GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

With that broom in hand, it looks like, aside from teachers, she may have put a custodian out of a job. Bully.

I don’t see this tension as a battle between “those who back radical change and those who take a more cautious approach to reform.”

I see it as a battle between those pushing for rigorous, fundamental reforms that will transform the classroom experience and that we have strong evidence are likely to work — like smaller classes — and those policies that have ano research backing and are simply the latest flavor du jour – like eliminating tenure and paying teachers (and students) for good test scores.

I find it amazing that journalists will swallow the guff with so little skepticism.

Michelle Rhee has already made major improvements in the DC schools. She got them to open on time. Does that seem like an awfully modest accomplishment? It wasn’t happening before she arrived. She got all the text books into the hands of all the students on time. Again, sounds pretty modest but DC schools had a chronic problem with missing textbooks. The schools are cleaner. The infrastructure is in better shape. And test scores have already gone up.

She has fired a lot of people but the conditions she inherited reveal a system that was not functioning responsibly, a system performing so poorly that it was completely failing the students.

What worries me about Rhee is her similarities to George W. Bush. As Bush famously declared early in the war on terror, “You’re either with us or you’re against us,” so too does Rhee paint a manichean picture of school reform. You’re either with her version of how to change the schools or you’re in favor of preserving the status quo of a failing system. As Bush was immune to criticism (or at least it didn’t change his actions) Rhee writes off those who oppose her. As she says, “Have I rubbed some people the wrong way? Definitely. If I changed my style, I might make people a little more comfortable. But I think there’s real danger in acting in a way that makes adults feel better. Because where does that stop?” Where Bush was content to basically go it alone in Iraq, Rhee is following the same course in the DC schools. And we know where that stops. Everyone needs allies and in her unwillingness to compromise on anything in order to make “adults feel better” she is alienating many of the people she will need if she actually wants to create real change in the system.

first of all, if she is using text books then that is a big mistake. No kids wants to read text books.
if you want to see kids learn give me a chance, but won’t be grammer.

i dont think anyone will ever understand..i could not even read the articles on her because it took 3 pages before they got around to really stating what she has done and again most articles are written by those whom are more interested in showing off their writting talent rather than communicating their research. Thats why law schools are agressively pursuing better legal writing utilizing simplier ways to express thoughts ideas whatever.