Rhee? A poll of your opinion

[Anonymous]

Parent in DCPS east of the park.

Can. Not. Stand. Rhee!!

[Anonymous]

Believe me, as a present DCPS parent on the "wrong" side of the park, I take no delight in Rhee's failings.

I was a big cheerleader at first. She gives a fantastic interview and is very skilled in running a town hall type meeting.

I'm saying that as someone with children in the system, I see the damage she has done. Yes, she cleared out some dud teachers. She also terrified some wonderful ones who now teach in other school systems.

Based on what I've seen, I don't think Rhee has the experience OR demeanor to pull off systemic reform of DCPS. I do think she does a fine job of promoting herself and agree with an earlier poster who stated that most people don't care that their are real children, in the buildings right now, who are being hurt by her actions.

I had really hoped Rhee might be the one. I think she is the 4th super in DCPS during our time in the system and my oldest is only 10. I have lost all faith though. My children will stay in their elementary school as long as our principal remains.

We aren't even bothering to look at Deal. I think it has potential, but working under this regime is miserable for teachers and administrators. It's also hard on the children and these kids aren't abstract to me. These are my children and their little friends and they deserve better.

[Anonymous]

I would never work for DCPS again. Most of the joyful teaching and learning left in this system is in those secret spaces where teachers or administrators are teaching/learning on the lam The Cat Ate My Gymsuit Style (ie not when the 825 teacher and school eval team comes through with their phone book like checklists). Then everyone goes into pretend-mode.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I really don't see glee. That said, I do see occasional bursts of hope that finally people will realize the Empress has no clothes.

Honestly, Rhee herself seems uneducable. And I agree that whether intentionally or not (and there's clearly been some of both), she's driving good teachers out of the system.

Lately (and I don't think this was her orientation from the beginning -- I think it's a necessity is the mother of invention scenario), the plan seems to be to bring more upper middle class folks into the system as a way of increasing test scores. And new facilities look like one way of doing that. (Unlike Rhee, Allen Lew does know his business.) In this economy, lots of relatively affluent people are eager to believe that DCPS is on a roll and will give their kids a good education. Given that many of these schools start out high-functioning, it's recruitment rather than educational reform that will make a difference. The veneer of reform (Time Magazine covers) is just necessary for recruitment to succeed.

But what happens to the families whose kids attend schools that are struggling or failing? Does anyone have a (non-gentrification based) story of turnaround? Or is endless churn (closures, takeovers, restructuring, purges) all that's in store for them?

[Anonymous]

endless churn is an apt descriptor

[Anonymous]

I agree the Massachusetts standards are flawed but they were an improvement over what proceeded them and we felt the difference in the classroom the following year. As I've noted in a previous post, I do not understand why DCPS doesn't move to a curriculum model. Obviously a differentiated one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:17:09 As a parent of kids in DCPS I am curious, how are they flawed? I find it disturbing that a teacher, whose opinion really counts in this discussion, finds that these standards don't pass a laugh test. Do you know of standards used in other places that would be examples of usable and effective standards?

How are they flawed? The sequencing is terrible, especially in Social Studies (no world history until 6th grade, and then it's the whole world in 10 months!) and Science (this sequence makes no sense at all to me). The English/Language Arts standards are mainly skill-driven. Here in Washington, DC, which has a wealth of Shakespeare resources, are your children reading any Shakespeare before high school? Plus, there was no effort to promote integration across subjects.

Do I know of standards used in other places that are better? No. But that's not the point. The point is, let's stop defending this drivel and fix it. Best thing I've seen is the Core Knowledge sequence which is a supplemental curriculum developed to augment weak standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I really don't see glee. That said, I do see occasional bursts of hope that finally people will realize the Empress has no clothes.

Honestly, Rhee herself seems uneducable. And I agree that whether intentionally or not (and there's clearly been some of both), she's driving good teachers out of the system.

Lately (and I don't think this was her orientation from the beginning -- I think it's a necessity is the mother of invention scenario), the plan seems to be to bring more upper middle class folks into the system as a way of increasing test scores. And new facilities look like one way of doing that. (Unlike Rhee, Allen Lew does know his business.) In this economy, lots of relatively affluent people are eager to believe that DCPS is on a roll and will give their kids a good education. Given that many of these schools start out high-functioning, it's recruitment rather than educational reform that will make a difference. The veneer of reform (Time Magazine covers) is just necessary for recruitment to succeed.

But what happens to the families whose kids attend schools that are struggling or failing? Does anyone have a (non-gentrification based) story of turnaround? Or is endless churn (closures, takeovers, restructuring, purges) all that's in store for them?

Turnaround in two years? How is that a reasonable expectation? I agree with your larger premise re: high-functioning v. struggling schools, but the "endless churn" you refer to has been going on for only two years. What if we see significant change after five years? After decades of dysfunction and stagnation, wouldn't that be a pretty impressive result?

More to the point, though, I don't think we're going to get stories from truly struggling schools on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Turnaround -- as in a recognizable change in direction -- is certainly something that kids and parents and teachers could experience over the course of two years. I'm not talking about test scores skyrocketing. But, sheesh, given all of the people who have been hired and fired over the course of those 2 years, if bad teachers were the problem, then you'd expect some positive before and after stories. I'm not hearing them. And DCUM isn't the only place I look/listen.

I do hear lots of stories, systemwide, about demoralization. It's not as if Rhee hasn't had a major impact in two years. The question is whether/to what extent that impact has been a positive one.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Wow, I didn't look for 24 hours, and a huge number of responses. Thanks to all, and keep it coming. It is good to see this discussion includes parents and teachers (and people who are both). Its nice to finally see the reasoning behind some of the Rhee detractors, I'll admit up until reading some of this, I really dismissed the detractors b/c there was very little support provided for their positions. These responses have changed my mind.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I have a different view, but DCPS was a shambles when I attended in the mid to late 1970's. Everything I have read and heard suggests that it deteriorated significantly from there (I can only imagine based on my firsthand experiences).

Thus, we are talking about a total makeover, physical space, faculty etc in a relatively short period of time to fix something that suffered decades of neglect.

Is Rhee the right person and is she doing a good job? I do not know. What I do know is that the multiple heads of DCPS that preceded her have failed generations of Washingtonians and driven incredible demand for independent schools.

You can't undo this kind of neglect in two or three years, so while there are short term pains, we really won't know anything for a decade. In the meantime, it cannot be much worse than it had been.

[Anonymous]

I am a parent. My children are in a school east of the park.

I am telling you that Rhee has made things worse. I don't know how to stress that point enough.

Michelle A Rhee has made it worse at our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: In the meantime, it cannot be much worse than it had been.

I thought that too, but Rhee has changed my mind. Mismanagement of a certain sort leaves space for hardy, dedicated, and ambitious souls. But the process of taking control can drive people out of those spaces. Now one might argue that's the price you have to pay to avert disaster (stamping out excellence in order to stamp out failure -- in a system where anything goes and there's a lot more failure than excellence). I, personally, don't think that's true. (Identifying, praising, replicating pockets of excellence makes more sense to me, both from a practical standpoint (we know this works) and from a retention/reward standpoint (show that good work is appreciated)). But, assuming, for the sake of argument, that the position is a valid one. Then you have to use your control in ways that replace failure with success.

Nothing Rhee is doing seems to be of that nature because she doesn't seem to have a handle on how you achieve educational success in this environment. So replacing one set of bad teachers with an entirely new crowd of teachers with no experience (and, in lots of cases, no vocation for teaching -- TfA is a good holding pattern for economic refugees in times like these) and then firing a bunch of them after a year gets you nowhere. And it's worse than what went before. Now the good teachers feel at risk because firing decisions are arbitrary (and seem vindictive in some cases). And lots of staff turnover means that kids lose the friendly, familiar faces at their schools. Hell, some of those kids lose their schools. And at every step of the process the fact that you have little or no say in the process is continually impressed upon people (parents, kids, teachers). Powerlessness isn't a great motivator. Anything you build -- even if it's obviously working -- can be destroyed is the message that comes through loud and clear. No wonder exit is such a common response.

[Anonymous]

9:59, as a DCPS parent, I have to say you are spot on.

[Anonymous]

charter parent here. can't speak to the DCPS policies and impact, but i do worry about her actions in general. in my case, i worry about how she may come down on charters, since she is prone to quick and extreme "power moves."