An Unlikely Gambler

As a dedicated teacher, I agree that outstanding teachers should be commended and poor teachers removed. Yet, I must say that Rhee's approach to "cleaning house" is ridiculous. She is conducting a witch hunt. It is as though she believes that poor teachers are the only obstacle that students face in the path to success. What about family? money? social issues? learning disabilities? test pressure? increased standards? I worked in a lower socioeconomic school and gave the same amound of time, energy, passion and effort into my workday as I do at the upper middleclass/affluent school I work at now. Yet, before the test scores were lower. I didn't change my best teaching practices. My students did improve but did not always pass the glorified standardized tests. I recommend that Rhee add some more issues onto her agenda. Perhaps she can implement Family First programs, parent community classes, technology seminars, or parenting classes. It's time for her to see the WHOLE picture and stop this totalitarian raid against teachers.

"An inexperienced college grad can be thrown in a classroom of low-achieving students and can achieve the highest test scores in the school and district at the end of the year. This is all dependent on work ethic and focus."

Hello West11 - you sound much too good to be true. Are you really Chancellor Rhee trying to sell her program?

Tell me, what other miracles can inexperienced college grads perform?

it is actually entirely possible to get a good education in a DC Public school
my DCPS school last year had more students go to Ivies and the equivalents than everyone's favorite school, Sidwell, and most of the other private and Maryland schools in the area. That is completely NOT due to any of the uninformed changes Rhee attempted to institute last year. She tried to keep all students in their 2nd period class for lunch, clearly violating teacher's right to a lunch period, except for one's who were "good." How exactly would that break down? She also tried to add even more police guards to an already completely police-filled school when all that was really needed was at least ONE counselor who could truly communicate with students. That should not be that hard to find. So why all the money spent unnecessary security?
Rhee's problem is that she cares so little about what people think of her that she doent bother to actually talk to students, teachers, and parents about what is best for the school. Those are the people who would know best. Why should we be proud of her for having thick skin and ignoring negative comments if they are actually legitimate complaints? This behavior indicates that she is too wrapped up in her own stubborn beliefs that she wont actually sit back and figure out what is appropriate for the DC school system.
Maybe before eveyone, including Michelle Rhee, starts to jump to conclusions about what DCPS needs, they should learn themselves what the schools are actually like. Afterall, as everyone seems to be saying,knowledge is power. Apparently, DCPS students aren't the only ones who need it...

Isn't every member of a professional group entitled to "due process?" Are teachers professionals or blue- (pink-) collar workers? Every worker in the world deserves "due process." We get the education system we deserve. If we don't make a point of understanding the fundamentals of a good education system, we are bound to have unrealistic expectations and to be disappointed as a result. Administrators' reluctance to use the union to everyone's advantage merely betray their incompetence, disingenuousness, and contempt for those they purport to "help" with their ongoing "evaluations." As everyone should know, there is no such thing as "tenure" for most K-12 public school teachers the way there is for college professors. Evaluations are ongoing for teachers, before and after the granting of what should be known as "permanent status" rather than "tenure." Administrators' jobs are very difficult, but rather than address them directly, education critics find it more convenient to blame the teachers' unions. Parents who become teachers exclaim after the first few weeks "I just didn't get it! Even though I'm a parent, I had no idea how intensely difficult teaching can be." Yes, I know Michelle Rhee taught for three years. There is a reason she got out of it. She had the means and she recognized how hard a job it is. It is difficult to attribute her family's difficulties to job struggles. If the tables were turned, however, I'm sure she would be the first to label someone like her a failure personally as well as professionally.

As a fifth-year teacher of First Grade students, I try to look past the behaviors and see what the real cause is of the issue at hand. Ms. Rhee truly seems to have the students' best interests in mind. You will always ruffle someone's feathers when you try to bring about change. I have seen veteran teachers do great things with their students, and I have also seen some veteran teachers' and thought: " How has this person been teaching for twenty years?" Something has to change. The teachers union can be a blessing and a curse. There needs to be reform on both sides. I believe it starts with lowering the ratio of teacher to student. And when these ineffective teachers are fired, is there a suitable, well-qualified teacher in waiting? If not, is that beneficial for the students? I do believe in weeding out the teachers that are not truly committed to teaching our future leaders, but what happens when they are all gone faster than we can replace them?

I support Rhee and hope she can carry out everything she intends on doing. I'm a Teach for America alumn and am still teaching in elementary schools. Rhee's ideals and goals really work. An inexperienced college grad can be thrown in a classroom of low-achieving students and can achieve the highest test scores in the school and district at the end of the year. This is all dependent on work ethic and focus. Many educators are focusing on the wrong things when they should be focusing on higher level thinking, tracking, long-term planning, assessments, etc. It is long past time that education is reformed and Rhee is just the person to do it. I predict we'll see many follow in her footsteps, including many other Teach for America alumni. It is time that teachers are considered professionals and that requires them to put in work like professionals. And professionals deserve to be rewarded with higher pay.

It's extremely easy to blame teachers and their unions for the state of education. Teaching can only improve if proper staff development is offerred and ongoing. It is also necessary to consider more than test scores when looking at success of a student or school. NCLB has a very limited view of what education should look like and the desired endresult. Rhee may be the future for DC's schools but her vision doesn't have the scope to reach nationwide.

You need an alternative educational setting set up for back up with specialists in psychology as well as teachers with police officers in some these schools. It's hard to believe that all these teachers and principles fired were lazy ,uneffective ,no good quality teachers. Millions now spent on K-8 ? That's been tried and see results before you spend the money. Hire,train,support and motivate to engage ! The school spirit and tone,school climate and working conditions,approach,organization and vision,decision making as a team is missing. Let's teach to the test and reinforce NCLB,AYP penalities on 10%. The bubble is going to pop into higher level thinking skills,creativity incorporated instructionally and try being a coach to guide in reform and sharing ideas listening to the ones that don't agree for identifying solutions and problem solving.

It???s hard to understand why Newsweek would report a claim (Rhee???s huge improvements in test scores as a young teacher in Baltimore) that it admits can???t be substantiated, ??????NEWSWEEK was unable to confirm this assertion.??? But then, perhaps I???m a naïve non-journalist unschooled in the ways of covering oneself without directly misleading readers.

Hopefully Newsweek researchers did the simple internet checking that I did http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/29/AR2007062902190.html and learned Michelle Rhee couldn???t back up her claims when asked by the DC City Council, but elected not to report it.

So at very least, it seems disingenuous to portray her in such a positive fashion, knowing full well that she???s making claims she can???t support. Why would a respectable news organization do that?

Well written and fairly presented on all sides objectively explaining . With NCLB and 10 % opposed to Rhee's approach. Meet all needs and resources in buildings first ! Pack your building survival kits first and then move to strategic academic unison.

We need this kind of minds to help this country's non-educated people to know what's going on around them. Thanks Ms. Rhee for making a difference toward the future. For giving up ur time and taking the teachers that don't want to help our kids.

I know that just getting a job to function like it's suppose to, it's a big deal of stress. So imagined getting a whole city to understand that if we don't act now there might not be a country in the near future. I applaud this kind of people that are willing to give up their personal lives to rescue others. This might not mean nothing to others but it means the world to the future of our kids, thanks Ms. Rhee for making a difference.

After having worked for 20 years in a non-union work environment, I decided to make a midlife change and become a teacher. My concern wasn't the pay or the work environment, it was the idea that I had to join a union in order to teach. As I've progressed through my education, I've found that not all schools require you to join a union. I applaud Ms. Rhee's actions. While unions may scream that they want job security for everyone, the bottom line is that is no longer the case. Just look at the mess unions have caused in the automobile industry.

Below, I meant teaching is a "profession" not a career!

Ms. Rhee states, "But what we need to do is change the idea that education is the only career that needs to be done for life. There are a lot of smart people who change careers every six or seven years, while education ends up with a bunch of people on the low end of the pile who don't want to compete in the job market." Well, perhaps there are a lot of people who change "careers" every six or seven years, but not many people change professions that often. Teaching is not just a career--like a car salesman, retail, or some other job that does not require specialized education. Teaching is a career--like doctor or lawyer. Doctors don't change professions. Practicing lawyers don't change professions. Frankly, I see teaching as beyond "profession" or "career". For the best of us, it is a vocation, a calling. I'm good at it. I love it and students love my class. However, 12 hour days (btw, KIPP schools run from 7 to 5 pm, not 7 pm) and Saturday school would be untenable, especially when I already spend my time after school and on weekends planning and grading!

Congratulations to Ms Rhee on her results with her 70 second graders, it is unfortunate that her students had to suffer through her epiphany. The article states that the environment was not manipulated to achieve success, well requiring two hours of homework, coming in on Saturdays and having the parents sign a contract is changing the environment. What happen to the students and parents who did not comply?

I struggle with this issue as a 7 year veteran teacher in a title one school in Utah. The students who want to achieve in my class are given every chance to achieve and succeed, it is the students who have challenges at home and loss the desire to achieve because they have become disenfranchised from the No Child Left Behind Machine. They have no voice; the teachers are given one program after another in an attempt to bridge the gap. Last year my scores soared, in accordance to or despite the new math program. My students look forward to coming to school because they know I care. It doesn???t matter how much time you put in if the kids think you are just there to crunch the numbers. First we have to get them in the door and then open their ears and minds.

As far a six figures????????????I don???t want six figures if it comes with a 12 hr day. I don???t want to have to work holidays or Saturdays. I want to choose to catch up on my grades if need be. If you ask most teachers what they want it is not a huge pay raise; it is a living wage, a smaller class, an assistant and more support form the community.

Has Ms Rhee ever consulted any of her teachers about what would make them more effective? Teachers are stressed, overwhelmed and left in a room by themselves to deal with their students, create lesson plans and grade them.

I wake up at night worrying about my students; I spend my own money on supplies and plenty of my ???off time??? planning and taking classes to improve. I worked in the private sector and seasonally. I knew since I was 12 I wanted to be a teacher. I love my job because curriculum has flexibility in it to allow teachers to show their passion for education and exploration. I don???t want to be a robot teaching a program for six figures, I want to enjoy the education process and model the fun of knowledge and the empowerment that comes with a good education. (I also want an assistant to put in all my grades.)

Michelle Rhee and her friend, Kati Haycock obviously have a superiority complex and an unfounded one at that. Ms. Rhee talks about how in her home going into teaching as a career was never discussed, but becoming a doctor or a lawyer was. Well these are two careers for life as are most careers that people choose to go into such as advertising, accounting, nursing, politicians, diplomats, firefighters, police officers, military. Yet, Ms. Kati Haycock arrogantly says that smart people change careers 6-8 times in a lifetime. She was either misquoted or is not living in the "real world". Most workers do not change careers that many times, they change employers in search of better monetary compensation. As a teacher, this is my third career and the most satisfying. In my personal experience, there is as much incompetence in the corporate world, if not more, than in public education. My friends in the corporate world often mention the incompetence and dead weight around their offices. To single out education and to make it seem that the people who choose it are the bottom of the pile is a negligible assertion. And to further highlight Ms.Rhee's and Ms. Haycock's arrogant opinion of today's teachers is when the article talks about Ivy Leaguers going into the public school system. PLEASE! From what I see of most Ivy Leaguers, they are unable to deal with the "real world" and still get assistance from mom and dad. Just because someone gets a degree from an Ivy League institution does not mean they are smarter than someone who doesn't. Most life knowledge is not learned in a classroom or textbook but outside of it. My father had a 4th grade education because he was unable to pursue further studies as he had to help his family out back in Portugal circa 1949, but he was one of the smartest people I have ever known, God rest his soul. Most teachers I work with are smart, dedicated, knowledgeable professionals who work extremely hard. Ms. Rhee and Ms. Haycock will never measure up to these dedicated professionals.

bookworm 2768 says, "Engish teachers who send home notes that have been misspelled and are gramattically incorrect and yet sit secure in their teaching positions and other professionals who often do the bare minimum are something we should all be ashamed of." Should we deduce, from the grammatical errors and misspellings in her/his post, that she/he is an English teacher?

i