TheRheeDCRecord - home

TheRheeDCRecord - home

Title: The Rhee DC Record: Math and Reading Gains No Better Than Her Predecessors Vance and Janey

Author: Dr. Alan Ginsburg, Director of Policy and Program Studies, U.S. Dept. of Education (Retired)

Former DC Chancellor of Schools Michelle Rhee has gained national attention for her tough but controversial reform policies focused on large-scale firing of DC teachers. Her teacher policies have been widely cited as a lever that enabled Rhee to produce an unprecedented turnaround in low DC students’ scores. Notably, Rhee has been featured on the cover of Time magazine with a broom symbolic of sweeping out ineffective teachers and a movie, Waiting for Superman, has been made that included her perceived historic DC success. Based on these perceived extraordinary DC test score gains, she is spearheading a national effort StudentsFirst to raise a billion dollars to replicate nationally her DC policies that include references to her "unprecedented growth" in DC student outcomes.

Experts are divided over the merits of Rhee’s tough teacher policies. Critics have cited their potential to weaken teacher morale and that “teachers deserve respect, not condemnation” (McGuire, 2010). Others see teacher firings and polarization as a necessary price for student progress (Rotherham, 2010). Therefore, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of