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Rhee: Oprah's Warrior Woman

Correction: Chancellor Rhee used the "devastating," not "disastrous," at the screening last week.

D. C. Parent Comment:
re: Michelle Rhee's "mom friendly" comment, prepared specifically for the Oprah show, about moms not tolerating mediocre teachers being given time to grow and develop professionally. "Well. The unqualified, needing-to-grow-professionally, TFA principal that Rhee PUSHED on our school, despite protests from a panel of engaged, informed, truly progressive, professional educators and parents with advanced degrees in education . . . hired and protected even more inexperienced, unqualified teachers who will take YEARS to develop into true professionals. But the principal and those teachers all know how to say "yes" to their boss. Too bad they don't know the basics of how children learn, or the nuances of curriculum and instruction. It is hard, hard work indeed to have to reprogram my kids every day after school, to get them to embrace and understand learning again. Rhee's influential, BAD decisions and practices, more than ANY OTHER failure of the DC Public School system, has me on the verge of pulling my kids out of school. Rhee embarrassed herself mightily at the DC screening of this film with her comment insulting DC voters. My kids, and the 350 others in their school, will not be devastated at all when she leaves. We assume she will head to the business world for which she may have more appropriate skills."

by Bill Turque

Oprah Winfrey gave Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee a heroine's welcome Monday when she appeared as part of a promotional push for "Waiting for Superman," the documentary that includes an account of her early struggles in the District.

Winfrey introduced Rhee to an adoring studio audience as the woman who "singlehandedly turned the D.C. public school system upside down," firing "over 1,000 teachers and principals" -- a number I'd never heard before.

"This is a warrior woman! This is a warrior woman!" Oprah declared.

The show was taped Sept. 10, so there was no discussion of the Mayor Fenty's Democratic Sept. 14 primary loss to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, or her explosive statement that the result of the election was "disastrous" for D.C. schoolchildren. She joined Bill Gates (also in the film) and director Davis Guggenheim in discussing the principal themes of the film: that charter schools are the great hope of public education and that teachers unions are the principal obstacle to reform.

A couple of factual points fell victim to friendly fire from Rhee the warrior woman. In a discussion of how to deal with ineffective teachers, she minimized the significance of professional development, saying that it was not fair to ask parents to put their children in the classrooms of educators who might be better in a year or two.

"There is no way I would put up with that [as a parent]," Rhee said.

Yet that is precisely what's she's done with more than 700 D.C. teachers judged "minimally effective" on last year's IMPACT evaluation. They'll be given a year to improve or face dismissal. Her write-off of professional development also overlooks the commitment the District made in its federal "Race to the Top" application. Part of the $75 million grant from the Department of Education is contingent on D.C. establishing "a wide and deep array of rigorous professional development opportunities" for teachers.

Perhaps even more puzzling was Rhee's answer when Oprah asked about the difficulty in firing teachers. "You have to meet literally a criminal standard," she said, which is true when pursuing cases of sexual misconduct or corporal punishment. But firing teachers for poor performance -- next to impossible in DCPS for years -- is now an option through IMPACT if their scores are low. The system led to the dismissal of 126 teachers this summer.

Winfrey, who urged viewers to see the movie, ended the show by reinforcing the film's pro-charter tilt. Her "Angels Network" awarded $1 million to each of six high-performing charter school networks.


— Bill Turque
Washington Post
2010-09-20
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/09/rhee_oprahs_warrior_woman.html?wpisrc=nl_education&wpisrc=nl_education

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