Rhee? A poll of your opinion

[Anonymous]

I think she may turn out to be the charters' best friend. Her stakes are ideological (pro-privatization) and, more importantly, so are her backers (financial, political, media). She doesn't need DCPS(we're just a stepping stone to greater fame) but she does need them.

Also, as she destroys DCPS, people are fleeing to the charters. And I think what we're increasingly seeing is people with resources and viable alternatives fleeing to certain charters (Latin, YuYing) and hoping to make them into something like the equivalent of free private schools and/or public magnet schools. Selective admission isn't an option, but make the standards rigorous enough and kids who can't hack it will leave or get kicked out.

Whether this is a strategy that will work remains to be seen and much depends on often-inexperienced charter operators and the vagaries of real estate markets. Ironically, if it does succeed, it'll end up creating something like what Janey had envisioned (various academies and specialty schools throughout the city) but where and for whom and with what kind of accountability are all questions that could get answered very differently than they would have been had this been a DCPS project.

[Anonymous]

She seems to have produced more system-wide uncertainty, the very thing that has driven so many families to independent schools. I know terrific teachers who live in fear of a bad review. That is a sorry state. It would be one thing if she'd been an educator first, a policymaker second. She didn't spend enough time in the classroom to be in a position to translate that experience into legitimate, responsive, practical reform.

[Anonymous]

Our kids have been in DCPS for a combined 8 years. We're not waiting to see how Rhee does (and I'm not optimistic). We're out.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious--I went charter from the get go, mainly because I live somewhere in NE where I wasn't willing to even try my local DCPS based on a combination of factors--school scores, behavior of the kids I see at the school, reputation in the community, etc.

I wish Rhee success, but her current actions wouldn't draw me back into my local school nor would they drive me away. Now maybe if I see scores rising year after year, and start hearing that the academics are excellent, I might consider it.

[Anonymous]

http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/Files/downloads/STUDENT%20ACHIEVEMENT/DCPS-Assessment-Calendar-2009-2010.pdf

Rising scores due to "drill and kill". DCPS has a separate assessment calendar because there are so many days of testing. I count 9 days for DC-BAS, 10 for DC-CAS plus a bunch of other colors on this calendar. That is out of something like 180 days total .. . ..

Scores might rise, but how about learning?

[Anonymous]

After years with kids in DCPS, I know that rising test scores may reflect an improving school but more likely are the result of "drill and kill". Any time a metric is used to assess progress you find that the progress starts to mirror the metric and not much else. We have seen test prep increase substantially over the last few years and it drives us nuts.

[Anonymous]

DCPS parent here. Drill and Kill (and a good eraser) may lead to rising test scores, but 13:59 is correct to question whether it increases learning. For my kids, it does not.

Our school tries to buffer the intensity of testing with arts and language instruction, but the testing schedule is brutal.

That's why, as much as we love our elementary school, we are moving out of DCPS for middle school.

[Anonymous]

NP here: Wow, This is quite a discussion and I am loving it in its entirety. My child was a student east of the park as of Friday, September 18, 2009. I could no longer play ping-pong and the back and forth politics of Michelle and Adrian. My child is not a chess piece. Deciding to change the game pieces with threats of teacher terminations and reductions in programs three weeks in the school year was the last play on the board. Our child is now in a charter school and will remain a charter student for as long as we are DC residents. What I have noticed about this conversation is that the parents who has children or perspective children who attends a DCPS west of the partk seem to be quite pleased with the chancellor. It is the parents, like myself, who live east of the park who are the most frustrated with DCPS. I think we should ask ourselves why is that. I can give you some of my reasons. Rhee is politically afraid to mess around with the students, ergo the parents west of the park. There is too-much political powere and influence there. This is not a hate-statement, but a statement based in realism. Why would Rhee totally pull a foreign language curriculum out of one school (Langdon), but increase foreign language in another (Eaton). Granted Langdon was not an immersion or bi-lingual school, but the curriculum offered some Spanish classes. Are we not residing in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual area of the country? Rhee not only cut the foreign language curriculum but she increased the school population by making a traditional elementary school, a school that matriculates in the eighth grade. This is unacceptable. I think in the end, all the parents east of the park who are fortunate enough to place their child(ren) in good PCS will do so. Most of the parents west of rock creek park will stay in the DCPS, until perhaps MS. I am not a teacher, but an active parent. When I hear good teachers who are weary of the bull and begin to look for better opportunities, I must say that I am not a Rhee supporter, or her boss. As a graduate of DCPS, I know how lacking the school board had allowed the schools to deterioate. I also had some very good teachers who worked under extraordinary conditions. I never believed in blowing up the entire building to get one suspect. Or, throwing the baby out with the bath water. It seems that is the tactic Michelle Rhee has decided to take.

[Anonymous]

Many parents in DCPS schools west of the park are not happy with Rhee!

[Anonymous]

Dd was in DCPS west of the park for elementary and middle school and now is in private school. Was skeptical of Rhee from the beginning but trying to be open-minded. But I got a little tired of hearing how much she really really cares about students. We all really really care about students. I want someone who can run a huge bureaucracy and she had little experience with that kind of management.

What bothers me nowadays is when people point to changes in the system that were put in place by Dr. Janey (school renovations and the plan to overhaul Eastern) but Rhee seems to be getting the credit for. Did see some renovations for the opening of school the last year that dd was in DCPS that wouldn't have occurred without Fenty kicking some butt so I'll have to give Fenty and Rhee that.

Other than that, I can't say much, given how I don't have direct contact with DCPS these days. But I have talked to a young administrator who is worried about whether Rhee will hang them out to dry if they run into trouble and is considering leaving the system.

Maybe Rhee will bring about some positive changes but I think the jury is out. I should also add that I see the schools in my neighborhood improving but not because of Rhee. Rather, I think gentrification is what is pushing this, not Rhee. Young middle class families are not moving out to the suburbs. They're staying put and getting involved in the schools and middle class parents are more likely to hold administrators and teachers accountable. (Not putting low-income folks down, it's just that middle class people have a stronger sense of entitlement to good services.) I also wonder how much improvement in test scores is being driven by population change rather than individual students doing better. I wonder if anyone has looked at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After years with kids in DCPS, I know that rising test scores may reflect an improving school but more likely are the result of "drill and kill". Any time a metric is used to assess progress you find that the progress starts to mirror the metric and not much else. We have seen test prep increase substantially over the last few years and it drives us nuts.

a parent west of the park, not crazy about Rhee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many parents in DCPS schools west of the park are not happy with Rhee!

I stand corrected. I suppose I was only seeing through my own lenses, and right now they are quite foggy when I think of DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Rhee may be (or may have been) willing to mess with the parents west of the park -- remember her early claim that DC would have a gifted program and it would be in Ward 8 because it's time for the commuting to go in the other direction? -- but Fenty isn't. Especially now that he's back in election mode. Schools that didn't ask for them (and wouldn't have spent the money that way) are getting new sports fields and playground equipment because those are quick, relatively cheap, highly visible improvements. And, hey, if you spraypaint your name on the astroturf, everyone will know who to thank.

Meanwhile lots of Ward 3 and other white DC residents seem to assume that the reason DCPS is failing is because it's full of poor black kids whose parents are illiterate drug users. They point to the fact that Ward 3 schools aren't failing as evidence that the fundamental problem isn't administrative. You just need the right parents/family structure to succeed. And when you don't have it, either you're doomed or KIPP is the solution. These folks don't see all AA families as dysfunctional, but in their experience, those who aren't will send their kids to charters or enroll in Ward 3 schools via the OOB process, so they can escape failing schools if only they try. Anybody who doesn't just isn't motivated. Or is embedded in a culture of poverty.

The flip side of this logic is that public schools will improve (in Adams Morgan, in Dupont Circle, on Capitol Hill) if only (and as soon as) white families opt back in to the system.

What depresses me most about DC educational politics is that there's enough segregation that we aren't all in the same boat and so we don't work together. The only hope I see wrt Rhee is that she's screw everything up so universally that we'll see more parents working together across racial, class, neighborhood divides. So far, though, divide and conquer has been the order of the day and I suspect it will remain so.

[Anonymous]

Re parents west of the park. Maybe it's just a case of the cheerleaders being much louder than the critics (or the only cheerleaders being from this side of town). Or a situation where the critics opt out -- the people in my neighborhood who aren't happy with Rhee quietly head to Latin or move to MoCo, while a much louder/larger? group raves about the new Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think she may turn out to be the charters' best friend. Her stakes are ideological (pro-privatization) and, more importantly, so are her backers (financial, political, media). She doesn't need DCPS(we're just a stepping stone to greater fame) but she does need them.

Also, as she destroys DCPS, people are fleeing to the charters. And I think what we're increasingly seeing is people with resources and viable alternatives fleeing to certain charters (Latin, YuYing) and hoping to make them into something like the equivalent of free private schools and/or public magnet schools. Selective admission isn't an option, but make the standards rigorous enough and kids who can't hack it will leave or get kicked out.

Whether this is a strategy that will work remains to be seen and much depends on often-inexperienced charter operators and the vagaries of real estate markets. Ironically, if it does succeed, it'll end up creating something like what Janey had envisioned (various academies and specialty schools throughout the city) but where and for whom and with what kind of accountability are all questions that could get answered very differently than they would have been had this been a DCPS project.


The other way to look at it is that the whole point of charters is to be able to tailor their mission - whether it be Latin (classics) Yu Ying (language) KIPP (boarding school like rigor) or some that focus on special needs - a group of children this city has historically fAiled. Different populations will most likely be drawn to different charters
but none could/should be barred. The whole pint is they are not one size fits all- in terms of academic
offering. I think a lot of the good they are doing in this city wil be lost theore ( apart from transparent admissions) that people try to force them to be.