Rhee? A poll of your opinion

[Anonymous]

What do people think of Rhee? There seems to be such a wide range of opinions on this site.

Great Job/Trying but I doubt she'll be able to change anything/same-old-same-old/disaster.

And, if you don't mind saying....

Are you:

Parent of kids in DCPS (west of park, east of park)
Parent of kids in PCS.
Parent of Private School kids
Ex-DC parent (moved to suburbs)
Parent of DC kids not old enough for school
Parent of kids already graduated from school
A teacher in DCPS.

This is just curiosity, nothing more.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Rhee is the McNamara of DCPS

-parent of DCPS, PCS, homeschooled, and private school kid
-DCPS teacher

[Anonymous]

Given that I used the destroy the village to save it analogy last week, I should probably agree. But I'm tempted to go with Rumsfeld instead. After all, didn't McNamara have an exceptional track record at Ford prior to his appointment as Secretary of Defense. So far as I can tell, Rhee's skills are limited to networking and PR/self-promotion.

parent of private school kids
politically engaged DC resident
educator (college-level)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rhee is the McNamara of DCPS

-parent of DCPS, PCS, homeschooled, and private school kid
-DCPS teacher

inclined to agree with the rumsfeld analogy. Parent of former dcps, now pcs . Former dcps teacher, current independent school teacher.

[Anonymous]

From "Rumsfeld and the Generals" by Michael Wolff (Vanity Fair, July 2006):

"McNamara was a figure of personal and cultural sobriety and stolidness—the ultimate representative of Establishment values. And, relative to that, Rumsfeld was obviously quite a crazy bugger (when he was still in fashion, this was more generously called being a change agent).
....
[Rumsfeld is] crabby, sour, mean-spirited. He complains about everything. He’s always dissatisfied, chronically irritated—as well as being an irritant..."

[Anonymous]

Ha --that makes me almost like her Rumsfeld stuck stubbornly to a plan, as disaster imploded around him. That's my impression of Rhee as a former DCPS teacher....

[Anonymous]

I do not know. I read many sources about the state of DC schools and I am not yet convinced she is as bad as many make her out to be. There are clearly many vocal critics. I have had a couple of interactions with her office and have been repeatedly impressed with the quality of the response I get.

I will be a DCPS parent at a west of the park elementary next year. From what I have gathered speaking to neighbors, parents are thrilled with the new principal and the school is doing great. I hear/read good things about Deal as well. I am somewhat hopeful about the future of the schools I will (may) send my kids to, but am not yet convinced that the future is as rosy across the city.

I think a lot of changes were necessary and she has made quite a few.

Parent of children not yet old enough to be in school, west of the park.

[Anonymous]

I've FOIA'd her office and been amazed to see that (a) she's been asleep at the wheel on some significant decisions and (b) she loves to reach out an answer some individual's personal plea (prospective parent, teacher) because she gets such kudos/good PR for responding personally/immediately. Follow-through (where needed) doesn't look great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not know. I read many sources about the state of DC schools and I am not yet convinced she is as bad as many make her out to be. There are clearly many vocal critics. I have had a couple of interactions with her office and have been repeatedly impressed with the quality of the response I get.

I will be a DCPS parent at a west of the park elementary next year. From what I have gathered speaking to neighbors, parents are thrilled with the new principal and the school is doing great. I hear/read good things about Deal as well. I am somewhat hopeful about the future of the schools I will (may) send my kids to, but am not yet convinced that the future is as rosy across the city.

I think a lot of changes were necessary and she has made quite a few.

Parent of children not yet old enough to be in school, west of the park.

The schools West of the Park were always fine; if anything, they are in danger from Rhee with her one size fits all mandates. When they have a strong principal who can a) give pushback or b) has a personal relationship with her and can gain exceptions they do OK. Otherwise, a lot of her mandates teach to the middle regardless of student ability. There is no subtlety in what comes down the chute from DC central. Your eager beaver avid reader West of the Park kid will be doing endless DC-CAS test prep questions just like all the rest," just in case" . That is where her approach bugs me. She should reward effective schools with more autonomy, not less. Also, her massive importation of inexperienced teachers and administrators and deportation of institutional knowledge is begetting chaos, across the board East and West of the park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rhee is the McNamara of DCPS

-parent of DCPS, PCS, homeschooled, and private school kid
-DCPS teacher

inclined to agree with the rumsfeld analogy. Parent of former dcps, now pcs . Former dcps teacher, current independent school teacher.

I was thinking more about McNamara's and Rhee's overarching faith in the power of metrics, to the exclusion of other indicators of value and success.

[Anonymous]

Parent of former DCPS student, second year at independent, considering returning to DCPS for high school in the next year or two.

The Time Magazine profile was the height of unprofessionalism. I speak as a former newspaper reporter. No one in a high profile job like hers should mock parents, criticize teachers--including her own children's!-- walk out of meetings set up for her, check her Blackberry while people are speaking with her in the presence of a reporter from a national magazine. That shows the worst judgment. Plus, she turned out to be a terrible example for children. On the other hand, she showed us who she really is. Rude, petty (mocking teachers who decorate their rooms?), arrogant, presumptuous.

She seems to have used NYC as her model. So, not much originality. I don't get some of the firings, I don't get her fixation on test scores, I don't get why she doesn't do something really bold and drop those meaningless standards and move to a curriculum-based system -- or build a core curriculum around the standards. Finally, the way she's treated older teachers is reprehensible. Old does not equal dead wood. It's a presumption that suggests a lack of critical thinking on her part, another bad example for children of a certain age, another reason I am no fan of Michele Rhee.

[Anonymous]

But McNamare was sincere and when the data showed the policy was failing, he wanted to pull the plug. Rhee may claim to have faith in the power of metrics, but her general approach to data is manipulation and concealment. She doesn't learn from it. She just wants to control and spin it.

[Anonymous]

Thumbs up for Rhee.
I have found her to be very reasonable when there I have had dealings with her (as PTA president).It has taken patience (on the schools part) as she worked within the system in place, but she came through on some major problems at our school. I also have followed her pretty closely in the news and after decades of inertia in DCPS, there is finally momentum and changes to a system which was, in my view, completely awful.
I am a parent to DCPS students in elementary and middle school, as well as to one still at home.
I am a lifelong DC resident who attended one of the "top 5" private schools. My DH is also a lifelong DC resident and a product of DCPS (with nothing good to say about DCPS past elementary from his 70s experience).
We are in a school west of the park.

I really cannot figure out why so many parents here seem gleeful to hope that she fails. Don't beleive the hype!

[Anonymous]

7:54 here. I really think "years of inertia" is inaccurate, 7:57. Janey adopted the Massachusetts standards very quickly, we felt the different in the classroom the following year. Rhee has, to her credit, not abandoned them.

I respect different opinions but I hope we can aim to be factual in explicating them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I respect different opinions but I hope we can aim to be factual in explicating them.

This should work both ways.