In his Post profile of school reform apostate Diane Ravitch, Nick Anderson makes the same mistake I complained about a couple of weeks ago (here and here): using “market-oriented” as a shorthand description of the principles animating reform. For example:
Duncan’s biggest idea is market-oriented: He seeks to provide incentives for reform, offering billions of dollars [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Michelle Rhee'
Un-businesslike
QUICK Hits
Who owns what is taught in college and university classrooms? Steven Pinker and Greg Mankiw butt heads. (The Boston Globe)
What does Joel Klein think about Michelle Rhee and assigning letter grades to public schools? (The Washington Post)
Where can you find the ULTIMATE Quick Hit? Here are 50 education reform blog posts you don’t want to [...]
A vote for no drama
The Baltimore Sun compares the leadership styles of two reform-minded supes: Andres Alonso and Michelle Rhee. Their conclusion? The low-key, consensus-building Alonso, a man who “eschews drama,” is the person whose leadership style “is more likely to produce the kind of improvements in student achievement that people in both cities want.”
In Defense of Trains Running on Time
Talk about a buried lead. In a new Education Next profile of District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, the conclusion that, “Rhee’s most important achievement might be in the management fixes most people can’t see,” is hidden deep under a horrendous PhotoShop job of Rhee dressed as Joan of Arc and he-said she-said [...]
Playing Dress Up
DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee responds to most criticism of her management style (which even her strong supporters acknowledge is hardly warm and fuzzy) by saying “It’s all about the kids.”
But her actions say something quite different.
After (nearly) living through a kerfuffle caused by a photo of her wielding a broom, Rhee again posed for a [...]
The Bland Accuracy of the GAO
Today the GAO released an evaluation of District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Long known as one of the worst-performing districts in the country, it has been the site of radical change in the last two years ever since Mayor Adrian Fenty took over the schools and hired Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Today’s GAO report is [...]
Mayoral Control is, in Fact, about Style
Secretary Duncan’s public endorsement of mayoral control in New York City this month comes on the heels of months of controversy for the city’s chancellor Joel Klein, whose tenure seems to be endangering not only NYC’s mayoral control but the viability of Mayor Bloomberg’s entire reform agenda. The allegations driving the calls for Klein to [...]
Survey Says…
Next week the Washington Teachers Union (WTU) will be releasing results from a poll regarding ongoing contract negotiations with the District of Columbia Public Schools. I was able to get a look at the survey instrument (.doc), and it’s what you might kindly call “one-sided.”
When asking about the general conditions in DC public schools, it [...]
Points for Style?
Nick Kristoff’s recent column about Michelle Rhee brings up a common trope in school reform controversies: “leadership style,” with Kristoff averring that “Ms. Rhee’s weakness is her bedside manner.” Per Eduwonk–really? Is that all? Read Dana Goldstein’s informative new TAP article about UFT President Randi Weingarten, Rhee’s chief antagonist, who “speaks in the commanding, practiced [...]
The Situation Room
Presuming all goes well and I’m not bumped for someone more photogenic and/or an international crisis of some kind, I’ll be on CNN’s The Situation Room today between 4:15 and 4:45, where they’re using Malia and Sasha Obama’s first day of school as an excuse to talk about the DC public schools they won’t be attending, [...]
Oxygen
A co-worker and I were discussing today the oft-repeated education reformer line that schools should be for students and not for adults. See Joel Klein use a version here and Michelle Rhee’s iterations here, here, here, or here. It’s a good line, if for nothing else than it puts traditional powers in education policy (read: [...]
Generalizability
The Michelle Rhee story continues to percolate ever-upward through layers of media, landing on the cover of Time this week. While there are many sound policy-based reasons for supporting her reform efforts, I have to admit one of the things I like is that she talks the way I talk. Not just about education, but [...]
Weighted Student Funding
Over on Flypaper, Stafford is blogging about today’s School Finance Redesign Project panel (the report should be here, I gather, but it looks like the site is down). She laments what she sees as inevitable union resistance to the good idea of weighted student funding, which Fordham touts as a panacea for public schools.
I don’t [...]
The Crisis in Urban Higher Education
As a resident of the District of Columbia, it’s been fascinating to watch the ascendant rock star-dom of Michelle Rhee, the D.C. public schools chancellor. A 38-year old Harvard grad and single mother of two, she’s been profiled in Newsweek, interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, and featured on Charlie Rose. Her panel at the [...]
Principles
Although Eduwonkette and Sherman Dorn are treating it like news, the case of Art Siebens was actually cited by Leo Casey of the UFT on Edwize back in August. In brief, Siebens is an AP science teacher in the District of Columbia who recently lost his job. Supporters have created a Web site making the [...]
The Competition Effect Emerges
I like the Council of Great City Schools and it’s director, Mike Casserly, but I confess I’m not really sure what he’s getting at here. He’s right that muddled governance and Congressional meddling have done DCPS no favors through the years. But his thesis that the lack of coordination between DC’s three-part arrangement of a [...]
"would not benefit…"
A little after noon today, the Washington Teachers Union (WTU), an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, sent an email to its members that begins as follows:
Dear [member],
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) has proposed regulations that would require a DC Public School (DCPS) teacher to demonstrate effectiveness as a condition [...]
Reality Time
Matt Yglesias observes the spate of union-sponsored Fenty-bashing at the Democratic national convention, driven in large part by the Fenty administration’s proposal to pay teachers a lot more money in exchange for more accountability and less job security, and doesn’t like what he sees. (Side note: let’s all agree to apply some standards of objectivity [...]
Birth of the Cool (New Teacher Pay Policy)
One of the fun things about living in Washinton, DC is watching the Fenty/Rhee school reform juggernaut in real time. After decimating the bloated central office bureaucracy, closing low-enrollment schools, and generally bringing a sense of urgency, leadership, and strategic thinking that DCPS has long lacked, the chancellor is now moving directly to the teacher [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/11/10 | Kevin Carey is quoted on the rising costs of education in The Economist.
03/10/10 | Chad Aldeman's False Fronts paper is quoted on Accuracy in Academia.
03/09/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on Federal Family Education Loan defaults on The Huffington Post.
03/09/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on loan origination on the Firedog Lake blog.
03/07/10 | Kevin Carey calls for a Race to the Top in higher education in a column in The Chronicle of Higher Education.