Michelle Rhee

[Anonymous]

"They are all" I mean.

[Anonymous]

This is a really interesting thread. I think that PP 13:55 makes a lot of excellent points at the same time, that post really disheartened me.

Throughout this well reasoned and otherwise very informed post there seems to be a tacit assumption that all African-Americans are lower or at best middle class. Compared to many other cities, DC has a fairly substantial number of upper middle and even upper class African-Americans. Not an insignificant number of us around here even graduated from Ivies and other brand name universities. This matters because it is important for everyone to understand that African-Americans are not some monolithic, homogeneous "community" but individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences like any ethnic, racial, religious or other population group.

Perhaps the thing that scares me away from DCPS most -- be it JKLM or sought-after Charter -- is my fear that many (if not most) of the White parents and teachers would make the same kind of assumption . The assumption being that my child comes from a (relatively) underprivileged, undereducated family because we are Black. Unfortunately, the 1355 post seems to confirm this suspicion.

I'm fairly sure this was not the intention whatsoever and she/he is a person that I would probably like a lot in real life. But please do be careful and think a little bit about these kinds of generalizations.

[Anonymous]

My assumptions from observing my upper class black friends is that they don't pop their kids in schools with predominantly low-SAS black kids. My assumption is that they are in the schools with the upper income white kids, or have fled the city.

[Anonymous]

21:30 and 22:17 are hitting the nail on the head. Middle and upper class African-Americans are not visible in DCPS or the dialogue about public schools. Many left DCPS at least a decade before Michelle Rhee came along.

Since I am part of this group and our kids attend a JKLM I will give my view. We are fine with what is going on at our school - I can't say that I would give Michelle Rhee all the credit, but I have no complaints. I think what you will find is that middle and upper class blacks that are in DCPS have a similar perspective and more in common with their white counterparts. However many have no plans to stay through high school.

When you start to look at reform efforts outside of one individual school its more complicated. There is a huge disconnect. Here we are a black JKLM family having a positive experience and many, many other families in the city are not. What I don't like about Rhee is her total inability to develop positive relationships with parents who are unhappy and what appears to be a total inability to work collaboratively with others to improve schools. I think one time she was quoted as saying that collaboration and partnership are overrated. That statement completely turned me off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 13:55 PP makes some interesting points; on many of them I concur. But she/he's also missing the fact that there's a pretty substantial black upper-middle class population that either never sends their kids to DCPS or sends them for elementary and then moves to private. These parents (I'm one of them) need to buy into the system as well, and Rhee isn't appealing to them on any level. Fenty may be sending his kids to DCPS for now to make some political points, but many of his friends aren't, or they bail after elementary.

This is one of the more interesting threads I can remember (and civil! bravo!). Lots to think about. Maybe this is the wrong impression, but I think the bolded point above is true for parents/students of all races. How many of those kids from affluent, educated families in JKLMO will be attending DCPS high school?

I feel for Rhee (although it seems like she has almost a compulsion to say precisely the wrong thing). Reforming DCPS is a HUGE job, and it's tough to know where to begin. I think it would have been better for the system to stary as one PP said - at schools with more diverse in-bounds populations. However, it's tough to fault her for picking the low-hanging fruit, given the consequences of failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 13:55 PP makes some interesting points; on many of them I concur. But she/he's also missing the fact that there's a pretty substantial black upper-middle class population that either never sends their kids to DCPS or sends them for elementary and then moves to private. These parents (I'm one of them) need to buy into the system as well, and Rhee isn't appealing to them on any level. Fenty may be sending his kids to DCPS for now to make some political points, but many of his friends aren't, or they bail after elementary.

This is one of the more interesting threads I can remember (and civil! bravo!). Lots to think about. Maybe this is the wrong impression, but I think the bolded point above is true for parents/students of all races. How many of those kids from affluent, educated families in JKLMO will be attending DCPS high school?

I feel for Rhee (although it seems like she has almost a compulsion to say precisely the wrong thing). Reforming DCPS is a HUGE job, and it's tough to know where to begin. I think it would have been better for the system to stary as one PP said - at schools with more diverse in-bounds populations. However, it's tough to fault her for picking the low-hanging fruit, given the consequences of failure.

I posted earlier in regards to assuming that Black families in this city care very little or naught for the education of their children. Our family has decided to try the charter route for ES. I do feel guilty for not placing my energies and efforts into supporting our neighborhood school. Such as life. If the charter school does not meet the educational expectations we have set forth for our child, my family will begin the process of applying to suitable private institutions. We are hopeful however that DS will have a positive experience at his charter (Yu Ying) and then move on to SWW or Banneker. We are not affluent, but we make more than enough money to have alternatives to DCPS, but I would rather stash that cash in a 529 fund.

[Anonymous]

Also, in response to 9:29, I have no sympathy for Ms. Rhee. Yes she chose the low hanging fruit at the detriment to all the students of the District of Columbia. It would have served the city well if Ms. Rhee had reached out to the parents for change, instead of making her immediate attack on the unions. The parents in this city have been clamoring for change in DCPS, but Ms. Rhee came in with I have all the answers and do as I say attitude. Believe me, the parents are no more supportive of the union and ineffective teachers and with parental support, Ms. Rhee would have gotten so much further with an agenda. What harm would it have rendered had she started making positive change in the the schools on the cuff of excelling. The schools with active and vocal parents, but not necessarily the most affluent. The Ross, Langdons, Burroughs, Cookes, Shephards, etc. The parents at these schools are either very active and/or very diverse in racial and economic makeup. Instead, as I mentioned earlier, she tinkers with Eaton, Hardy and Oyster. Those schools were not broken or in need of a boost to get them to the next level. Unfortunately, I do not know what the alternative is to Rhee. I have noticed little, if any, accomplishments from this administration in regards to education. Yet, I would readily admit, I do not know alternatives that would provide any difference. Sorry for the rambling, but thank you for the opportunity.

[Anonymous]

RE the school closures. I thought the Post (generally quite boosterish wrt Rhee and Fenty) was really misleading on that issue. They printed the test scores of the schools being closed without showing the test scores of the schools where kids were being sent instead. Often (I think it was about 1/3 of the time) the receiving school was even worse than the closed school.

Apparently Rhee doesn't know how to build -- only how to destroy. Her strategy for raising test scores seems to be gentrification -- bring more high scores into the system, drive out poor performers -- plus endless test prep for kids at the margin. None of this involves DCPS providing a better education for any of its students. And she's created such a hostile and arbitrary workplace environment that I can't see how she will be able to attract or retain good teachers.

Before she was hired, I didn't see how DCPS could get much worse. Now I know.

[Anonymous]

For the posters who are down on DCPS and/or Rhee, can you share your neighborhood ES and why you won't enroll your DC there? What would make you change your mind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, in response to 9:29, I have no sympathy for Ms. Rhee. Yes she chose the low hanging fruit at the detriment to all the students of the District of Columbia. It would have served the city well if Ms. Rhee had reached out to the parents for change, instead of making her immediate attack on the unions. The parents in this city have been clamoring for change in DCPS, but Ms. Rhee came in with I have all the answers and do as I say attitude. Believe me, the parents are no more supportive of the union and ineffective teachers and with parental support, Ms. Rhee would have gotten so much further with an agenda. What harm would it have rendered had she started making positive change in the the schools on the cuff of excelling. The schools with active and vocal parents, but not necessarily the most affluent. The Ross, Langdons, Burroughs, Cookes, Shephards, etc. The parents at these schools are either very active and/or very diverse in racial and economic makeup. Instead, as I mentioned earlier, she tinkers with Eaton, Hardy and Oyster. Those schools were not broken or in need of a boost to get them to the next level. Unfortunately, I do not know what the alternative is to Rhee. I have noticed little, if any, accomplishments from this administration in regards to education. Yet, I would readily admit, I do not know alternatives that would provide any difference. Sorry for the rambling, but thank you for the opportunity.

Well put, pp!
It drives me crazy that when some people like me criticize her leadership style, some of her supporters act as if that means we all support the status quo, bad teachers, and bad administrators. Rhee is making enemies where she could have had supporters -- or at least people who were not upset enough to actively oppose her.

She tries to fix a school which isn't broken without informing the parents, teachers, or administrators. Then when we get upset, she goes on about how she really cares about kids and she doesn't care if she's not popular. But does she care about getting things done? Telling me that my views are irrelevant and creating division where it wasn't necessary are not ingredients for actually accomplishing effective change when she could have had my support or at least my unwillingness to interfere. Instead I wrote the mayor and all of my council members about incidents with two schools that my child doesn't even attend anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 13:55 PP makes some interesting points; on many of them I concur. But she/he's also missing the fact that there's a pretty substantial black upper-middle class population that either never sends their kids to DCPS or sends them for elementary and then moves to private. These parents (I'm one of them) need to buy into the system as well, and Rhee isn't appealing to them on any level. Fenty may be sending his kids to DCPS for now to make some political points, but many of his friends aren't, or they bail after elementary.

This is one of the more interesting threads I can remember (and civil! bravo!). Lots to think about. Maybe this is the wrong impression, but I think the bolded point above is true for parents/students of all races. How many of those kids from affluent, educated families in JKLMO will be attending DCPS high school?

I feel for Rhee (although it seems like she has almost a compulsion to say precisely the wrong thing). Reforming DCPS is a HUGE job, and it's tough to know where to begin. I think it would have been better for the system to stary as one PP said - at schools with more diverse in-bounds populations. However, it's tough to fault her for picking the low-hanging fruit, given the consequences of failure.

I posted earlier in regards to assuming that Black families in this city care very little or naught for the education of their children. Our family has decided to try the charter route for ES. I do feel guilty for not placing my energies and efforts into supporting our neighborhood school. Such as life. If the charter school does not meet the educational expectations we have set forth for our child, my family will begin the process of applying to suitable private institutions. We are hopeful however that DS will have a positive experience at his charter (Yu Ying) and then move on to SWW or Banneker. We are not affluent, but we make more than enough money to have alternatives to DCPS, but I would rather stash that cash in a 529 fund.

I mostly agree, PP. (And I wonder if we're in the same class at Yu Ying? As an aside, I think we're hoping to get involved in growing to a high school when the time arrives. I'd love to see our child do the IB diploma and complete high school in Mandarin!) In any event, I don't feel any guilt about abandoning the neighborhood school. Our priority for our child is a high quality education, but just as important that the school has high expectations of achievement and character of its students. I don't see these being sufficiently addressed under a Rhee administration, where I think the low-hanging fruit amounts to incremental gains in test scores and strictly elementary education.

When Rhee first arrived on the scene I admired what I saw as her willingness to "make the right enemies." Over time my point of view has slowly but surely turned against her. This is a city with enough divisiveness - sometimes racial, but frequently around socio-economic status. I see her "collaboration is over-rated" attitude as part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

9:29 here - this is precisely the reason I have some sympathy for Rhee - everyone has an opinion (and a strong one at that) as to how she should have gone about this process, and what she did wrong. Don't get me wrong - she's had a number of missteps, and I would have done a many things differently myself (although I think taking on the union was a necessary component of any reform). That doesn't mean I can't recognize how difficult the job is, and what a difficult position she is in.

[Anonymous]

It's a difficult job and everybody has an opinion. But what has Rhee done right or well? What progress, for example, has she made by/in taking on the union? In asking this, I'm not suggesting that there's no point in taking on the union -- I'm saying I don't see any positive reform that has come out of her efforts at union-busting. She hasn't got a new contract, she's been firing people arbitrarily and at times when it's really disruptive to students. I don't get any sense that there's a net improvement in the quality of the teaching staff --just lots of churn, chaos, fear, and demoralization.

[Anonymous]

To the PP who asked:

My neighborhood school is HD Cooke and I don't send my child there for 2 reasons: 1) he is academically advanced and the test scores are extremely low - DCPS is not good at differentiating, and 2) safety - the school is located in an open air drug market, people have been shot on that block (not during school hours to my knowledge).

We go out of bounds to a school west of the park.

[Anonymous]

PP here, yes, we fully appreciate our good fortune. Considered Haynes and Cap City but probably would have moved to MC otherwise.