G.F. Brandenburg has followed Michelle Rhee’s meteoric rise and fall.
He was first to blow the whistle on her specious claim that she raised test scores to miraculous heights as a brand-new teacher in a for-profit school in Baltimore.
Michelle Rhee: Is She Merely A Liar, or is She Just Stupid? You Decide
She was an unknown until Joel Klein found her and recommended her to Adrian Fenty, the new mayor of D.C.
Brandenburg has a plan for her.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They are not mutually exclusive …
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Yes
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OK, if she is both, is she a “stupid liar” or a “lying stuper”?
How can we decide?
Perhaps there is a test?
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If there’s a test, she’s already rigged it.
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feels as if, in fact, one might lead to the other
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To all that posted on this thread:
The article and your comments have gotten me thinking. I am still at it…
I am stuck, and struck as it were, on Rhee not as an individual but as an example of a certain type of person—leaving gender, political coloration, race/ethnicity, age, etc., out of consideration.
The corporate education reform movement has perfected the art of finding, promoting and “perfecting” a certain type of individual that—despite superficial differences—serves a few narrowly defined ends that lead, inexorably, to the Promised Land of $tudent $ucce$$ for the few at the expense of the many.
I am still working on this.
Many thanks to all you for your thoughts.
😎
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As to the answer to the question in the article’s title: “Yes.”
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Liar. Smile-in-face-stab-in-back, cravenly self-serving, human collateral damage-causing, pure evil liar. And those are her good points.
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The husband is no better. Creepy couple.
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Rhee’s children live with their father, not their mother. Could it be because of the record of her current husband?
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Oh Horror of Horrors . . .
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It is stupid to think one can get away with such an obvious lie forever.
Sadly, the amount of corporate money poured into keeping the public misinformed is enough to fool enough of the people enough of the time that a tragic waste of money, lives, and time will go for long enough to seem like forever.
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“stupid liar” it is.
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Yes, plus arrogant and greedy. Holy moly.
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Michelle Rhee is neither stupid nor a liar; she will say any cunning, conniving anything to propel herself, and she will believe it with all her cold heart. She is a sociopath. She, like David Coleman, doesn’t care what anyone thinks or feels. Her mother was concerned about her lack of empathy when Rhee was a child. And like a young child denying she used a magnifying glass to burn the wings off bees when she Rheely did, she believes what she says. She doesn’t care. Not stupid. Not dishonest. She’s just mean. The Rheeformers are mean. Cold blooded. She will always be the perfect face of Rheeform.
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Perhaps the closest to the truth analysis, IS!
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Thank you.
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When Rhee’s husband, Kevin Johnson, left as mayor of Sacramento, he received several millions in funds from the Walton Foundation. I do not remember what this type of funding is called but it’s purpose is to support someone’s advocacy activities. This was reported in the Sacramento Bee.
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I know a woman who was a dedicated teacher. Nights and weekends, the unsustainable effort kept her in her classroom at school, doing things by the book. At a new school, the principal soon recognized the gem he had and gave her 27 students, all of whom were scoring in the cellar on the tests. She worked and worked that year. By the end of the year, all of them were scoring at or above grade level on the tests. By the end of the year, she quit, exhausted. Even she could not sustain the effort needed to perform is miracle. I know her well. If she could not sustain such an effort, no one can. Other than some tutoring, she has remained out of education since then.
Part of the Rhee equation has to be laid at the foot of educators. The heroic view of the individual teacher, played in movies about Mr Holland or the LA math guy who did such a good job, is accepted by idealistic purveyors of education as the panecea for world strife. This idealism causes teachers and administrators to get on bandwagons quickly. Politicians, who never darken the doors of schools, use this fervor to guide a fickle voti population in their favored direction. The attitude makes us all five for the next big thing in education, be it tech or technique.
Miracles rarely happen, and when they do they are quiet. The kid who witnesses his father being murdered but continues to come to school and does well. The teacher who has patience with immaturity for two years and is happy to finally see maturity develop in the third. No stats bear witness to these things, for intangibles cannot be measured.
It may sound cynical, but there should be a rule of thumb. Life has taught me this rule. If it seems too good to be true, it may be false. Human being do not do miracles. Fabulous wealthy has usually been ill-gained when history finds out more of the story. Great athletic ability is often marred by doping scandal. The kind man who took e kids under his wing was really abusing them.
As teachers, we should claim to reality. The big stories will almost always be big lies. What we do is wonderful. Children benefit immeasurably. Collectively, our actions might be more of a miracle than we know. But we cannot know until much later. So let us cultivate our garden. Perhaps the plants will produce fruit.
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Roy, wise words indeed. Hollywood has much to answer for in concocting the myth of the miracle teacher, who turns the worst performing kids in the school into Harvard-bound scholars in a single year.
Mike Klonsky, the Chicago activist, once sagey told me that miracles happen in church, not school. Although it would indeed be a miracle if Chicago funded its public schools like the elite school where Rahm sends his children.
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Roy – you bring up lots of great points in terms of the miracle teacher (although the story in Stand and Deliver is a true story, as are some of the other Hollywood stories). That being said, they are rarity’s. More often than not, what happens in education is what you describe of the young woman who becomes exhausted and ends up leaving teaching. Burnout for teachers is real. It’s something that is not addressed nearly enough.
I cant’ defend the situation in DC nor can I defend Rhee. But I will say that change was needed in the district. Certainly Rhee did not bring about the right change. But change was needed. and from my vantage point, there have been spots of slow change. I do think that in education we need to do a better job of admitting where we are at and then expecting steady growth instead of miracles.
That being said, we can spend time here criticizing Rhee or others like her. We can say “See I told you” OR, to me, what is more valuable is to reset and consider what are ways to improve education in places like DC.
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There is a difference between productive change and mean, vindictive change.
Rhee personifies values that are antithetical to education.
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The tragedy of my story was that the teacher was a seasoned veteran who just could not go on. I could, however, have told of a much younger teacher I knew who caved in the third year of common core implementation. Your idea of steady growth is a good one, but we do not get steady growth with top down reform, and we do not get it on the cheap by trying to inspire teachers to measure up to Der Hauptmann super teacher. It takes stable communities with stable families who have hope and good jobs. Only then will average teachers get Hollywood reviews.
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All the tales of “miracle” teachers are nonsense, including stand and deliver. The “miracle” teachers in popular culture are authoritarian, often abusive, and do much more damage than good. It is, in part, the “miracle” mythology that fueled the tough love, no excuses practices that torment, belittle, regiment and intimidate small, vulnerable children, almost always children of color. These practices would never be tolerated in privileged, majority white schools, but somehow they are celebrated in communities of color because of the offensive idea that they are “necessary.”
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Unfortunately, too many whites and even black and Hispanic parents believe that tough love, strict conformity, no excuses, and even corporal punishment is good for minority kids and will lift them out of poverty. Although white kids who succeed need loving, creative, child centered education.
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¡¡¡Muy bien dicho, Roy, muy bien dicho!!!
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“The Miracle Teacher”
The miracle teacher is one who cares
And not about the test
The miracle teacher is one who dares
Her students to be their best
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“The Miracle Politician”
The miracle pol is one who acts
Exactly as he states
The miracle pol ain’t real, in fact
Cuz pol repudiates
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Diane,
What an outright SILLY, RIDICULOUS question in the title of your post!!!!
Obviously, Michelle Rhee is BOTH . . . . . .
Duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Doy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why do you think she shied away from debating with you in public? It’s like juxtaposing a grass fed free range organic filet mignon dinner at Stone Barns in NY to a hamburger in a Happy Meal.
PLEEEEEEZE!
And let me just add that Rhee is not only stupid and a liar, but that’s she’s outright crazy. Not a good combination . . . . She may as well be twin sisters with Ivanka.
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