.
And they spoke among themselves, saying, “It is a crock of $#!+, and it stinks.”
And the Workers went unto their Supervisors and said, “It is a pail of dung, and we can’t live with the smell.”
And the Supervisors went unto their Managers, saying “It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it.”
And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying, “It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide it strength.”
And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another, “It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong.”
And the Directors went to the Vice Presidents, saying unto them, “It promotes growth, and it is very powerful.”
And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him, “This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigor of the company with very powerful effects.”
And the President looked upon the Plan and saw that it was good.
And the Plan became Policy.
And that is how $#!+ happens.
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TAGO! Bilgewater.
Will have to put the expletives back in to make it “right” again.
“And the Assumptions were without form.”
Yep, the assumptions being the epistemological* and ontological foundations** of the Educational Malpractice Plan (see above post).
*Epistemology (from Greek ἐπιστήμη – epistēmē, meaning “knowledge, understanding”, and λόγος – logos, meaning “study of”) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge[1][2] and is also referred to as “theory of knowledge”. It questions what knowledge is and how it can be acquired, and the extent to which any given subject or entity can be known. (from Wiki)
** Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences. (from Wiki)
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I have copied this! Thank you for your humor on a day that needs it. Can we alter with your permission? I will have a hard time citing Bilgewater though, but once again, thanks.
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How wonderful that the Gates Foundation approved.
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Trying to buy time to figure out what to do next.
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There goes her brand name recognition. I guess she figured to have a better chance rebranding, even if it entailed taking the last name of someone with scarily dubious character.
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To me this smacks of “good cop, bad cop”. While it is certainly ok news in the short term, there is no mention of or allusion to anything resembling a permanent end to VAM. That would be news worth crowing about. Considering the massive damage inflicted on VAM by the ASA report and the growing pushback against the CC$$, a fighting retreat like this was inevitable. Duncan is going to be out come 2016, the Gates foundation will be there indefinitely. Bad cop, good cop.It is critically important that we do not lose any momentum in the fight against the junk science of VAM, that we do not allow the absurd attacks on tenure to distract us from the other major front of this war for public education. The attack on tenure is the attack on unions, VAM is the primary weapon of the testing industrial complex. Both are aimed squarely at teachers and the teaching profession. I know we are all tired and dispirited, but we are winning in a lot of ways. Do not let this display of false, conciliatory weakness lull you into a false sense of security on the status of high stakes testing. Sorry for the buzz kill, but that’s the way it is.
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OMG, the irony of her working for a fertilizer company almost slipped right by me! LOL! She and her agenda were full of it!
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….a pacesetter?
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Her gig at Miracle-Gro won’t last long. With her on the board, sales will decrease and the stock will plummet.
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Another great article by Jason Stanford –
Testing is a lousy way to hold schools accountable
http://www.gazettextra.com/20140811/jason_stanford_testing_is_a_lousy_way_to_hold_schools_accountable#sthash.9icHyXFi.dpuf
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She’s probably getting ready to run for office. It would be great if she chose Ohio as her residence state. Miracle Gro is an Ohio company.
Ed reform is a disaster in this state. It’s a corrupt deregulated mess. The reputation of ed reform is much different at the state level than nationally, in my opinion. Ohio isn’t DC. We’ve latched onto every crackpot scheme and gimmick in the ed reform tool kit for the last 20 years in this state. We’ve seen it up close and personal.
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Duncan came to Ohio and met with 9 Ohio principals. According to Duncan, they complained about the numerous new ed reform mandates that are going in this year. They’ve lost funding under federal and state ed reform leadership and been given additional requirements. My own public school district has lost millions of dollars under Obama- Kasich (Obama-Kasich ed policy is identical).
Anyway, he delivered his usual patronizing scolding lecture in response to their concerns but nothing will change.
I’m sure they feel very “empowered” now that they’ve been “heard”
Public schools don’t have any advocates in government in this state. They’re political orphans.
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Does the HOUSE OF CARDS now come crumbling down with this piece taken out of place? I wish they could all, without rhetoric, explain their plans, and stands on all of this. When I weed through the rhetoric, all I get is $$$ for those who can invest in charters — and then many of the investors who have failed, simply walk away, profits in hand, and either never look back, or move on to create a mess elsewhere. They should all be held accountable. Every failed charter school should be investigated and if perpetrators are found, indicted.
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Henderson described the move “as necessary in order to allow students to acclimate themselves to new tests built around the standards established by the Common Core.
Students acclimated? and What of teachers? I think this is a temporary halt . In order to do a full halt DC would have to reject NCLB and RttT money and not pursue Teacher Incentive fund money. All require test scores for evaluating teachers.
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1. Another example of Gates’ long reach into places where he should not tread.
2. “By the way, Michelle Rhee has apparently changed her name to Michelle (Rhee) Johnson.” The first rule of reform is to rename everything…Nice try, Michelle. Your revised moniker is not going to fool anyone.
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Please tell me all of you who made such awful comments about another human being (Rhee) are not educators. I cannot believe the bullying that is going on. I have read a lot of articles about Michelle Rhee and she has never once personally attacked anyone or called anyone names. This is crazy! Making an opposing statement is mature, but attacking her personally, not cool. Wow, at the level of anger.
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Vegasteacher33,
I agree with you about the inappropriateness of personal attacks. I think what you are seeing/reading is the explosion of rage from teachers who feel that Rhee has made a career of belittling and vilifying them. She has a national platform in the media, they have none. They are voiceless.
I think it is quite appropriate to correct Rhee when she makes erroneous statements, as she often does in describing American teachers and students. Were you equally outraged when her organization created a video during the Olympics portraying the U.S. as a flabby bumbling man competing badly in a women’s sport? That was insulting not only to teachers and students but to our nation.
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“And now she’s Michelle Johnson. It will take more than a miracle to rebrand slime.”
This is one reason why I will never be on this side of the argument. The negativity and unprofessionalism from haters is just not worth it. I desire a change in education, as a mother and teacher. The Olympics video was not very classy, yes. But it isn’t worth me getting to such an angry state of mind that I would lash out personally at another person.
Where does Rhee belittle teachers? I’m truly asking a real question.
And thanks Diane for responding. 🙂
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Even to a lot of us who are not public school teachers, it is very obvious that a war has been waged against teachers and public education in this country and Rhee has been serving as a general in charge of leading many of the primary attacks.
When you know there are some bad apples in the bunch, you remove the rotten ones, not target the entire bunch. Actions speak a lot louder than words and the policies promoted by Rhee, Duncan et al. negate all their finely crafted PR statements.
As long as you remain on the other side, you are working against the best interests of teachers, children and families.
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And insulting to women!
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vegasteacher33,
Please spare us your sanctimony: the insults directed toward Rhee have been well earned by her unrelenting attacks against teachers, the profession and public education as a whole.
Take a look at this woman’s actual behavior toward other human beings (“Want to see me fire someone”?) before you get in a huff about the very mild language being directed toward her.
Actions speak louder than words, and Rhee is herself the profanity.
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I hope she fired admin who did not do their job. On tv? Not so good maybe. Her point is, “it’s time for change”.
Your perception is off. And you know it.
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vegasteacher,
I am a DCPS teacher. Rhee was absolutely ruthless and awful as chancellor. Part of her strategy was to go after teachers who were outspoken and critical of her reform ideas. I was harassed and my job threatened by one of her people in the central office because I dared to speak against closing a school in my neighborhood.
She has done many despicable things here. In response to a question about why she RIFed hundreds of teachers in the beginning of a school year after hiring hundreds of TFAers, she made a statement in a national magazine that she got rid of “teachers who had sex with children.” This completely exaggerated the truth and was very offensive to all of the teachers who were RIFed. By the way it was one teacher (not multiple teachers) who had sexual relations with a high school student.
I know of the principal Rhee fired on TV. All of the teachers who worked with him that I have talked with said he was a compassionate committed principal. He was sent by Rhee to a very chaotic school with sorely inadequate staffing. He could not work miracles and she wanted to prove how hardcore she was so he got axed on TV. Guess where this very same principal is now? He is the principal of one of the most highly regarded and expensive private schools in DC.
Rhee’s continuing disdain for anyone who gets in her way or her agenda does evoke a lot of anger, hence you see some name calling. But come on, you are outraged by someone calling her “slime.” I wish you would be so outraged at the damage she has done to thousands of poor black and Latino students in DC. She claims to care about children but is only beholden to the corporate education reform agenda.
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What’s the Teachers for Transformation Academy?
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It’s a program where teachers desire change in education.
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Great call, FLERP!
That’s a StudentsFirst organization. So she’s a shill for Rhee and the policies Rhee promotes, and she started off as a charter school teacher: http://www.studentsfirst.org/academy-teachers
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Oh darn, you caught me. Okay let’s hear it. I believe in reformation. I am a traditional public school teacher. I have worked in charter, but now I’m I’m a title 1 traditional public school and loving it.
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It’s a program established by Rhee at StudentsFirst where teachers promote the corporate “reform” agenda.
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vegasteacher:
“Where does Rhee belittle teachers? I’m truly asking a real question.”
Start with the Time article –
http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20081208,00.html
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Can you give me a specific quote from the article? I still don’t see where she’s belittling teachers. I’m confused.
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Yes, your comments show you are very, very confused.
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Duncan said, “we know there are many who looked to DCPS as a pacesetter”
Which planet do these “many” (and this speaker) inhabit? What a joke!
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As a veteran teacher of 15 years I never once considered myself to be one of the “bad” teachers. I think that we DO need to look more closely at evaluations and why they aren’t telling the true picture of our strengths and weaknesses.
I am on the side of students and not the side of disgruntled teachers. If your attacks were not as “loud” and hateful sounding, maybe I would take your comments more seriously. It’s time that educators have a mature and professional conversation about the changes that need to happen in our country. Not throwing name calling out there to prove a point.
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Try some “close” reading, vegasteacher33. I am not a public school teacher, as indicated in my title. I am a concerned citizen who is tired of seeing teachers and our public schools attacked. I have the right to call out these faux “reformers” who want to privatize our country’s system of public education. Their corporate backers own the media, so they have many bully pulpits where they spread their propaganda, while frustrated community members and teachers have few outlets to express their outrage, thus that’s vented in arenas like this.
So, besides corporate education “reformers”, exactly who are all these “many who looked to DCPS as a pacesetter,” as proclaimed by Arne Duncan, this country’s leading trasher of public education and chief promoter of privatization?
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“I never once considered myself to be one of the “bad” teachers.”
Maybe that’s the problem. I taught for over 40 years and often had to consider whether I was a “bad” teacher, because that’s what it means to be a reflective practitioner.
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Reflective, yes. Bad? No. Needed to improve? Yes. Always. But that doesn’t mean I’m bad- just reflective.
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You are not reflective if you “never once considered” whether you are “one of the ‘bad’ teachers,” as you already so clearly stated. Reflective teachers look at everything, hairy warts and all, not just if they need to improve.
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In all my years of teaching I never had peers or admin telling me I needed to make huge improvements. I don’t consider myself to be a bad teacher. Do you want all of my evaluations and admin names and numbers? Even my parents and students will vouch for me. If you ever consider yourself to be a bad teacher, then don’t teach. I’m sorry, but I never took Rhee’s message directed at me or any of the effective teachers.
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Only YOU really know what errors you’ve made behind closed doors, not the echo chamber of yes people who’ve seen your public performance and praised you. If you are incapable of even considering that you are a bad teacher, then you should not be teaching.
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If I don’t consider myself to be a bad teacher, then I’m a bad teacher? I don’t understand.
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You seem to have no clue about what is involved for teachers who are genuinely reflective practitioners. It means setting aside all the accolades from administrators, parents and students. It means looking frankly at what you and only you can know about yourself. It means objectively identifying and evaluating your own patterns of behavior, as well as acknowledging when, how and why you had a bad day (or hour or minute). It means HAVING to honestly consider whether or not you are “one of the bad’ teachers.”
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Yes, I agree with you. I do that on a daily basis. Reflecting objectively and taking in constructive criticism is important so that a teacher’s craft can improve – whether you have taught for 1 year or 30. So do we agree on that- that is what makes a good teacher? It’s not the total picture, but it is one characteristic.
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I think you lost all credibility when you said, “I never once considered myself to be one of the “bad” teachers.” That is not an indicator of reflective or critical thinking. It’s just tooting one’s own horn. I’ve worked with many teachers over the decades, most good, a few bad, and the genuinely good teachers don’t say that about themselves, but I’ve heard some truly awful ones declare that.
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I put the word bad in quotations because that is what was said in this original responses. I would never call a teacher bad. But it’s sad that someone wants to admit that I’m a bad teacher. Not very nice responses considering we are educators and/or parents. So sad.
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All teachers should take into consideration whether or not they are bad teachers –quotes or not. And from my take, this makes no sense and is unrelated to what Veteran Educator suggested: “But it’s sad that someone wants to admit that I’m a bad teacher.”
It takes guts and integrity for a professional to admit that they are not good at what they do, and it’s also the first step towards improvement. On the other hand, boasting about oneself and all who praise them is a red flag.
What more could be expected from a shill for Michelle Rhee though, who happens to be a “disgruntled teacher” herself, with an ax to grind because she was terminated due to LIFO. Personally, I think prior teaching experience in other districts should be counted towards seniority, but not experience in charters because I am vehemently opposed to privatizing our public schools.
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Can someone please show me one quote where Rhee put down teachers? Someone mentioned the TIME magazine article. Where exactly in that article?
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Do your research. I have every bit of entitlement to my opinion, as a parent, not a teacher, on Michelle Rhee, now suddenly hiding behind the name Johnson. She never used the name Huffman, and she has 2 daughters with him, who live with their father (likely to shelter them from the roaming hands of Johnson). She called those she fired in Washinton sex offenders; then she flew in to do damage control on her then fiancé, who was caught in a pedophile scandal that she helped bury, but its still alive and well on the internet. Her actions in DC, and yes elsewhere, were horrendous. Her policies, and her dealings with teacher, are atrocious. So, too, was the taping shut of little children’s mouths, and laughing about it now. Scandal follows her everywhere, yet she is forgiven. Pardon me for not being forgiving. I make no excuses about my opinion of her. If you want to line up and make apologies for her, you’re entitled, but I don’t have to do your research for you, and I thank you for not telling me what opinions I should have, or for chastising me as a human, for forming an opinion on the horrible Ms. Rhee. If you love her and her policies so much, God bless you, and move on.
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I couldn’t read through your response. So sad the things you stated about her personal life. :(. Shame, shame.
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“Shame, shame” on pedophiles who can afford to buy off their victims with hush money and defenders who claim to be for children!
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“IG-GATE: ‘HUSH MONEY’ CHARGE IN SACRAMENTO MAYOR’S SEX SCANDAL WAS PART OF PROBE”
http://spectator.org/blog/20971/ig-gate-hush-money-charge-sacramento-mayors-sex-scandal-was-part-probe
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The truth shall set you free, Michelle.
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The Rhee supporter has a blog.
http://vegasteacher33.wordpress.com
Vegas:
How would physicians respond if a narcissist attempted to blame America’s health care issues on “bad” doctors?
Yes – Rhee fits the criteria for the personality disorder.
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So I guess it IS the quantity of responses that matter with this war on education reform versus the quality of them. Bullying and lies is what gets your voice heard. Congrats. 🙂 Just please keep the negativity away from kids and the classrooms. My message was simply this:
1. Rhee has never ever disrespected her opponents in any way. Her classy style just angers you so much, to the point of you making yourself look disgruntled.
2. Most teachers are effective but we need stronger evaluations and easier ways to get rid of underperforming teachers.
3. LIFO should go away. It’s an ineffective and old way of retaining and laying off teachers.
4. When you are arguing your point, be more mindful of how you sound. Diane Ravitch should probably try to tone you down a little. It’s just unbecoming of teachers.
Peace out my fellow educators! May the force be with you! Haha.
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Rhee’s “classy style.” Hysterical! Which class is that? Elitist or Kindergarten?
It’s all about actions, not PR scripted speeches.
Based on your website and comments, no one appears more like a “disgruntled teacher” here than you.
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Vegas:
Are you a self-proclaimed teacher evaluation expert in all fifty states?
Is it classy to tape children’s mouths shut? Did she disrespect the children? The taping incident is child abuse and child protective services should have been called and lawsuits filed.
Rhee and her very small band of reformers should try going after underperforming doctors and attorneys since StudentsLast is about to fold. However, Rhee and the reformers can’t extract tax funds from hospitals and law offices like they have from public schools – so hospitals and law offices are safe for now.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-zucker/michelle-rhee-and-masking_b_801339.html
Have you thought about toning down your blog by being more mindful? In my view, your blog is unprofessional and petty.
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“Are you a self-proclaimed teacher evaluation expert in all fifty states?”
LL 1923, Based on the link she supplied below, not just all 50 states, but all the provinces in Canada, too!
Duane, Campbell Brown is also a know-it-all with a pretty smile. Maybe that lessens the pain for you, but an attractive executioner is still a cut-throat slayer who is out to get you and all of your colleagues. This one happens to be out for personal revenge, too, because she thinks her 61/2 months of work was more valuable than the years that other teachers put in at the school where she worked.
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Bullying and lies of your hero, Michelle Rhee. Frankly, were my children in your class, I’d request a different teacher because you are a spineless puppet. Haha? Indeed. Don’t go away angry and beaten my dear, just go away.
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Okay, here we go again, name calling. Wow. I guess we can’t discuss the issues at hand in a constructive way. I just hope you don’t act that way around your kids. Well, if you did request for them to leave my class, it would be a first in 15 years! But before they left my class, I would teach some ways to prevent bullying since they live with one. 🙂
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http://m.reviewjournal.com/news/education/education-reality-worse-numbers-show
And this is why I do what I do.
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And there you go again with your holier than thou attitude. Goading, judging, trying to dictate the behaviors of others and teasing does not make you look more mature than any of the people here.
You are just a union buster who is too wrapped up in your own sour grapes to appreciate the importance of labor union protections for workers who have had a history of being exploited, churned and burned. Your six and a half months of experience was not more valuable than the years that other teachers devoted to your school. Many companies have similar policies for rewarding and retaining employees with proven track records of expertise and years of loyalty, though more men than women have benefitted from those practices in our society. You are not anyone’s “betters” here. Get over yourself.
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Now you’re putting words in my mouth. I never ever said the “u” word in any of my responses. Ever. It seems you are grasping to just complain. Bye Felicia.
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You are sorely mistaken if you think you’re going to have it both ways, retain union protections and eliminate seniority rights for teachers. Your organization, StudentsFirst, has been actively working to incapacitate unions on every level, so teachers can be stripped of all of the hard earned rights that unions have gained for them over the decades.
StudentsFirst and their backers are doing it to promote privatized education and for financial gain. You are doing it for revenge. Anyone waging such an unscrupulous fight against their innocent colleagues has not earned the title of professional. (And I am not Felicia, but it sounds like she is onto your petty con game, too.)
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I have no financial gain by fighting for all students’ rights to get a decent education. Well, if you call my teacher’s salary financial gain…
But speaking of rights my friend,
all your rights that you are fighting for, it might be your right, but it isn’t the right thing to do.
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Revenge? That’s not my style. I just love my job as a teacher. I have heard so many negative comments from other teachers within the last 4 years that state they hate their job. They want more money, less work, lower number misbehaved kids, and they pretty much want to teach and test as they see fit. The complaints are endless with some of them. And they all have one thing in common. You figure that out. 🙂
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For someone who is supposed to be a master teacher in literacy, you sure have a problem with close reading. No one said that you were in it for money.
The “StudentsFirst” and “for the children” memes don’t work here, since it’s been so often demonstrated that they are just covers for personal, political, ideological and financial motives. You are very obviously fighting against your colleagues for personal revenge –and nothing is right about that.
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It’s readily apparent why Rhee’s job didn’t go to this one, despite the propensity to use the scripted lingo and buzz words. Denying what’s obvious, negative characterizations of coworkers and continued “holier than thou” posturing are not signs that one is apt to “play well in the sandbox.”
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Facts are facts. When you are able to quote or clearly state any of your points to your message, then maybe someone would agree. But until then…
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http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5652005
Vergara case
I’m not the only teacher that feels this way.
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” ‘There was a growing consensus in the education reform community that she didn’t play well in the sandbox,’ one reform leader said.” (Simon, 2014, para. 4).
Simon, S. (2014, August 13). Michelle Rhee drops out of school group. Politico. Retrieved August 14, 2014, from http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/michelle-rhee-drops-out-of-school-group-110002.htm
I saw no citations provided by you, but people who think they are better than others often feel they are entitled to behave differently from what they expect of others.
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No need to include citations for me to agree, since I actually read the posts and articles that Diane and others have provided here. Much of that is indeed factual and they carry a lot more weight than the propaganda and opinionated tripe proffered by the StudentsFirst troll.
“In Internet slang, a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.” From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
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Read the actual Vergara court case. It was brought by parents of students, not teachers, and it was never proven that those students had ineffective teachers.
The judge said his decision was based on the testimony of David Berliner, who provided a “guestimate” of the percentage of ineffective teachers, but Berliner said he “pulled that out of the air.” It was not a figure that was based on research data, so it’s very likely the decision will be overturned on appeal. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/06/judge_strikes_down_california_s_teacher_tenure_laws_a_made_up_statistic.html
Of course, one can always find a boat load of TFAers, as well as some disgruntled teachers with an axe to grind like you, who will jump onboard the corporate “reform” bandwagon and try to make life much more difficult for career educators.
One can only hope they get to personally experience the consequences of what they have wrought upon the profession, including being fired for rocking the boat, daring to stand up for the rights of children or teaching controversial subjects that parents disapprove of like evolution, because they have no academic freedom and can be terminated at the whim of administrators without due process.
Then they can really know what working for an “at-will” employer is like for teachers, like most of us in non-unionized private schools, who are paid minimum wage, receive no benefits, have no job security and live in fear of dismissal because they reported administrators and colleagues to the state for mistreating children, as I have. Oh the joys that await you!
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Reblogged this on seldurio.
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http://en.gravatar.com/vegasteacher33#pic-0
vegasteacher33
Las Vegas
“I am in my 12th year of teaching. I earned a B.S. in Elementary Education from Florida State University in 2000 and immediately attained a second grade position at a public school in the local school district. I transferred to the first local charter school and taught eight years at Bay Haven Charter Academy in Panama City, Florida in 2001. During this time I earned my National Board Certification in the area of Literacy/Language Arts in grades Early and Middle childhood. After moving to Las Vegas, Nevada due to my husband’s military career, I applied at the local school district. I taught first grade at a public school for 6 ½ months and was laid off due to “last in, first out” (LIFO) policies. With the threat of job insecurity, I signed on with a local private school where I currently teach Pre – Kindergarten. I am currently enrolled in an Education leadership Master’s program with a direct focus on charter schools.”
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http://m.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/imagine-the-uproar-if-we-weeded-out-bad-teachers/article18565795/?service=mobile
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Vegas:
How do you define a “bad” teacher? What about the TFA Rhee who put tape on children’s mouths? Is she a bad teacher by your evaluation of teachers?
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She shure is a feeiissttyy one, too!
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VT33 sho has a perddy smiiiile!!!
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Well thank ya so kindly.
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The Bay Haven Charter Middle School is for grades 6-8, and, according to GreatSchools.com, 73% of the students are white and 27% are on free and reduced lunch (the poverty measure).
At the Bay Haven Charter Academy, which serves K-5 (same address as the middle school), 82% of the students are white and 26% are on free and reduced lunch.
Precisely the kinds of schools that Southerners love in order to maintain segregation.
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That was one of my experiences as a teacher- Bay Haven. I’m now at a title 1 elementary school where the white students are the minority. ALL students deserve a good education. It’s not happening at the majority of the schools. The system is failing them. My interest is in the students and their families, not the rights of teachers. The most failing schools need the strongest teachers. It’s a pretty simple concept.
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So, now we get to hear the StudentsFirst propaganda. No surprise, since this is just one more of that organization’s tools who is pushing the corporate reform agenda. She is passing along the failing American schools myth, instead of the fact that the achievement gap between lower and higher income students exists in all countries and is an international issue, not a US problem –except that we have the shameful designation of highest child poverty rate of all developed countries:
“International tests show achievement gaps in all countries, with big gains for U.S. disadvantaged students”
http://www.epi.org/blog/international-tests-achievement-gaps-gains-american-students/
StudentsFirst’s concept of a qualified teacher is a 5 week summer school trained Teach for America recruit doing a two year stint in a ghetto school. Over 25 years of sending TFAers into low income areas has not ameliorated poverty, but they don’t get blamed for that, veteran teachers do. It’s time this country addressed poverty, including providing wrap around services, ECE and jobs with livable wages, instead of expecting career teachers to end poverty all by themselves.
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I too applaud District of Columbia decision not to evaluate teachers on student’s test scores. Too much has been thrown on to the students and teachers on this new format in testing. What are we suppose to be teaching and when. Not to mention, getting all the “bugs” out of the testing format. I hope other states also follow through with this action.
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I hope Florida does this!
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