D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2009-10-08/dc-schools-chancellor-michelle-rhee
More than two hundred D.C. teachers received word last week that their positions were being terminated. D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee says cutbacks to teachers and staff were made necessary by budget woes. But critics say the layoffs were unnecessary -- and that Rhee's budget math is wrong. We talk with the chancellor about this decision and how it may affect her efforts to reform the D.C. public school system.
Guests
Michelle Rhee
Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools
Comments
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I am a former DC Public School student that was given answers to standardized test in math classes and attended several classes were the teachers played the “dozens” (yo mama jokes etc) with the students. At the time it did not seem to make that much difference until I went to college. Preparation for college was not in the forefront of DCPS’s educational process. Although I completed college and subsequently graduate school, I wasted time and money due to this flawed education. In college I took remedial college courses for which I paid for but received no college credits. It took me way more than four years to finish college, all because I was not prepared.
I am now a mother of two and spend and arm and a leg on their education. I would hate for them to suffer the experience of not being prepare for their futures as I did. I feel I will either pay now or pay later. The latter option is the sad reality of a DCPS education. Please tell me what you are doing within the structure of the curriculum to ensure students are getting the study skills and in-depth reading comprehension/test taking skills which will assist them in completing a 4 college degree within 4 years without unnecessary academic struggles.
Towards the end of the segment, an attorney who deals with employment issues called to express his view that school principals have too much power in relation to terminations of teachers and other staff. Ms. Rhee simply brushed this aside. I was really disappointed that there wasn’t a follow-up question to ask Ms. Rhee how it was possible that the process is balanced when she had stated earlier in the interview that the principals were given sway over 3 out or 4 of the criteria used to determine the terminations, with those 3 criteria being highly subjective. Since when does having 75% control over the process make it balanced? When Ms. Rhee visits schools it is an event, and administrators are on their best behavior. She does not witness the interactions on a day to day basis in the schools. Granted, it is impossible for her to be everywhere. However, when multiple complaints come from staff in a particular school, I believe it is worth giving everyone the benefit of the doubt by taking the time to find out what has really been going on.
Even though Ms. Rhee and Mayor Fenty keep saying the firings were based on poor performance, I recently read a news article about a special education teacher at Anacostia H. S. who was terminated even though she had a recent performance evaluation giving her 28 out of 30 points as an employee who "exceeds expectations". Was performance the issue in that case? How about a recent hire at McKinley H. S. who was never evaluated? There are other examples. This makes me think that there are low performers still in their jobs because, based on Ms. Rhee's explanation of the termination process, there was room for significant bias.
If DCPS can't get this right, what are they doing for our children?