Michelle Rhee And Gov. Rick Scott Team Up On School Reform

TakePart:

Former D.C. public schools chief Michelle Rhee and Florida Governor Rick Scott announced Thursday that they had formed a partnership between Rhee's new education reform organization and the Sunshine State.

It's the first agreement between Rhee's fledgling Students First group and any state or local government.

Read the whole story: TakePart

Comments

[redgramma]

05:46 PM on 01/11/2011

Rhee is the worst thing that's happened to American education in decades. God help the school children of Florida if this woman teams up with the corrupt new governor. Rhee did not simply "fire" underperforming teachers. She had them removed by force from school property during the school day as if they were criminals. She then slandered them in the press claiming she had gotten rid of child molesters. When she was forced to admit that her statements contained no truth at all she refused to apologize for her treatment of the teachers. The students and parents supported the teachers. Rhee ignored them. Stupid Fenty supported her, and that's why he was not relelected. Rhee loves to go on television and blame teachers' unions for all of the problems of schools, but teachers need a union to stand up for them against political grandstanders like Rhee and Fenty. Who on earth would want to teach with character assasins like Rhee waiting to jump on teachers? If you tripled teacher salaries it still wouldn't be worth it.

[giono]

04:47 PM on 01/11/2011

I will be curious to find out how much this will cost the state of Florida--as recent news reports are talking about large budget shortfalls??

[phill273]

01:01 AM on 01/10/2011

Michelle Rhee actually did her job in D.C. by firing underperforming teachers and got rewarded by being booted out in November when Fenty lost.

[KaAp]

08:47 AM on 01/10/2011

Because she did not do her job.

[nypoet22]

09:40 AM on 01/11/2011

that's a gross oversimplification. rhee was a mixed bag, very abrasive and unwilling to listen to opinions that she didn't agree with. her best work in the district was administrative and had nothing to do with teachers, while her rating system and the charter companies she promoted were flawed at best. because of this, it's highly likely she got rid of a few good teachers along with the bad ones.

[plthomas]

08:38 AM on 01/09/2011

The bell curve, per the discussions below, is a THEORETICAL construct addressing either an entire population or a random sampling of an entire population. That most people have accepted that theoretical description of populations is troubling, especially since people are apt to want to force that theory onto UNIQUE populations. All should keep two things in mind: (1) Many credible educators and statisticians have shown the folly of the theory in reality (one study examined what sort of curves real research produces and found about 9 common curves, none of which were bell shaped); (2) In unique populations (for example, elite or struggling), every member of that population could be either "above average" or "below." In my high school AP classes, for example, that were small, I often had every student achieve a legitimate A. Teachers are not a random sampling, thus the bell shaped curve should not be expected, but as with ANY profession (even medical doctors), the quality of the population will be along some continuum that we cannot predict but certainly could describe, although the metrics to create that continuum would necessary distort the reality (usually oversimplifying that reality as that is what numbers do).

[judderwocky]

08:16 AM on 01/09/2011

its interesting. you apply a bell curve to students in every class. you make qualms about failing a student that is not learning the material. why does this same reasoning not work on teacher's unions? why is it that we exempt this group from what is supposed be a lesson in reality?

[researcher]

03:09 AM on 01/09/2011

"Average is average by definition­".

It is only a coincidence that any teacher would be rated average.

About half will be below average about half above average no matter how great or bad the school is performing.

The normal curve is not about average; it is about what relative world gave us as a distribution of phenomena.

Count yourself as one of the many that failed to understand. At least you are not alone you have a ton of company. i.e. most corporations in America.

Average tells us very little about performance and is very misleading. Must calculate systemic limits.

Ranking teachers and students as above and below average is one of the most destructive fear based ideologies every created in the world. drucker screwed this one up big time.

[judderwocky]

08:21 AM on 01/09/2011

right... but here is the thing... there is average at a top tier school and average at the bottom tier... without incentives... the bell curve slowly sinks lower and lower....

if you are truly a "researcher" then you would know that statistics is used to judge how a given variable affects the bell curve... collectively moving the entire curve in a direction.

blindly citing the existence of a median does not tell you where that median ends up.

why are you so opposed to competition that you would use a flimsy argument like this to bolster your viewpoint?

surely you admit that competition would have an effect on the distribution. or would you blatantly deny that?

if you do... i doubt seriously you have been to anything other than a mediocre institution.

this is America... competition drives us to succeed. our students are failing right now and could use a little more of this.

[maninal]

12:30 AM on 01/10/2011

Education is not a competitive sport. Collaboration is what's necessary not more competition.

[nypoet22]

03:22 PM on 01/11/2011

incentives and competition are a valid model for business, not education. in business it's expected that there will be a few winners and a lot of losers, but in education the goal is to have as many winners and as few losers as possible. for that the competitive model doesn't work, because it siphons off resources mainly to the most successful, leaving everyone else destitute.

[giono]

11:03 PM on 01/08/2011

Michelle Rhee is all about Michelle Rhee......

[maninal]

12:30 AM on 01/10/2011

and privatizing public money

[tultican]

08:04 PM on 01/08/2011

Have I been been band from posting? I cannot see how there was anything egregious about my last post but it was taken down and now I do not seem to be able to post.

[mp60mp32]

04:11 PM on 01/08/2011

Rhee has never asked the question, "How can I help?" but instead levies criticism that is unwarranted. It would be good if there was a political ally for public school teachers everywhere who would be willing to enhance education through research-based information and for them to find a way to prevent local political from interfering with those who are willing to put such practices in play for our children.

[greenskeeper]

02:23 PM on 01/08/2011

If teachers were as interested in teaching students as they are in fighting Michelle Rhee we wouldn't have a problem.

[MardiGrasGirl]

03:22 PM on 01/08/2011

Teachers are interested in teaching students. We are just tired of non-educators like Rhee demonizing teachers (or painting all teachers with one brush) and not bringing us to the table. You will never reform education truly if you don't include the real playmakers.

[judderwocky]

08:12 AM on 01/09/2011

I'm sorry... I'm sure you are a great teacher... but the teachers unions are doing this to themselves by keeping incompetent teachers.

the problem is that the people you are arguing with can remember having really bad teachers.... and we all know why they get to stay on.

[nsmavrik]

09:43 PM on 01/09/2011

If parents were as interested in teaching their kids as they are in fight teachers we wouldn't have a problem.

[htapaul]

11:08 AM on 01/08/2011

Local control...local control...this nation wide standards push is failing because local school boards have been put to the end of the line of when leading our LOCAL schools. The federal tail wags the dog here. Local parents who elect local school boards are the key to improving schools. This Federalization of education is unconstitutional. The politicalization of education has eroded the purpose of schools....educating local children with the needs of that state and district. When we kick Federalization out of our schools, boot opportunistic state politicians and gadflies, and let the local school board vote on what the local community wants, education will begin to improve.

[maninal]

12:32 AM on 01/10/2011

Local control is the answer? Are you serious? Read something about district/school inequality then try again. Your constitutional arguments are simply uneducated talking points.

[Super Sarcastic]

10:57 AM on 01/08/2011

Well I guess with all the accolades Neo-Cons are pouring on Rhee the DC Schools must have done a miraculous turn around and now be at the top of the world academically.

[traceydouglas]

01:46 PM on 01/08/2011

Your screen name befits you! :)

[teacher39years]

10:14 AM on 01/08/2011

Sorry. The first link was broken.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/12/rick-scott-florida-education-jeb-bush

[teacher39years]

10:00 AM on 01/08/2011

I'm sure these like-minded people will work together. Jeb Bush has promised to "mentor" Scott .

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/educational-leadership/michelle-rhee-the-celeb-goes-n.html.

http://dcist.com/2009/11/controversy_over_rhee_now_to_includ.php

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/3/12/no_bush_left_behind_when_youre

[DaBluAce]

08:32 AM on 01/08/2011

thinking inside the box hasn't work....she is thinking outside of the box...something folks should try to do sometime maybe it will bring back our will not to just be spoon fed and to being a people of innovation!

[Eric Mann]

11:15 AM on 01/08/2011

Thinking outside the box does not mean your thinking is correct. I appreciate she wants to try another approach, but it seems that approach too does not work. Her "success" in DC schools is specious at best, and at worst a fallacy.

[greenskeeper]

02:17 PM on 01/08/2011

How would you know what works? We are sick to death of know-it-alls that refuse to change. what we have now is clearly not working

[nypoet22]

04:38 AM on 01/09/2011

on the other hand, maybe it will make things even worse. who was it that said the chief cause of problems is solutions?

outside the box is a slogan that doesn't get into specifics. there are some very specific reforms, such as high quality pre-k, that have proven incredibly effective over fifty years of research. so before we try a bunch of unproven methods that might make things worse, why not try a few things that have already been reliably proven to make things better?

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/early-childhood/missing-from-obamas-ed-reform.html