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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I sort of agree. Here is how my conversations tend to go:

DCPS parent: Rhee is doing such a great job. Just look at the new playground at Murch/Eaton/Hearst! And she got rid of this awful teacher we've all detested for years. Thus, a great job!


Me (silent): the playground was not her doing, or Fenty's really. Was on the books before they came into power.

Me (out loud): What do you think of those 3 other awesome teachers who left your school -- in one case, fleeing to MoCo -- because they couldn't take the culture of fear / IMPACT atmosphere at your Ward 3 school anymore?

DCPS parent: uhhh.


- - -

point being, I am sure it IS great that Sucky Teacher X is gone. But not a single DCPS parent I know can actually speak concretely and intelligently about the good teachers who are leaving or won't even apply, ORRRRR who are managed out, as with Wilson.

Oh yeah, this is my experience as well. I think it's a function both of who you're talking to and who you are (or who you are perceived to be vis a vis this issue). If you don't have a kid in DCPS and you aren't a Rhee fan, you are (on some level) a person who may be questioning whether they made the best educational choice for their child(ren).

Between the new facilities (especially in Ward 3) and the good (national!) PR, for the first time in a long time, (some affluent) DCPS parents are feeling like their choices have been clearly vindicated. It's a don't rain on my parade scenario in many cases, I think. And they aren't looking down the road as far as HS. And many don't have a frame of reference re what was going on in the classrooms of their local (already high-performing) school pre-Rhee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My girlfriend is a teacher at one of the top performing schools and she seems to think that the divide among teachers is by generation. Younger teachers seem to love Rhee, older ones, not so much. Friend is highly qualified and she is doing extremely well under the assessments. She also said that the reason why most teachers are getting fired is because they are really, really bad. The teachers that fail the assessments are failing parts that even non-teachers should get correct.

Also, as to the point about how everyone wants a good education for their children--define "good." Apparently there are some parents who would define a good teacher by race (i.e., same race as me and my child), rather than by improvements in test score. Sad, but true.

None of the teacher's at my child's DCPS school seem disgruntled to me. He is in a lower grade but last night (back to school night), his teacher seemed excited about the testing early in the year as a way to gauge her students progress. She has a full time aid who will do most of the testing. It seems like 90% of the teachers who were fired sucked; there was one wonderful teacher fired from our school. he was completely amazing, a genius, wonderful with kids, very quirky and a PITA for the principal.

[Anonymous]

My child was disgruntled after he finished his DC-BAS in a half an hour and then had to sit and read quietly for the next 1.5 hours while the testing period finished up. He's not looking forward to doing this again today or for 3 more BAS tests and a CAS. I can't say that I blame him.

If you have a child in the lower grades, you have no idea how much the test drives the instruction. This pressure has been driven to a new level by Rhee. It takes the joy out of learning and when your child hits testing grades, private schools will start to look very, very appealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. She also said that the reason why most teachers are getting fired is because they are really, really bad.

Like that AP English teacher at Wilson that parents and students were up in arms about?

By the way he's back teaching AP, parttime.

There were a few mistakes, but the majority of the teachers who were fired needed to go. They were awful.

[Anonymous]

I am a charter parent and do not support Fenty or Rhee. Rhee states that she supports the charters, but the proof is not in the pudding. She supports charters under DCPS. These charters choose DCPS as their LEA to lessen the reporting burdens, etc.

I do not see how Rhee has really supported the charter movement. I don't expect her to. Rhee has not had a problem hiding money in the Office of the State Superintendent's budget. This effectively throws off the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula and allows more money to be spent on DCPS students than charters. I was also concerned about the teacher's contract and the ability of DCPS to recruit from charters, although teachers at my kids' school have no interest in going to DCPS.

Considering that 38% of DC students attend charters and the number increases every year, I find it interesting that Fenty has blown off this constituency.

I am completely losing faith in the mayoral takeover of schools. I think it is unfortunate that you have to choose the Mayor based on the Chancellor. What about the other 65 agencies that are a part of DC government? Shouldn't you care about how those are run? Many are run very poorly, but the media only focuses on a few. When Kelly Valentine, Director of Risk Management, was fired a few months ago for essentially funneling $6MM to her friends, you did not hear a word. The number of special ed students attending private schools under Rhee has almost doubled, as has the budget, yet you don't hear a word.

I think if people looked at more than the talking points for Fenty, they would be really dissappointed. I agree that he has brought excitement back to the city, but I am just not sure that he can continue the momentum because he will not be able to hid behind talking points during his second term. I think the scrutiny will increase. In addition, he will no longer have the projects that were started under Williams to hang his hat on. Besides bike lanes, I cannot think of anything that he has done that was not already in the pipeline.

Even the rec centers - there are many more, but the operating budget did not increase, so when you enter the new centers, they look terrible, don't have enough staff and are dissappointing.

Back to schools - I keep saying that the schools west of the park have always been and will always be - good. Schools in Capitol Hill have always been supported by their neighborhood. I admit that some have gotten better. What about the rest of the city? You show me how test scores went up in far SE and I will say that you have achieved something.

[Anonymous]

I am really disappointed that special education has not been moved back primarily to DC public schools, as I believe was promised during the original campaigns; there was an expectation that a few centers would be built and run inside the city, and the children would no longer be driven out to Maryland and Virginia. Costs aside, it is difficult for many to endure 60 minute busrides twice a day. Meanwhile, the schools budget is more than decimated paying these costs. Why not convert some of the closed schools to serve this population?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child was disgruntled after he finished his DC-BAS in a half an hour and then had to sit and read quietly for the next 1.5 hours while the testing period finished up. He's not looking forward to doing this again today or for 3 more BAS tests and a CAS. I can't say that I blame him.

If you have a child in the lower grades, you have no idea how much the test drives the instruction. This pressure has been driven to a new level by Rhee. It takes the joy out of learning and when your child hits testing grades, private schools will start to look very, very appealing.

This is one of the primary reasons we left DCPS for a charter in 5th grade. My child had anxiety attacks in both 3rd and 4th grade during the DC-CAS. His scores are good -- proficient in one subject, advanced in another. He had no anxiety attack in 5th at his new charter. I think it is horrible what prepping for the test does to some of these kids. His school did make incredible gains in test scores though.

[Anonymous]

partly, the former DCPS parents, disgruntled with Rhee have moved to charters

signed, a charter school parent voting for Gray

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Under the new principal (Rhee canned the old one), Stoddert Elementary in Glover Park has a brand new gorgeous building and playground this year.

I'm surprised it took 3 pages for someone to perpetuate this misleading "Pro column" point. I posted on page 1, and I hear this too much. 'I like my new playground / facility, which was built under Rhee. Said facility was also built during the hottest summer on record. It was built in a year my sister had twins. The new school was built during the Chinese Year of the Golden Tiger.

The golden tiger and my twin nieces didn't bring you Stoddert's new building, or Deal's, or Eaton's playground ... and neither did Rhee.

True, it was not Rhee, but Fenty who moved the Eaton playground. Not sure it matters in terms of voting as Rhee and Fenty seem to be a package deal. It was also Fenty who moved school building/contracting to Lew and the new Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization who has accomplished in a couple of years what needed to be done for decades.

[Anonymous]

none of this is accurate. Rhee was smart enough to be hands off with Eaton once parents agreed on principal (not a Rhee crony) and expanded support from the chinese embassy. The "world cultures" moniker isn't a program, but private foundation funding for schools that already had a plan, or whose principals were savvy enough to apply for no contest Catalyst grant (all shools that applied got it). Upper NW DCPS parent here. Rhee has done things, but don't give credit where it's not due.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a DCPS parent with kids at Eaton and Deal and I do not support Rhee or Fenty.

Why is that? Didn't Rhee grant Eaton autonomy? Hasn't the Chinese language program at Eaton flourished under Rhee? Didn't Rhee encourage Eaton's application to become a "World Cultures" school? Haven't test scores gone up considerably at Eaton under Rhee? Isn't the current principal (put in during Rhee's tenure) much better than the previous two? Parents seem to like her much better, than the prior principal, Drakeford. I thought at least 1 pretty horrible teacher finally got fired under Rhee, which parents had been asking for for years. And, the playground and whole landscape at Eaton was recently redone because of a commitment Fenty made at the annual block party. My understanding was that Fenty moved Eaton up in the playground re-do list, in fact, moved up Eaton so fast that the school's parents had very little input into how the new design went.

So, with kids at Eaton, why are you unsupportive of Rhee and Fenty?

[Anonymous]

"principals were savvy enough to apply for no contest Catalyst grant (all shools that applied got it)."

I know for a fact that principals were told not to apply, even if the program seemed to make sense for the school. Thomson comes to mind, since they had been doing Chinese since 2005 and actually have native speakers in the building. It's nice that some schools got the funds to be "catalyst" schools, but it was a fix.

Yet another reason to question Rhee. Unless you benefited from this largess, I suppose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
True, it was not Rhee, but Fenty who moved the Eaton playground. Not sure it matters in terms of voting as Rhee and Fenty seem to be a package deal. It was also Fenty who moved school building/contracting to Lew and the new Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization who has accomplished in a couple of years what needed to be done for decades.

He was able to do that because he had access to billions in school modernization funds which hadn't existed for decades. Remains to be seen whether we got bang for our buck, how much money is left, and whether spending has been equitable or priorities sensible. I've heard from more than one Murch parent, for example, that if the school had known they could have that amount of money, they sure wouldn't have spent it on the playground. Basically Fenty seems to prioritize stuff that lets him cut ribbons and line his friends' pockets. Lew's different but he builds what he's told and he seems to focus on speed/reliability, durability,and various jobs-related goals rather than educational planning, collaboration, equity, cost, or aesthetics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. She also said that the reason why most teachers are getting fired is because they are really, really bad.

Like that AP English teacher at Wilson that parents and students were up in arms about?

By the way he's back teaching AP, parttime.

correction: he was not fired. He was insubordinate when asked to teach students who were beneath him. Not the same as being fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i am still deciding on who to vote for. my child is in charter school, so i am leaning toward gray. through not currently a DCPS parent, i am very interested in the health of that system. because i don't have the same perspective on rhee as an actual DCPS parent, i frequently ask others wht they think of her. because i read this forum, i was expecting them all to rail against her. but, lo and behold, every parent i've spoken to supports her. i live in NW and speak mostly to other NW parents. i am struck by the differences bewteen this forum and my "real life" interactions.

what do others make of this difference?

i've spoken to parents whose children attend....ross, cooke, oyster, janney, murch, bancroft, eaton, tyler, hyde, hearst, west

Some people have suggested that there is an age gap and that people with elementary school age children are not as critical as those of us with older children. I've been a critic of Rhee because of specific things she did to hurt dd's middle and high schools. Also, while I am white and middle class, I don't live in NW. Maybe it's more the difference between people like me, who were already committed to public schools, who feel that she is making things worse whereas people with young children who are hesitant about DCPS feel that she is making it better for them. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

I would tend to agree 10:39. I've been a parent in DCPS for 8 years, so not super long, but long enough. It's so hard to watch good and dedicated teachers driven out and see programs that actually worked decimated.

At the end of the day, I think it's hysterical that Rhee has bent over backwards to accommodate affluent parents as described in the City Paper.

While she was busy emailing parents of prospective 3 year olds, I couldn't get anyone in her damn budget office to answer my questions.

The sad thing is, my kids are old enough to sit for the test that she thinks is the be all and end all to education. My money says those parents of 3 year olds aren't likely to be around in 5 years, when their child is old enough to sit for the DCCAS.