This from the Washington Post: D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced Wednesday that she is resigning at the end of this month, bringing an abrupt end to a tenure that drew national acclaim but that also became a central issue in an election that sent her patron, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, to defeat.
Video interview: (Michelle Rhee talks with Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews about about D.C.'s school system issues, and what her kids learned from the new documentary "Waiting For Superman.")Rhee survived three contentious years that made her a superstar of the education reform movement and one of the longest-serving school leaders in the city in two decades. Student test scores rose, and the teachers union accepted a contract that gave the chancellor sweeping powers to fire the lowest-performing among them.
But Rhee will leave with considerable unfinished business in her quest to improve teaching, close the worst schools and infuse a culture of excellence in a system that has been one of the nation's least effective at educating students...
Michelle Rhee likely to have pick of top education jobs,
but would she want one?
The Republican candidate for governor of Iowa thinks she'd be a great head of the state's department of education. Political chatter in New Jersey has her on Gov. Chris Christie's list of candidates for the top job there. Others see her as secretary of education in a second Obama administration, if there is one...
The Republican candidate for governor of Iowa thinks she'd be a great head of the state's department of education. Political chatter in New Jersey has her on Gov. Chris Christie's list of candidates for the top job there. Others see her as secretary of education in a second Obama administration, if there is one...
Some education advocates who share the core of her agenda in the District - which includes tougher teacher evaluations, more control over teacher assignments and linkage of pay to student performance - see her staying in the public sector. Others expect her to return to the nonprofit world, where she worked before Mayor Adrian M. Fenty named her chancellor in June 2007.
They also see the political reaction to her reform efforts in the District, which culminated with significant union support for Gray, as a powerful narrative to share...
Among D.C. parents, Michelle A. Rhee remained a stubbornly polarizing figure on the day she announced her resignation as schools chancellor. The divisions were evident Wednesday as children were being dropped off at two elementary schools in two corners of the city.
At Thomas Elementary in Northeast Washington, some parents, grandparents and others were happy to see her go. Others worried about what will happen without her. Some weren't sure what to think. Remarkably, a few still didn't know who Rhee was after three years of nonstop newsmaking.
1 comment:
As an advocate for teachers and a proud member of the NEA, I'm pleased to see that Michelle Rhee resigned her position as school chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools.
I urge readers to examine her resignation speech on the D.C. schools website. It is clear that while Rhee was an innovator in closing schools she decided were not performing, it is also clear that some of the 240 plus teachers who were dismissed under her watch were not given due process or were victims of an an ineffective evaluation instrument. Rhee's ten point evaluation system for teachers, discussed at length in today's Washington Times, was problemeatic from the very beginning.
Michelle Rhee will perhaps best be remembered for espousing the current view that places one hundred perecent accountability for student achievement in the laps of educators.
While there is little doubt that Rhee will move on to Teachers College or Harvard's Ed School (If she is not employed by the Obama administation, will she utimately be hailed as an innovator and a martyr? Today's Washington Post mentions that some parents interviewed did not even know who Rhee was after three years in office, while others greeted her departure with glee.
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