Rhee Challenges Obama to Get Behind Her on School Reform

Tac ! The Wind Is Changing !

Linking teacher bonuses to student test scores and other incentive-pay provisions under Pl 107-110 ? Now Rhee's executive direction is place the teachers on a 90 day plan and principles resign. Misguided ship is headed for an iceberg ! Tac ! NCLB is a punitive law that uses flawed standardized tests to label schools as failures and punish them with counter productive sanctions. Punitive tests and label approach to accountability is ineffective for school improvement.Equality for democracy !Motivate to engage and see Guskey and Marzano ! Get the pep bands and sail for school spirit! Learning is fun and so are school buildings ! Have a parade and dress up like story book characters and stop the streets ! See the mayor for a permit and work that process! Take an academic concept and design a float for the parade.This teach to a bubble test has taken the fun and creativity out of teaching higer level thinking and problem solving.Take a concept and turn it into an innovative big idea but wait,it's not on the test.See Voices Across America question #1 !"End the mandates on NCLB." Hillary Clinton !

Push Out High Stakes Testing and No Dings Docking !

Finland,Sweden and Denmark soar in academics ! We want our Universial Pre-K to focus on personal responsibility,project based learning and inner-net access. They don't test until High School and participate in the PISA and scored at the top of TIMSS. The US places 19th out of 40 countries in reading.20th in science and 28th in math. Changing the means for measuring school progress? How about we push for Public Accountablity and transparancy for standardized tests.There is very little over sight for these corporations and it's a goldmine industry under NCLB. We have states under NCLB that are using tests less expensive to score from using such assessments. Connecticut sued the federal government over it and it's narrowed the curriculum.Push out high stakes testing and no ding from state policy please.Check out the videos with Hammond,Dr.Wood and Noguera on The Forum for Educational and Democracy.We realize there is an old family connection between McGraw-Hill and President Bush but let's shoot for fair balance of interests with oversight.The US can't be ranked 19th and we're going for #1! Team up !Keep your eye on those educational tax credits and philanthropy tax credits ! Stay balanced in the saddle on those vouchers too! What's the funding formula under NCLB,a law unfunded and let's go ! We have a D in the US and placed 19th out of all the countries ! Get the ball down the court and score !

Michelle Rhee is looking for a band-aid fix. Not real change

Rhee needs to get behind her president's vision and stop perpetrating the bull-dog attitude of an era that got us in this mess we're all in now. Teachers are not superstars on the cover of magazines, Ms. Rhee. We are hardworking people who give what little we have of ourselves everyday while living the hopeless reality that what we do holds no value in this society. Teachers are more than teachers. We are nurturers. We therefore need a plan that can liberate us mind,soul and material. Then, we need a new teaching perspective. It is time for education to go GREEN, right along with our president. Children's early education which occurs during the most impressionable years is treated with scorn. The teachers like the babysitters we're treated like realize that children are not important to this society. Afterall, early childhood educators are paid so menially most of us cant pay our bills let alone to by food. We are so tense we cant concentrate long enough to engage a child, but so many of us do it anyway until we're all worn out. What do you want Ms. Rhee Blood? or celebrity/politition status, because for the life of me I cannot figure out why you would apt to blame teachers for a system they are victims of. Build a school for your teachers Ms Rhee and students will fly. Firstly, teachers wont be forced to live menial oppressed lives and the children will reep the benefits of their teachers self actualization - I promise you.

Rhee

Rhee is a testing case of the Union power against the change for better schools and education. She is an angel to the inner city kids. She should be protected and cheered.

Teacher Tenure

Cudos to Michelle Rhee. We entrust our children to Dr.'s & teachers! Where else in society do we give so much trust to those that take care of our children's health, learning, future? So why don't we make teachers more accountable, just as Dr.s are. NO MORE TENURE. Obtain and keep the best teachers. How can we get a grass roots campaign going to support Michelle Rhee's views?

Public Schools

Being a HS student myself, having taken class in general level, honors, and AP, it definitely does need to be easier to fire incompetent teachers. Also, most of these teachers aren't actually incompetent. They just don't care. Because of this, the idea of merit pay is also very good in my opinion.

So in this debate, Rhee >>> Obama

Grass roots PR?

On several occasions I've heard Rhee talk about her willingness to "bend the rules" to accomplish her goals. I'm scared that 8 years of bush may have conditioned the new left to accept a unilateral and ends-justifies-means approach to school reform.

As big a media darling Rhee is it seems like some of her opponents are trying to replicate Obama's successful marketing strategy:

http://www.cafepress.com/rheeiswrong

Rhee is Amazing AND We DO Need to Attempt New Ideas in Education!

I'm very impressed with Ms. Rhee's attempts to stand up to the politics-as-usual in our education bureaucracy. It is a very sad fact that though we spend so much on education at all levels here in the United States, the results are not all that impressive for the amount education spending. Ms. Rhee's plans for teacher pay have not been instituted, but the idea behind them - along with the idea of dismantling tenure systems and the stranglehold of teachers' unions is refreshing. Her appropriate goal is to implement a dynamic meritocracy system based on teacher performance and how the results reflect in student achievement. If you work in the private sector, you need to achieve results to retain your position - and greater results mean better compensation and benefits.

Many teachers in our country are excited and engaged and have great results, but we all know that there are also those who get into the system, do the minimum, and extract greater and greater benefits from taxpayers as they gain seniority. It is truly sad that so many areas of our country have children who have been victimized by morally bankrupt public school systems that have refused change because of old political alliances and old-fashioned cronyism. It is kind of like how politicians and unions in the rust belt refused to allow change in the business models in the Big Three and other manufacturers.

It just does not seem to me that enough kids - even some "smart" ones - fully understand or appreciate the basics of our history, our American heritage, basic mathematics, basic econoimcs & finance, and good writing skills. We can whine all we want about generating greater access to higher education - but I think the concentration needs to be on more meaningful elementary and secondary education that can open the doors to other interesting (or perhaps more fun or more profitable) options for kids than simply pushing them to what some have made the next holding place -- college. We need to get back to the basics and try our best to ensure that kids graduating high school master the great historic facts and events of our nation, can write well, have an understanding of personal finance and the basics of the global economy, know basic math and scientific methods, can learn to work well with others, learn responsibility, initiative, and entrepreneurship, and learn to make decisions for themselves. It seems to me that some kids recently graduating college are overly institutionalized and dependant and can't make their own decisions.

Education in our country is simplistic and has made some of our schools holding places for our kids rather than places of learning. We need to rein in the teachers' unions, increase standards, make students aware EARLY that failure is not an excuse to give up but should be a message to try even harder, and to let kids choose their own paths - there is no shame in really wanting to become an electrician instead of a liberal arts major.

Ms. Rhee and her work in DC schools

It's about time that someone took control of the goverment schools. I'd love to see this woman come to California and do the same here.

I send my daughter to Catholic school. It is the best decision and I have no regrets. She is the youngest of five and the only one I could afford to do it for. Two of my kids are adopted and have special needs; one is profoundly mentally disabled. They had do go the public school route.

As for the Obama girls, I think that their personal safety played a huge role in the decision for the school they will attend. I agree that we need to have vouchers for everyone. We also need to eliminate teacher unionization. Professionals do not need unions...unions have been abused by the teaching profession.

What is the D.C. school district budget?

Can you imagine if school districts did not have to worry about budgets and pay $130K a year for teachers. Sign me up!!!

The reality is school districts struggle with federal mandates, social woes (feeding kids from economically challenged families), and already over-burdened taxpayers.

How does the D.C. school district raise their funds? How much federal money goes to D.C. vs other "regular" school districts?