Rhee ramps up MO lobby force–still losing on her ALEC-sponsored bill
*The Rhee anti-teacher bill being debated in Missouri this week is sponsored by ALEC member, Rep. Scott Dieckhaus, who sits on ALEC’s Education Taskforce. The vote set for Tuesday but was postponed for more strong-arming because it lacked supporters. Here’s the latest:*"StudentsFirst, the ironically (and misleadingly) named Michele Rhee-led organization that is pushing anti-teacher legislation has increased its lobbying contingent in Missouri to nine, according to Missouri Ethics Commission documents. The organization added two lobbyists, Ximena Hartsock and Adam Childers, to its ros... more »
Why I Teach: from a DC teacher fired because of Rhee’s flawed teacher evaluation system
"I spent my first two years as a teacher in a DCPS middle school; it was a fairly tough environment, especially for a newbie. After my second year in the classroom I was fired due to a new controversial teacher evaluation system called IMPACT…. Many of my students entered my fifth-grade classroom with standardized test scores (from the end of fourth grade) that far exceeded their true abilities. I was worried about showing growth on the DC CAS test; I spoke to my administration frequently — and even some DCPS admins. Consistently, I was told “Don’t worry about it,” and that if I was ... more »
Rhee’s TN spending—not a penny for TN kids
*Rhee's TN spending—not a penny for TN kids* "After making substantial campaign contributions to state lawmakers and commissioning a poll to show support for its issues, StudentsFirst now is running television ads urging viewers to contact state lawmakers to support three bills the organization backs in the Legislature... StudentsFirst says its spending on the ads is in the “six figures.” Full-court presses by groups are fairly common in Congress, but the combination of polling and campaign contributions, which benefit lawmakers, combined with paid TV ads is still somewhat rare in T... more »
Rhee outspends corp. reformers in CA, lays out significant cash in TN to push corporate ed reform
Rhee spent $154K to lobby for corp reform in CA, outspending DFER/ERN. Not a penny to CA kids. The link to her lobby disclosure is here. In Tennessee, she laid out $25,000 - $50,000 in early 2012 to lobby for anti-teacher bills. Again not a penny for TN kids. View the Tennessee disclosure here.
Link between value-added ratings and classroom observations is modest, studies show. But DC teacher fired anyway
"Here’s a statistical postscript to the story of Sarah Wysocki , the MacFarland Middle School teacher fired by DCPS last year after she earned good classroom observation scores on IMPACT’s Teaching and Learning Framework, but low value-added marks on student test results.* [She inherited students with highly inflated scores from suspicious erasures]*Ideally, there would be a healthy statistical link between the value- added and TLF scores. That would provide some solid evidence that following DCPS prescriptives in the classroom leads to higher student achievement on standardized test... more »
ALEC member, MO Rep. Dieckhaus, recruited Rhee to launch her anti-teacher crusade in MO
"Scott Dieckhaus, a republican from Washington and House Chairman of the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee spoke to StudentsFirst leaders about coming to Missouri in the fall of 2012. Dieckhaus is quoted in the article: “StudentsFirst has a very pragmatic and research-based approach to trying to reform education systems and trying to make them better,” Dieckhaus said."
Meet Missouri’s newest education lobbyist- Michelle Rhee
"Some of those who have been most responsible for those lies, former head of Washington D. C. Schools Michelle Rhee and her crew at Students First have worked quickly to establish a stronghold in the Show-Me State. As of Feb. 8, Ms. Rhee is a registered lobbyist here, one of seven who can legally lobby for Students First... The irony about Students First, is that its leader is someone who has done nothing but put herself first since her dramatic entry as head of the schools in our nation's capitol. How else can you explain the infamous Newsweek cover which showed her with a broom rea... more »
How deceptive is this letter from Rhee’s organization?
*Recently, Rheefirst received irate emails about being scammed to sign a deceptive petition from change.org and care2. It turns out this is the chief recruitment ploy of Rhee’s organization. Sign and you become a Rhee “member” for life. One missive enumerated the number of times the inadvertent signer asked to be removed from Rhee’s “membership” list. To no avail. * "Read the following fundraising letter, which was sent to, of all people, education historian Diane Ravitch by Michelle Rhee’s organization. Ravitch recognized the name of the group sending out the letter — StudentsFirst... more »
The ALEC links with the education for profiteers & the Rhee connection
*Michelle Rhee will be speaking at what was described as the most cynical group of education for-profiteers ever assembled.* *This piece examines the ALEC links of this group. Unsurprisingly, a sister company of the Washington Post, whose editorial board was Rhee’s chief propagandist in DC, is a major player* "Republic Report has obtained a list of members of the ALEC Education Task Force as of July 2011, and it includes some of the largest players in the for-profit college industry: • Washington Post Company-owned Kaplan, which is under investigation by at least four state Attorney...more »
The Best Posts About Michelle Rhee’s Exaggerated Test Scores
*Dated, but oh so good.* "The education blogosphere, and parts of the education media, have been abuzz the past couple of days over the discovery that Michelle Rhee’s often-claimed astronomical student test gains when she was a teacher were not true. This, of course, does not mean that Rhee was not a good teacher — for all I know, she was an excellent one (though I have to admit her admission that she taped the mouths shut of her students one day does give one pause). It can mean, however, a number of other things. And here are my choices for The Best Posts About Michelle Rhee’s Exa... more »