Principal fired by Rhee named Person of the Year
Written by Beth Solomon for The Georgetown Dish. Read the entire article here.
“‘He was booted [by former chancellor Michelle Rhee] out of Hardy Middle School, which he had built into a high-performing institution. Then, he was forced to sit for months in a central-office cubicle before being shipped to what some described as Siberia: a struggling school east of the Anacostia River that had ripped through several administrative leaders,’ Barras wrote.
Patrick Pope was expected to quit. Instead, he has turned the tiny elementary from a troubled under-achiever to an award-winning success that was recently given a $500,000 federal grant to develop an arts program like the one Pope built at Hardy.“
Watch Michelle Rhee pull a Romney: loves to fire people
From Michael Winerip's New York Times article: "*Always, she preens for the cameras. Early in her chancellorship, she was trailed for a story by the education correspondent of 'PBS NewsHour,' John Merrow.* *At one point, Ms. Rhee asked if his crew wanted to watch her fire a principal. 'We were totally stunned,' Mr. Merrow said.* *She let them set up the camera behind the principal and videotape the entire firing. 'The principal seemed dazed,' said Mr. Merrow. 'I’ve been reporting 35 years and never seen anything like it.'"* It takes a strong stomach, but you can watch the video belo... more »
Are D.C. school officials hiding test data?
*Note: Although these tests occurred in 2011, one year after Rhee's departure from DC, the DC school personnel that administered them are the same personnel and system that she put in place.* "Is this an intentional effort to deny parents, voters and taxpayers the information they need to judge the integrity of D.C. test results? [instead of releasing the results DC] is going to hire another consultant to do another investigation. That will likely keep parents, teachers and students in the dark for a long time. Caveon visited some schools and did some interviews. In nearly every cas... more »
Unsolved Mystery: DC Public Schools Cheating Scandal– Is there a cover up?
"The Washington DC school system's failure to hold higher-ups accountable for their 2008-2010 test cheating scandal has led to more speculation that some are intentionally stonewalling attempts to get at the truth. ... ... Mayor Gray took the opportunity to reference Michelle Rhee’s tenure in DC. Gray suggested the investigations “do nothing to tarnish former Chancellor Michelle Rhee…We’re not looking to continue or detract from her legacy…the results speak for themselves.” Rhee built her reputation on improving test scores in DC and is currently criss-crossing the country pushing ed... more »
WashPost: 2011 DCPS suspicious erasures decline– so do test scores
That’s a drop of nearly 50 percent from 253 classrooms in 2009. The 128 classrooms represent less than 3 percent of the total number of classrooms in which students were tested. ... The 2011 numbers continue a trend in which the decline in suspicious erasures--which officials credit to improved security--has been accompanied by flat or falling test scores. The 2011 data released this week show the highest concentration of high-erasure classrooms in the third grade, where 21 of 303 rooms (6.9 percent) were flagged in math tests and 6.3 percent in reading exams. Why erasure rates are ... more »
Schools flunked inquiries into suspicious scores in 2011
"By the time it's over, 2011 may well go down as the Year of the Test Scandal... The revelations came as schools, nearly a decade into the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era of test-based accountability, struggled to increase the percentage of students deemed "proficient" on state math and reading tests. Among the most high-profile cases: •In Atlanta, three years after the Journal-Constitution began probing unusual gains on test scores, a state investigation in July found that 178 teachers and principals had tampered with tests over the past decade. Last week, investigators said educat... more »
DCPS achievement gap blamed on officials, demographics, lack of funding
"Goldstein also concluded that while Rhee failed to significantly narrow achievement gaps, the gaps would be less disturbing if overall achievement levels were moderate or high. "But what we continue to see in D.C. is that white students score well above both national and urban district averages for their race; [and that] black, Hispanic and poor children score well below national averages for their races and classes," Goldstein wrote."
Former DC schools chief busy lobbying, helping (right-wing) politicians
"'She represents an approach to reforming education that we think is really destructive and is not going to face the problems of public education,' says Lisa Guisbond of Citizens for Public Schools, a Boston-based public education advocacy group. Along with a handful* of others, Guisbond's group arranged a boisterous demonstration in November when Rhee appeared at Boston's Symphony Hall, where marchers carried signs that read, 'Erasing Mistakes Doesn't Put Children First.'" *Contemporaneous local news reports put the number of protestors at 100.