Bill Turque's retrospective on Michelle Rhee in the Washington Postconcentrates on the costs and the benefits of her "reforms." We can debate whether Rhee prompted minimal or modest improvements, but that misses the point if we ignore trade-offs. Turque reports that about a third of D.C.'s teachers left the district under Rhee. There is little doubt that many deserved to go, but the way she drove educators out, and the premature implementation of the IMPACT evaluation system were damaging. The “churn and burn” resulted in large percentages of novice teachers, especially in the most challenging schools. Also, 29% of principals turned over. Turque
