Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee, the education celebrity who rocketed from obscurity to Oprah
In camera-ready red, Michelle Rhee started the week on the set of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” The next night, she was the subject of an hour-long documentary on “Frontline.” In several weeks, she’ll tour the country to promote her new memoir, “Radical.”
In the two years since her short and stormy tenure as chancellor of the District’s public schools, Rhee has transformed herself into an education celebrity, the likes of which the country hasn’t seen before.
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Michelle Rhee: Separating the Truth From the Hype
When Michelle Rhee became chancellor of the Washington D.C. school district in 2007, she introduced a take-no-prisoners approach that stirred up controversy right from the start.
Rhee used test scores to measure teacher and administrator performance, and she won the right to fire staff who did not meet her expectations. "People were scared to death that if their test scores did not go up, they were going to be fired," says Francisco Millet, who served as an assistant superintendent at the time.
The strategy seemed to work. Test scores soared. But were the gains real -- or the result of acheating scandal? How has Rhee responded to the allegations of test tampering during her tenure?
Aside from test scores -- what impact did Rhee's reforms really have on D.C. schools? Is there anational model to draw from her policies, or were they more showmanship than substance? And what's happened to D.C. schools in the years since she left office?
Frontline has invited some of the country's leading journalists and experts to answer these
“There is no one else in this space who can command attention like she can,” said Andrew J. Rotherham, a former Clinton administration official who now runs Bellwether Education, a nonprofit group that works to improve education for low-income students. “She has star power. People in the business call it a Q score. . . .For an issue like education, definitely a second-tier issue, that’s no small thing.”
Rhee has created a political organization, StudentsFirst, that gives her a national platform. In just six years, she has rocketed from obscurity to the kind of fame that turns heads at the airport.
“Michelle has accomplished becoming a celebrity,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and Rhee’s frequent nemesis. “She spends a lot of time trying to show that she’s very important.”
And the division she inspired in the District — where she was condemned by some, lionized by others — has followed her to the national stage.
Rhee embodies one extreme in the debate