Archives for category: Rhee, Michelle
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Give Rhee Credit for Higher Teacher Pay: LINK ADDED

By dianeravitch
August 20, 2013 //
9

The Washington Post reports that teachers in DC public schools have higher salaries than teachers in DC charter schools.

Charter schools can set their own compensation levels. Some have opted for reduced class size, or other amenities.

The higher salaries result from the 2010 contract negotiated by then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

The Post notes:

“The school system’s high salaries came with former Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s effort to push out ineffective educators and bring in outstanding ones. But private donations that initially funded the pay raises and bonuses dried up in 2012, and city taxpayers have now shouldered the costs. School budgets have been squeezed and class sizes have grown.”

Categories Charter Schools, Rhee, Michelle, Teachers and Teaching

Rhee Begins National Tour

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2013 //
61

Michelle Rhee announced that she is launching a national tour of “town halls” to discuss how to make every school a great school.

She will invite union leaders and teachers to attend as she stops in such cities as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Birmingham. She will be joined by Steve Perry, ex-CNN commentator, and George Parker, ex-president of the DC teachers union and now a member of Rhee’s staff.

“The Los Angeles event is scheduled for Sept. 5. A Birmingham stop will be held on Sept. 12, with a Philadelphia event to follow on Sept. 16.”

September 16 is a good time to be in Philadelphia. The city’s schools are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy after more than a decade of state control and harsh budget cuts. At the present moment, there is uncertainty about when and if they will open in September.

And even more fun: I will be speaking at the Philadelphia Free Library the next night, Septembet 17.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/michelle-rhee-invites-teachers-union-reps-to-new-town-halls-95539.html#ixzz2c28ncRTB

Categories Rhee, Michelle

Big Money Ready to Attack Tennesee Public Schools

By dianeravitch
August 6, 2013 //
8

Rightwing groups have targeted Tennessee as ripe for privatization on next year’s election.

Last election, Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst pumped more than $200,000 into Tennessee races, mostly to Republicans but also to a pro-voucher Democratic legislator.

The pro-privatization groups Democrats for Education Reform and Stand on Children are also likely to add funding to candidates who oppose public education.

These groups want to solidify the control of far-right Governor Haslam and a legislature that is hostile to public schools and professional teachers.

Big corporate and rightwing money can be defeated by an informed public.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle, Stand for Children, StudentsFirst, Tennessee

What is the Goal of Common Core Testing?

By dianeravitch
August 5, 2013 //
81

For months, school officials in many states have warned parents to expect proficiency rates on Common Core-aligned tests to plummet.

They have warned that the proportion of students rated proficient was likely to drop by as much as 30%.

When this happens, it will make public education in America look just as bad as the corporate reformers have been claiming.

When New York administered the first Common Core tests last spring, a copy of one fifth grade test was leaked to a Daily News reporter. She sent it to me and I studied it and concluded that the test questions were similar in difficulty to what was typically seen on an eighth grade NAEP test. I went to the NAEP website, looked at the released items and questions, and ranked the fifth grade test as “difficult” for an eighth grader.

Here is a report that I just received from the testing coordinator of a high-performing school in one of the best districts in New York:

“Just to let you know that because I am my school’s test coordinator I just looked at the scores for the ELA.  We are a “high achieving” school.  Last year only 5 students in grades 3, 4 and 5 got a level 1.  Now it is 32. Approximately 40% of our students scored levels 3 and 4 this year down from about 80% last year.  What does this mean?  Nothing because a test that measures skills that could not possibly be taught and is developmentally too hard is INVALID.”

So why the rush to make the tests so hard that more students will fail?

Rick Hess wrote last fall that many of the “reformers” believe that the terrible results (eagerly anticipated by them) will cause suburban parents to demand “reforms” and an escape from their neighborhood schools.

I can’t help but recall that David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core standards, was the treasurer of the board of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst in its first year. If the Common Core tests produce a collapse of proficiency rates, then it makes Rhee and her attacks on public schools look good. Will everyone run for the exits and demand charters and vouchers?

Sick thought, but inescapable.

 

Categories Coleman, David, Common Core, NAEP, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Testing

Why Will No Major National Paper Publish John Merrow’s Story About Rhee?

By dianeravitch
July 31, 2013 //
37

From the time Michelle Rhee started her run in DC, John Merrow was there to chronicle her progress on PBS. He posted a dozen episodes of her trials and triumphs. But last year, he began to have doubts. He began to wonder how widespread the cheating was and how much she knew. He hit a stonewall.

An experienced journalist, he wrote an opinion piece reviewing his findings. But suddenly, no one cared. Despite the fact that she had appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek, the editors said she was not a big story.

Read John Merrow and see if you agree.

Categories Rhee, Michelle

House of Cards: The Michelle Rhee Story

By dianeravitch
July 30, 2013 //
8

The Badass Teachers Association has produced a series of videos to explain the intricacies and deceptions of corporate reform.

The first laid out the corporate reform strategy.

The second examined the Broad superintendents.

The third looks closely at the legacy of Michelle Rhee.

The thesis that ties them together is that “reform” is a house of cards built on lies that will inevitably fall down, as houses of cards tend to do.

Categories Accountability, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Rhee, Michelle

How Enron $till Put$ Student$ Fir$t

By dianeravitch
July 23, 2013 //
10

Enron may have gone bankrupt, and its employees may have lost their life savings, but it left some people very rich.

Here EduShyster tells the story of Texas billionaire John Arnold. He is one of the lucky few who managed to walk away from the Enron debacle with more than $3 billion. Some former Enron execs are doing time. Not Arnold. You know he must be smart because he got out before the roof fell in, and the bottom fell out.

And how does he spend his vast wealth?

He does what canny investors do: he pours millions into the struggle to privatize American public education. He has given millions to KIPP, StudentsFirst, and TFA. And he has a special interest in making sure that teachers don’t have pensions.

Billionaires have a hard time understanding why anyone needs a pension. They don’t need pensions. Why should teachers get them?

Categories Charter Schools, KIPP Charter Schools, Luna, Tom, Pensions, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Teach for America TFA, Teachers and Teaching

New Republic: Why Is Rhee in Tennessee?

By dianeravitch
July 9, 2013 //
17

In The New Republic, Jeff Guo writes about Michelle Rhee’s brazen attempt to buy the Tennessee legislature. In the last election cycle, she supported hard-right Republicans except for one Democtatic legislator who supports vouchers. This renegade also supported the notorious “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which sought to prevent teachers from discussing homosexuality. (Rhee’s StudentsFirst named the author of the “Don’t Say Gay” as its “Reformer of the Year.)

Guo tries hard to understand how a “reformer” parrots the same education agenda as the far right, ALEC, and others who despise public education and unions. He doesn’t get the connection among Rhee and other corporatist organizations like TFA and Stand on Children.

The grand deception: Using progressive rhetoric, even appropriating the language of the civil rights movement, to advance reactionary goals and privatize public education.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Tennessee

Rhee Returns–in Texas

By dianeravitch
July 8, 2013 //
27

Following John Merrow’s withering critique of Michelle Rhee’s tenure in D.C.,–in which he debunked all of her claimed gains– as well as his continuing effort to obtain documents about the cheating scandal, Rhee kept a low profile.

But Jersey Jazzman has tracked her down. She will appear at a statewide charter school conference in Fort Worth, Texas, next December.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, Texas

Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst Fundraising Falls Flat

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
21

When Michelle Rhee announced on “Oprah” the creation of her group called “StudentsFirst,” she said she would raise $1 billion in one year.

Then she backtracked and said she would raise that amount in five years.

Joy Resmovits of Huffington Post got copies of the group’s tax forms (which are made public), and Rhee is far short of her goal.

“In the fiscal year starting August 1, 2011 and ending July 31, 2012, StudentsFirst raised $28.5 million, more than tripling its $7.6 million fundraising the previous year. During that period, the group’s political 501(c)(4) arm raised $15.6 million and spent $13.4 million. Rhee herself drew a salary of about $300,000.”

At the rate Rhee is raising money, it will take her more than 25 years to raise $1 billion.

Categories Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst
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