Sunday, April 14, 2013

NYC Educator: Being Reformy Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

NYC Educator: Being Reformy Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry:


Being Reformy Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

Reformy Rhee is besieged by suggestions Erase to the Top was bigger and badder than she'd ever acknowledged. The smoking memo has been released, and she's all Scarlett O'Hara: "What? Little old me? Well I never saw any blessed memo. Let them look at it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day."

Apparently, her successor, Kaya Henderson never saw the memo either, yet now deems it to be flawed. One of the great things about being reformy is this--whatever goes wrong, it isn't your fault. It was an emergency! Children were suffering. We didn't have time to do any stinking research! How could we possibly have anticipated people would cheat?

And that's a good question. After all, they had choices. They could raise test scores and get bonuses, or fail to raise test scores and get fired. In Rhee-world, there are No Excuses. How could she possibly have anticipated that people would cheat and get bonuses rather than tell the truth and get fired? After all, she now only never saw the memo, but she also never heard of Campbell's Law