interesting: every dcps parent i talk to in person supports rhee

[Anonymous]

I am a parent/teacher with a child at in NW Dc elementary and I do not support Rhee.

[Anonymous]

Did support Rhee, not lately. Dumb mistakes. Would support her again in partnership with Gray. Maureen Diner, Oyster-Adams parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This isn't what I see at all. Please review some of the posts I've written about the Chancellor--I believe there's one in this very thread. Look at Jeff's list of criticisms.

Sure, there are people on both sides that seem to make this bizarrely personal. But I don't believe that such people are the majority. As I've said before, give us some credit.

I concede that Jeff has a list of valid criticisms. I disagree--or disagree on the matter of relevance--but that's kosher in politics. I haven't made a study of your posts, but you sound pretty reasonable. I'm talking about the numerous commenters who are clearly driven insane by Rhee. If that's not you, that's fine. But they're out there in force; and there's not an equivalent to them on the pro-Rhee camp.

Different poster here. What pisses me off is that I provide legitimate criticisms but then am told by some Rhee supporters that a) I'm irrational and insane and b) I really like mediocre teaching and poor administration and c) I'm Marion Barry's biggest fan. Which makes me very angry -- which you might interpret as being "driven insane."

I'd say the equivalent of your "Rhee-haters" in the pro-Rhee camp are the people who make their case by accusing us critics of a through c -- over and over again. Maybe we should call them the "Rhee glory choir" because they sing the same old song without engaging in real discussion of the issues. Maybe you can't see how crazy they are because you agree with them but they certainly have distorted and lowered the level of discourse.

But then again, I'm just a "Rhee-hater" so feel free to disregard my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This isn't what I see at all. Please review some of the posts I've written about the Chancellor--I believe there's one in this very thread. Look at Jeff's list of criticisms.

Sure, there are people on both sides that seem to make this bizarrely personal. But I don't believe that such people are the majority. As I've said before, give us some credit.

I concede that Jeff has a list of valid criticisms. I disagree--or disagree on the matter of relevance--but that's kosher in politics. I haven't made a study of your posts, but you sound pretty reasonable. I'm talking about the numerous commenters who are clearly driven insane by Rhee. If that's not you, that's fine. But they're out there in force; and there's not an equivalent to them on the pro-Rhee camp.

Different poster here. What pisses me off is that I provide legitimate criticisms but then am told by some Rhee supporters that a) I'm irrational and insane and b) I really like mediocre teaching and poor administration and c) I'm Marion Barry's biggest fan. Which makes me very angry -- which you might interpret as being "driven insane."

I'd say the equivalent of your "Rhee-haters" in the pro-Rhee camp are the people who make their case by accusing us critics of a through c -- over and over again. Maybe we should call them the "Rhee glory choir" because they sing the same old song without engaging in real discussion of the issues. Maybe you can't see how crazy they are because you agree with them but they certainly have distorted and lowered the level of discourse.

But then again, I'm just a "Rhee-hater" so feel free to disregard my opinion.

Well, it's a formula that worked for Obama with the media, so you can't really blame someone else for giving it a try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard to engage when folks are accusing her of fucking Fenty (as someone "joked" on one thread yesterday). Or that she hates black women because she's asian (as someone said on another thread).

Sorry, but that turns me off for some reason.

Yeah, well that's one idiot that other Gray supporters wish we could jettison from our ranks. We get why you dislike her, because we do too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What irritates me is the unbelievably short memories people seem to have. Does nobody remember what things were like pre-Rhee? No books, horrible registration process, principals unable to get rid of ineffective staff, music and art seen as luxury items, lousy test scores on lousy tests, a revolving door of superintendents who could not cope with the entrenched system and quit and/or were no good. Here comes someone who came in and really *did* things. Not all of them have been first-rate, not everything she's done has been perfect or PC, but things have moved since Rhee took over and she has stayed. To me, she seems motivated by a desire to make things better, not to become famous. It's disheartening to see how the big picture is overlooked by petty complaints. Who would want this job? Who would do a better job? I haven't seen any evidence that Gray could attract and retain a more talented person. I fear we'll go right back to the way things were in a short period of time and all you complainers will be complaining again.

Thank you! I agree 100 percent.

I completely agree! People have incredibly selective memory. Doesn't anybody else remember that just a few years ago, schools weren't opening on time because of poor building conditions? That there weren't even enough textbooks, for crying out loud?

To all the Rhee haters out there. just stop for a second, look at the facts and ask yourself what you would do if you had her job. How would you go about it? Rhee rocks. She's got guts and conviction and she's not afraid of what people think.

[Anonymous]

And just a few years ago, there wasn't the structure in place for someone like Rhee to be able to control some of these issues. When the Council passed the school takeover legislation (opposed by Fenty), it took the physical plant out of the hands of the School Board. It took many of the coordination efforts out of the hands of politicians and into the hands of professionals.

Is Rhee a panacea? No, she was brought in by a mayor who opposed the very legislation and authority to which the Rhee Kool-Aid drinkers are praising her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And just a few years ago, there wasn't the structure in place for someone like Rhee to be able to control some of these issues. When the Council passed the school takeover legislation (opposed by Fenty), it took the physical plant out of the hands of the School Board. It took many of the coordination efforts out of the hands of politicians and into the hands of professionals.

Is Rhee a panacea? No, she was brought in by a mayor who opposed the very legislation and authority to which the Rhee Kool-Aid drinkers are praising her.

NP here. Thank you for pointing that out! Some people act like Rhee personally has single-handedly improved DCPS where dozens of people have failed before her. In reality, Rhee is the first individual to be empowered to make and enforce decisions directly affecting even the basic logistics of DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Right, 10:37. Rhee is simply the first superintendent with a free hand to make changes.

I like to think that another superintendent could have made necessary changes without also doing so much harm, offending so many people and setting up a personality cult.

[Anonymous]

People, get it straight once and for all: Rhee has had no influence whatsoever on school buildings' conditions upon opening. All of that messy facilities stuff was taken (thankfully) away from the Chancellor/Superintendent's purview leaving them to supervise teaching and learning exclusively. Unfortunately Rhee has squandered much of that opportunity on a national edu-business agenda with little thought to the most needy in the city. The facts are the facts: test scores have begun to DIP under her direction, and the gap between economic classes (and racial) has widened. So, she has succeeded in bringing attention nationally to the shame of neglect in our public schools but failed locally at actually doing anything about it her own backyard. And Fenty failed by letting her run wild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did support Rhee, not lately. Dumb mistakes. Would support her again in partnership with Gray. Maureen Diner, Oyster-Adams parent.

Ditto! Though I'm not as brave as Maureen to out myself. Fenty has done Rhee a disservice by pinning the election on her. She already did her mea culpa (WaPo letter, contract etc.) But then continued to run her mouth. Gray would not have let her singe political bridges that didn't need to be torched in the first place.

I can't wait for it to be over so we can all move on.

[Anonymous]

I like to think that another superintendent could have made necessary changes without also doing so much harm, offending so many people and setting up a personality cult.

Right, but the counter-argument is that it's the change specifically that pisses off some non-trivial subset of stakeholders. It's inevitable. And the only way that a chancellor will be able to procede without "offending so many people" is by being ineffective.

Regardless of whether Rhee has been perfect (I think not), whoever comes in after her, if we assume they'll do a *much* better job, will piss off just as many people if not more. They may be a different non-trivial subset, but it'll happen nonetheless.

Either that or we'll get four-years of consensus-building and zero concrete action.

[Anonymous]

Hasn't anyone read the article in Time magazine this week about education reform regarding the new documentary "Waiting For Superman"? They cite Rhee and Fenty and seem astonished that they are getting so little acknowledgement from the DC population for the improvements that they are effecting here.

I fear we are never going to get past point. Gray will push us backwards and our progress will have been in vain. He's going to hire back the ineffective teachers who I hope end up in his supporters' classrooms and not my son's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I like to think that another superintendent could have made necessary changes without also doing so much harm, offending so many people and setting up a personality cult.

Right, but the counter-argument is that it's the change specifically that pisses off some non-trivial subset of stakeholders. It's inevitable. And the only way that a chancellor will be able to procede without "offending so many people" is by being ineffective.

Regardless of whether Rhee has been perfect (I think not), whoever comes in after her, if we assume they'll do a *much* better job, will piss off just as many people if not more. They may be a different non-trivial subset, but it'll happen nonetheless.

Either that or we'll get four-years of consensus-building and zero concrete action.

Sure change in and of itself might piss off some subset of stakeholders but you wouldn't have me and I hazard to guess a good number of Gray supporters on this board pissed off who have seen genuine negative effects of various kinds. Then the people who are just pissed off at change generally would probably just grumble a bit to themselves and go along with the program. But the problem is that Rhee has demonstrated her ineffectiveness in a number of different ways, one of them being the removal of Patrick Pope from Hardy. If she had never done that, I (along with I'm sure a boatload of other Hardy parents) wouldn't have contacted all of my reps on council as well as complained to the Mayor, while continuing to oppose her in this and other forums.

Yes, effective change agents piss people off but effective change agents understand how far they can push people and they also implement changes that are generally good for the schools and the communities that support them. Steamrolling over parents as you make their school worse is not the act of an effective change agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hasn't anyone read the article in Time magazine this week about education reform regarding the new documentary "Waiting For Superman"? They cite Rhee and Fenty and seem astonished that they are getting so little acknowledgement from the DC population for the improvements that they are effecting here.

I fear we are never going to get past point. Gray will push us backwards and our progress will have been in vain. He's going to hire back the ineffective teachers who I hope end up in his supporters' classrooms and not my son's.

First of all, not all of the teachers that have been let go are ineffective.

Secondly, there's no evidence that Gray would reinstate ineffective teachers.

Finally, you are assuming that the Fenty/Rhee formula for reform is the only way the go. There's a problem with the belief that you can improve education simply by threatening and firing teachers. It's difficult to win the war when you're firing on your own troops.

Forget about "Waiting for Superman". Watch "Race to Nowhere".