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Michelle Rhee
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Anonymous
You can say that again! And really, to what end? I think the recent flap over whether or not to reopen the schools on Monday was taken by the teachers as an attempt to make them look bad, based on chats with a few friends who teach in DCPS. The line from my kid's school wasn't "thanks to all of the teachers who made it in for PD day", but rather "most teachers made it in for PD day". And yes, the principal is a Rhee crony, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The picture on the cover of Time holding a broom was in extremely poor taste IMHO. Yes there are bad teachers in DCPS but that is far from the only problem. |
Anonymous
Open air drug market and shooting? I had no idea. Is this recent? The neighborhood looks nice.
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Anonymous
1. Langdon Montessorie ES 2. The building is dark and dingy; the school was increased to the 8th grade level; foreign language was removed from the curriculum; I do not like the uncertainty of changing teachers in the middle of the semester due to poor DCPS budgeting; the afterschool program is undesirable; the teachers teach to a test and not for educational purposes; inadequate technology; the feeder HS; I don't like the feel of teachers walking around on eggshells, as I believe that it rubs off on the students; the active parents are looking for an out. 3. Nothing. Langdon was a blue ribbon school and I was willing to initially try the Montessorie school out. At the time, the students matriculated in the sixth grade and Spanish language was taught to the students. Any value the school had has been lost in my opinion. Therefore, all I can see are the negatives. I suppose there are some, not many, who would disagree with my assessment. |
Anonymous
No, the area around H.D. Cooke (17th and Euclid) has been like that as long as I have lived in Adams Morgan. Not going to hunt for the particular links now, but prior to the rennovation I believe that the police used to find guns hidden in the bushes on school grounds (perhaps after school hours?) and in the bases of the lamp posts on 17th, not sure of the status of that currently but at one point the lamp post was so interfered with that it was in danger of falling. Some other examples and I'm sure that you could readily find more, sadly: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=29761 AdamsMorgan : Message: Re: Gun recoveries at 17th and Euclid ... 2 posts - 1 author - Last post: Jan 6, 2005 I just wanted to let you know that we start the New Year off with three less guns around 17th and Euclid Streets. ... groups.yahoo.com/group/AdamsMorgan/message/7367 July 2008 Re: [Adams Morgan] Shooting at 17th & Euclid This editorial from the Post 17th and Euclid Wash. Post Op-Ed Reply < Prev Message | Next Message > Colbert King wrote an op-ed in Saturday's Post about 17th and Euclid "The View From 17th and Euclid". Not sure how many articles/edits have been written about Adams Morgan in the A section of the Post, but we should be proud. The timing of his op-ed is coincidental to the other recent postings. Link is: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8002-2003May2.html The View From 17th and Euclid, By Colbert I. King, Saturday, May 3, 2003; Page A23 "Close" takes on added meaning when it comes to a group of youths in a five-block area north of Florida Avenue. They are bound together by more than their love of hoops. Their lives are crammed into a Northwest Washington community bordered by Columbia and Kalorama roads and 16th and 18th streets. And within that small stretch of land, carefully hidden from direct observation by city motorists, commuters and the occasional presidential motorcade zipping up and down 16th Street, is a chaotic and violent world that produces, as Scripture says, "sighs too deep for tears." In recent years, you may have read some of the following events in The Post. Left out of those stories, however, was any mention of the thread that holds them together. It gets supplied today. On Jan. 7, 1999, The Post told you about 16-year-old Delonte Hicks, who was fatally stabbed nine times in the chest with an ice pick during a fight near Woodrow Wilson High School, from which he had been suspended 13 days earlier. On May 26, 2001, The Post published a short item about the murder of Bia Secka, 20, who was found at 12:40 a.m. shot several times in the 1600 block of Euclid Street. The correct spelling, I learned this week from interviews in the neighborhood, is "Bai." Then there was a July 3, 2001, piece about Carlton Blount, a 19-year-old expelled student from Wilson and Cardozo high schools who was sentenced to 64 years to life in prison for fatally shooting Natasha Marsh and Andre Wallace, both 17-year-old Wilson students. And on April 25, 2002, The Post reported that a 17-year-old Wilson junior was in critical condition five days after having been shot in the head off campus after attending an evening fashion show at the school. Oh, yes. There was a story on March 8, 2003, concerning a 12-year-old Rockville girl who was charged as a juvenile in the fatal stabbing in the heart of her 15-year-old brother after they argued over whose turn it was to use the telephone. What do all of these youths have in common, beyond their African American ancestry? To be sure, Wilson High School is a link, at least for Delonte Hicks, Carlton Blount, Bai Secka and the 17-year-old junior who was shot in the head last spring. But what really makes all of them closer than two pages in a book? The numbers 1-7. Venture onto that piece of Northwest real estate and you will find a criminal enterprise calling itself "1-7." Yes, America conquered Iraq, and the Republicans control the White House, Congress and all of the government machinery in the nation's capital. But in a neighborhood only a few miles north of the presidential mansion, 1-7 -- named after the corner of 17th and Euclid streets, where its members hang out -- rules the streets after dark and is a menacing presence during the day. Delonte Hicks, the stabbing victim, was 1-7. He was killed by a member of a Southwest Washington crew that had been quarreling with 1-7. Blount, the double murderer, was a big-time 1-7 member who used to walk around with a gun hanging out of his pants as he flagrantly dealt drugs out of a building in the 1600 block of Fuller Street NW. Bai Secka, also a former Wilson student, was caught up in 1-7 when he was gunned down. Bai's gone, but his sister, a junior at Wilson whom I met two weeks ago at a program she emceed for a Good Shepherd Ministries fundraising dinner, has pulled it together and is well on track in her plan to attend college and become a nurse. Bai's brother is another story. His is a familiar tale of a young man leading two lives, torn between the teachings of his childhood and the lure, familiarity and acceptance of the street. I hear 1-7 may be winning. The 17-year-old junior shot in the head a year ago? He was reportedly fired on by a Wilson student and 1-7 member, who was convicted in the shooting. How about the 12-year-old Rockville girl and her deceased 15-year-old brother? Both grew up in the vicinity of 17th and Euclid. Their two older brothers ran with 1-7. The chaos and violence that were part of the siblings' childhood didn't stay behind when they moved to Montgomery County. "Where are the cops?" you ask. They were there standing three strong at 17th and Euclid on Wednesday evening when I ventured into the neighborhood. Thursday evening brought even more officers to the intersection. There was a 3rd District captain, several lieutenants, including the officer in charge of the service area. Scout car lights were flashing. We talked for a few minutes, even as some of the street dudes kept an eye on the scene from across the street. It was all show. A show of police presence for the benefit of old and new residents of this neighborhood in transition. A show for neighborhood kids living in dread of the constant fighting and violence. But everybody watching the show knows what happens when the cops are there. The 1-7 crew just moves to Mozart Place or behind H.D. Cook Elementary School or farther along the 1600 block of Euclid. And the drug dealing, the break-ins and the fencing of stolen goods keep on rolling. Busting up 1-7 will take the assignment of tactical officers working undercover, not shows. The cops know it. That calls for a long-term commitment of police power. The 3rd District alone can't make that happen. So the community is left with the occasional visible and fleeting show of force. There are 17th-and-Euclids in many neighborhoods of our city east of Rock Creek Park. The mayor and the D.C. Council know that. So does our delegate in Congress. Our civic leadership knows it, too. But when it comes to washing one's hands of a nasty situation, Pontius Pilate has nothing on our political, business and religious leaders. They would rather hyperventilate about getting a baseball team or the Olympics or school vouchers -- even as the city runs over with dropouts from the public school system. Witness the members of 1-7. Which makes it all the more wrenching to see groups such as Jubilee Housing, Good Shepherd Ministries, the Empower Program and other cash-strapped and understaffed nonprofits doing the job of families, clergy and D.C. social service officials. It's the unsung community workers who walk past the notorious crews to labor day by day and face to face with young kids who are right on the cusp. It's the unsung who are literally competing with groups like 1-7 to show children that there's a better way. And they are fighting our battles. That's why, were it left up to me, I would cash out half the D.C. government -- and all of the Department of Human Services -- and send the non-D.C.-tax-paying city workers back to their homes in Prince George's and Montgomery counties and Northern Virginia, where Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner could take care of them, and turn over those millions of D.C. tax dollars to city-based community groups, faith-based organizations with proven records and our dedicated police officers who are trying to give our children a fighting chance. And I'd do it in a heartbeat. One more thing. Think of all the pistols tucked in waistbands across this city. And all the gunshot victims in wheelchairs, and the murders we rack up by the day. With some of the toughest gun control laws on the books and with gun-packing groups like 1-7 roving D.C. streets with the audacity of the 3rd Infantry Division, Washington has the unmitigated gall to demand that the Palestinian Authority disarm West Bank terrorists. Charity begins at home. Speaking of sighs too deep for tears. |
Anonymous
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And a few more, God this depresses me. I try to kid myself that living a few blocks away makes all the difference, yeah, right. Sadly, a block out of bounds for Oyster.
http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=73901&catid=187 http://americancity.org/magazine/article/crimes-bottom-line/ http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/leading_liberal_blogger_shot_i.php including the post "17th and euclid is dangerous as shit. And they also have one of the Metro police cams there too. a friend of mine was mugged there a couple months ago and he got beat up and had to get metal plates inserted into his face. Posted by nattyb July 2, 2008 3:45 PM" |
Anonymous
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For Rhee, education is reduced to raising test scores on tests of questionable validity and using this dubious data to measure "student achievement" and evaluate teachers.
Her approach to improving instruction is to mandate a rigid formula for teaching, regardless of the content, grade level, or needs of the specific students. She never addresses curriculum, which is unfortunate, because our current curriculum is mediocre at best. She also adheres to Skinnarian theories of what motivates both students and adults. She believes that students won't study unless they are offered rewards and that teachers won't teach unless they are offered higher salaries or threatened with dismissal. The results of this model are as follows: • students begin to think learning is work for which they need to be compensated • the joy and satisfaction of learning to satisfy curiosity and discover new knowledge is lost • brilliant but idiosyncratic teachers are forced to adhere to a rigid formula for teaching • Most DCPS schools are sites of relentless test prep This is not what I would ever wish for my children or for anyone else's children. |
Anonymous
| Doesn't Haynes follow a similar model? When I've toured, I've observed a LOT of one on one testing all over the school. MC is similar. Is the only option to go private? Are there any DC schools that have not adopted this approach? |
Anonymous
What school are you describing? This does not characterize the teaching style or model at our DCPS school. |
Anonymous
| PP, sadly, I think this is her plan for all of the schools, particularly as she installs her cronies as principals. For those of us who lucked out and got something a little better and more special, I'm not sure how long the new teacher evaluation system is going to allow it to continue. My oldest kids are at JKLM and we've been pleased, not sure it will be the same by the time my youngest starts/graduates. |
Anonymous
| I recently saw a PK/K class schedule and was surprised that it was drills on literacy and math. Are the students really learning anything? They didn't look like they were having fun. |
Anonymous
• The IMPACT evaluation instrument is district-wide. • Using rewards for motivating students is part of the IMPACT rubric (Teach 7) • Test scores represent from 50% to 90% of a teacher's IMPACT evaluation • The pressure to raise test scores is relentless |
Anonymous
Charter schools such as Haynes are not under the management of Michelle Rhee. They have the freedom to implement their own curricula and teacher evaluations, but they are required to take the DC-CAS. |
Anonymous
#1 There's a huge difference between one-on-one testing and standardized testing. 1-on-1 is what you do to asses a child to place him in, say, the correct reading or math group so that you can do differentiated instruction and/or RTI (Response to Intervention). Standardized testing (a la Rhee) is something you drill and kill for, several weeks out of a year to "prove" that your students are "learning." #2 Haynes could tell Rhee to go jump in a lake. They're a charter school and they set their own curriculum. Yes, they still have to administer the DC-CAS, but they don't have to drill and kill their students to make marginal incremental improvements just so that Rhee can justify her authoritarian approach. #3 Have fun is literally part of the Haynes motto: "Work hard, be nice, have fun." Classes are offered in the summertime, not just to re-inforce learning per se, but also to establish a baseline expectation among students that learning is something we do all the time and something we enjoy (as opposed to something we take a break from in the summer or any other time we have off). It's a completely different philosophical approach. |
Anonymous
| Thanks, 11:24! I'm applying to Haynes for my son (fingers crossed fingers crossed fingers crossed) and had been a bit concerned about the school's emphasis on test scores--wondered whether it might be a sign of an underlying drill & kill mentality. |
Anonymous
| 11:13 Can you say a bit more about IMPACT? My kids at JKLM have a lot of recess, a lot of free play time, spend a lot of time working in groups with peers, we've been very pleased. They have learned to read in K but their social skills have also really taken off. I fear that IMPACT is going to take away something that really worked for our family, and the test scores are already good at their school. One more left to send through. Are the few good teachers more likely to leave with IMPACT or do people think that they might wait Rhee out? Even if she leaves, she has installed a lot of crony principals...anyone have a crystal ball? |