Michelle Rhee, on NBC-TV’s Meet The Press program today showed a hilarious Olympics-themed 30-second ad for her StudentsFirst (“a movement to transform public education”) organization. StudentsFirst advocates education reform, including the ending of teacher tenure.
I had no idea who Ms. Rhee was, before today. Thanks to Google, I learned that she was chancellor of Washington DC’s school system from 2007 to 2010. According to her entry in Wikipedia,
Rhee inherited a troubled system; there had been six school chiefs in the previous 10 years, students historically had below-average scores on standardized tests, and according to Rhee, only 8% of eighth graders were at grade level in mathematics. The D.C. schools were performing poorly despite having the advantage of the third highest spending per student in the US.
That last sentence confirms my contention that just throwing money at our broken education system won’t fix it. As a nation, we spend more money per student than any other country — and on math and science tests, our students score lower than most of them.
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Bloomberg did a good 30-minute show on Rhee that may be available online. She’s not universally loved, not surprisingly.
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July 27 (Bloomberg) — “Bloomberg Risk Takers” profiles Michelle Rhee, the controversial education reformer who fought to change the American public school system. As former DC Chancellor, Rhee made headlines when she shook up one of the toughest school systems in the country and closed 15 percent of the district’s public schools, firing hundreds of teachers in the process. The education establishment fought back, and Rhee was criticized by some parents and students. In 2010, Rhee announced the launch of StudentsFirst, a national organization she hopes will enable the US to regain its competitive edge in education. (Source: Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/73139920-michelle-rhee-profiled-bloomberg-risk-takers.html
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I agree with Stanford University’s president: a tsunami is headed for the American education establishment. I hope that it overturns everything, from K to postgrad. Maybe Ms. Rhee’s actions are just a prelude. Some heavy-hitters are essentially on her side: Bill and Melinda Gates are trying to standardize school curricula for K-12 throughout the country.
The video clip cracks me up, every time that I watch it. It shows that she’s got a sense of humor, which is always a persuasive tool.
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