Even today, almost eighteen months after she resigned, it’s nearly impossible to have a conversation about the DC Public Schools that does not somehow raise the specter of former Chancellor Michelle Rhee. But President Obama’s budget proposal, being announced today in Northern Virginia, might actually thread that needle.

According to today’s Washington Post, one of the Continue Reading »

This was posted on the Washington Post’s anti-school reform bulletin board yesterday. Did nobody tell Valerie Strauss that Michelle Rhee resigned last year? I’m pretty sure there was a whole article in the newspaper about it.

Tweet Continue Reading »

A year ago, Adrian Fenty was the mayor of Washington, DC and Michelle Rhee was the chancellor of DC Public Schools. Rhee had made overhauling the DC system of teacher evaluation the centerpiece of her controversial and widely noted reforms. Instead of the standard system of seniority-based raises and nobody ever being fired for bad teaching, Rhee wanted to give the best teachers big raises and Continue Reading »

Today Education Sector releases a paper on IMPACT, the District of Columbia’s controversial teacher evaluation system that rates teachers primarily on classroom observations and student test scores. As one of the first in the nation to link teacher performance, pay, and job security to such measures, IMPACT is the most polarizing of the bold reforms initiated by ex-schools chancellor MichContinue Reading »

All this month, to help celebrate our 5th Anniversary we’ve been featuring some of top-best-biggest stories in education over the last five years. We started off with ten, and asked our readers (and Facebook friends) to choose the “Top 5.” Well, the time has come, all votes are in. And the winners of our “Top 5 from the Last Five”* are…

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s first tweet: “My staff tells me that my 1st tweet should not be about a disappointing @chicagobulls loss last night. #ButItWas” (h/t This Week in Education)

Kevin Carey on the best way to reduce student loan defaults: “There are bad actors in the higher education industry, colleges that misrepresent their services, pressure stContinue Reading »

Michelle Rhee believes that all children can achieve at a high level, given the proper teaching and support. Her thinking on this is admirable, but less so when it’s paired with passages like this, from a new New York magazine piece:

Rhee now describes teaching ability as something akin to an inborn talent, joking that no matter how much she practiced basketball, she could never plContinue Reading »

In the midst of a crazy article about vandalism and heckling aimed at Idaho schools chief Tom Luna, we learn the details of his plan to reform teacher salaries and end teacher tenure:

Luna first unveiled his education overhaul plan in January and called for boosting technology in the classroom and equipping high school students with laptops while requiring them to take online courses befContinue Reading »

NPR Asks: “Can Social Networking Keep Students in School?” (NPR)

Terry Ryan on School Turnaround Professionals: “Having a school turnaround plan is important, but more important is having a team in place that can deal with the complexities and uncertainties of a school turnaround. School turnaround leaders have to be masters at overcoming adversity and staying positiContinue Reading »

The edu-world was all agog last week when Michelle Rhee not only announced she was forming a new organization, but also said she’d raise a billion dollars in the first year to support its projects.

That’s billion. With a b.

Well, I hate to be the skunk at the garden party. But let’s put this in perspective.

In 2008, Barack Obama raised a staggering amount Continue Reading »