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Another Perspective

Good Rheedance

By on 10.18.10 @ 6:09AM

If Michelle Rhee is the best the school reform movement can produce, then we’re  in even worse trouble than we thought.

Although the incumbent mayor of Washington, D.C., was soundly defeated in the Democratic Party primary a few weeks ago, the larger story, judging from press commentary both locally and nationally, was that the voters of the nation’s capital had rejected public school reform. No one could point to any truly substantial difference between the politics of Adrian Fenty, or his policies, and those of his rather popular predecessor, Anthony Williams, nor for that matter those of his main challenger, the chairman of the city council, a veteran of Washington politics named Vincent Gray (who has indicated he may give Williams a job). However, the manner in which the incumbent was advancing his school-reform agenda became an issue during the last weeks of the campaign, particularly when the young schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee, openly joined his campaign, possibly in violation of the Hatch Act despite her own insistence that she was acting in a private capacity.

When he won the mayoralty four years ago, Adrian Fenty gave school reform pride of place on his agenda. He quite deliberately declared himself a student of New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and said he too would take control of the city public schools away from a politicized school board. Pointing to the kind of administrative reforms that the New York Chancellor, a Bloomberg protégé and former Clinton Justice department lawyer, Joel Klein, favored, Mayor Fenty appointed Michelle Rhee, a product of the Teach-for-America movement, to the top job and told her that whatever she wanted to do, he would cover for her. In this, Fenty surely was transparent, making it quite clear that he not only agreed with Miss Rhee’s ideas and policies, but was, in effect, ordering them.

Washington thus became the latest city in the country to serve as a “showcase” for public school reform, the latest, that is, in at least a hundred years of public school reform. It is typical of today’s reformers that they seem blithely unaware that public schools, like our nation, evolve, and indeed evolve in ways that parallel the larger society’s. The most significant of these parallel trends is the surrender of local responsibility to government authorities, and the pretense of the latter to rely on “experts,” a.k.a. technocrats, people parachuted into communities where they have no ties but whose problems they can solve.

It is not likely that in rejecting Miss Rhee, Washington’s voters voted against the federalization of education, because Washington is a federal plantation and no politician here would dare oppose the movement for statehood which, given the city’s socio-economic condition, would serve only to render more blatant this fact. However, they do seem to have rejected the form, if not the substance, of rule-by-experts into which the school reform movement morphed in the past 20 years or so.

To be sure, school reform always has been led by know-it-alls, of whom the archetypes were John Dewey and several generations of specialists in education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Specialization has its uses, of course, but even in a discipline where knowledge can be defined with great precision, like nuclear physics, it is unwise to apply notions to real life without knowing something about just that, real life.

School reform has focused historically, one might almost say cyclically, on such scarecrows as “entrenched interests” and “out of date pedagogy.” In plain English, reformers have tended to think they understand the problems and challenges of educating undisciplined if lovable savages (children and teenagers) better than the people whose job it is to do it, and furthermore that they have a system for teaching math and reading that will work better than any other. In both regards they are very much in the venerable American tradition of snake-oil salesmen, though the Ph.D.’s they often hold are authentic, compared to the “doctor” titles conferred upon themselves by your old-fashioned mountebanks. In terms of truth-in-packaging, the latter were probably more honest.

Not a Ph.D. holder herself, Miss Rhee (Cornell B.A., Harvard-Kennedy School M.A.) entered the education field through Teach for America, the successful 1990 brainchild of Wendy Kopp (a Princeton graduate), whose core idea was that it could recruit young graduates to serve in public schools in difficult, usually urban, neighborhoods, give them the requisite training to pass state certification requirements, and motivate them to teach for at least two years, thereby improving the teaching corps, since they were graduates of elite schools. Like so many other universal-improvement ideas, Teach for America rapidly turned itself into a money-making organization. Its most ambitious members tended, as did Miss Rhee, toward administrative positions. After teaching for a year or two in Baltimore, she created a TFA look-alike which obtained public funds to train “excellent” teachers, among other things.

The 1990s go-teach-the-underprivileged movements, which several cities, including New York and Washington, soon imitated with their own “Teaching Fellows” programs, was that if you demonstrated that there were lots of bright kids (as well as dim middle-aged folks looking for a career-change) willing to sacrifice themselves for the poor, the money would follow. This is not to denigrate the “send forth the best ye breed” idealism that undoubtedly played its part, or the thoughts to another notch on an attractive résumé that are, after all, altogether reasonable, but it is to underscore that there in fact was money in it. The teaching missionaries typically were funded by, and in fact became de facto recruits of, AmeriCorps, the federal government’s “domestic peace corps.”

The money was there because since the entry of the government into education during Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, there has been a constant search for programs on which to spend the taxpayers’ money. (The Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act, renewed by the Obama administration with an added incentive called “Race to the Top” which encourages all-out cramming to produce high test scores, are direct descendants of the 1960s Elementary and High School Education Acts.) The inescapable evidence, however, is that the more federal money has been spent on public education, the more student achievement has plummeted.

The question then has to come down to this: does money matter? During her brief tenure as D.C. Schools Chancellor, Miss Rhee claimed as her top achievements that she was diminishing the administrative staff at the schools headquarters; that she was encouraging teachers to brighten their classrooms; and that she was providing programs of professional development for weak teachers.

She also took credit for improved test scores, which is the last defense of the educrat. No one who has looked seriously at the way achievements in math and reading are assessed under the No Child Left Behind rules believes you can judge a district on the basis of scarcely a couple of years. The D.C. schools implemented reforms aimed at improving scores, anyway, in 2006, so at most Miss Rhee should claim credit for staying with them, notwithstanding her stated plan to break with business as usual. But the substantive issue is whether it serves a useful educational purpose to turn schools into fill-the-bubble-test cram boxes instead of teaching content-rich courses.

No one can possibly complain about this; any schools superintendent would include such items as a matter of course in his program. It does not cost anything, however, or very little. Teachers traditionally decorate their classrooms with their children’s work, books are not that expensive, and professional development properly understood means that experienced teachers give pointers to younger ones.

The real problem with money, especially money that the local community does not see because it is cloaked in the mysteries of Department of Education allocations or Gates Foundation grants, is that it turns the schools over to the professional educators, all too often individuals like Miss Rhee with almost no classroom experience. These professional educators include the union leaders whose specialty is to negotiate contracts based on the principle that every moment a union member spends on the job (calibrated, literally, to the minute) is remunerated, including when he, or she, gives advice to a fellow-teacher. Professional development, which used to be known as collegiality, thus also became a racket.

Miss Rhee, quite laudably, got into trouble with the Washington teachers’ union. But the quarrel was not over the kind of issue that principled insurgent-unionists would have joined her in — replacing venal leadership, for instance (that had already been done) — but over the division of the spoils, under the cover of non-issues like merit pay and tenure. These items, often mentioned by conservative critics, because they sound like breaths of fresh and efficient air in sclerotic boondoggling systems, completely miss the point.

Miss Rhee fell into this kind of argument because she, like the union leaders and community activists who rallied the city for Gray by denouncing her, does not want to see the point any more than they do. A free society gets the public schools it deserves, and if we, as Americans, cannot create and sustain institutions for public instruction as good at reaching their stated goals — with all obvious caveats and in all due perspective, of course — as the Army, for example, does, then maybe it really is time to start over from scratch. At the present, the children of many of our school districts scarcely would lose anything by being given a six-month vacation while the adults ponder just what schools are for.

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About the Author

Roger Kaplan, a Washington-based writer, covers the Middle East and Africa (and tennis) for The American Spectator.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (85) |

JAWilson| 10.18.10 @ 7:37AM

I have five kids in the CPS. They run all the bright ideas that the UofC lab school kicks out every year. It's generally greek to me and I'm expected to help them with their homework as an unpaid teachers assistant.

What I do know is that my kids never memorized the math tables and the face of an analog clock is a mystery to them. Some core skills that transcend generations should be established, IMHO.

SpiralArchitect| 10.18.10 @ 5:00PM

I pity your kids. No, not because of the school they are in but because their parent(s) feels it is some terrible obligation that they must participate in their childrens learning. A criticle aspect of every childs learning - every parents obligation as well.

You may not understand what the assignment is ( puzzeling that it should bewilder you so much ) yet you take the stance that you are some sort of, no, that you will not act as some sort of "unpaid teachers assistant".

Why might it be important for a parent to be INVOLVED with their childs LEARNING experience you may wonder (and likely do wonder by your post).

With such a pathetically sad comment as such:

"What I do know is that my kids never memorized the math tables and the face of an analog clock is a mystery to them. "

Are math table 'Greek' to you as well? Would it be to much to leave out a bag of Cheetos on your next visit to Wal-Mart and use that few bucks for a cheap-o 'analog clock'? If that is too much to ask maybe a pencile and paper and make a diagram... 2 sticks on the floor would even suffice!

What else do you expect society to teach your children? Have you told them that stealing is bad and other duties that parents tell their children about.

As far as 'core skills' and things that 'transcend generations' it is apparent what you havemissed out.

Again, I pity your children for their loss.

Chuck| 10.18.10 @ 10:17PM

No, it is NOT the parents' job to "get involved" in their childrens' education other than making sure they get to school, and can function as ordinary children, supporting the discipline of the school -- or perhaps making sure they do their homework.

My parents never were involved in my education; it was the teachers who taught me the times tables and how to diagram sentences. That was their job. For my parents to have been involved as you suggest would be to take responsibility away from me and the teachers ...

GavInTucson| 10.19.10 @ 12:42AM

I agree and disagree with some of your comments. While I certainly agree that teachers have the fundamental job of teaching the curriculum to our children, if we find that the fundamentals aren't being taught, or if they're no longer part of the curriculum, we most certainly should step in and do something about it.

First, I'll take it upon myself to teach those fundamentals (using the multiplication tables and analog clock examples) to my kids. Then, I'll be marching up to that school and demand to know why it's not being taught.

If you take the hands-off approach and only say to yourself, "It's their job" your kids will be at a disadvantage while you argue with the school board. They're not going to go back and teach your child the fundamentals. Future students perhaps, but not yours.

Bob From District 9| 10.23.10 @ 10:33AM

You don't seem to understand this.

"They run all the bright ideas that the UofC lab school kicks out every year. It's generally greek to me and I'm expected to help them with their homework as an unpaid teachers assistant."

I was in the same position. I am very good at math, I helped my children with math while my wife helped them with history and literature. (My preferred lit is poetry.)

Yet when my youngest entered high school they were studying things I never saw until I was trained in statistical process control, well after high school. Funny thing though, the particular parts they were studying I have never seen used in the real world, and I have forgotten most of it.

So, they are studying something I have studied, but forgotten because it isn't much used, and now is Greek to me. How is that not something wrong with the school.

In their freshman year they had to have a $100 graphing calculator. They never used it again. Why?

His point was, they jump from theory to theory and parents are supposed to keep up and help the children? I don't think so.

The children never learned their math tables in school so the parents are supposed to teach them? Most parents are not much good at math, how do they teach their children. Above all, even if most parents were good at math, that still leaves out those children whose parent's aren't.

My children did well in school, except where we could not help and the schools let them down. Then they didn't do much better than average. My middle child amazed her teachers with how well she did. Even amazed outside evaluators. That was because she had parents who just happened to have backgrounds that merged to work with them.

Schools have to teach, they can't count on parents having math and technology and history and literature backgrounds to pick up the slack.

Oh, and I am a strong supporter of public schools. I am not bashing the public schools, but demanding more support to make them better.

Alan Brooks| 10.18.10 @ 9:55PM

Frankly, though America is an exceptional nation
-- still THE exceptional nation (China has yet a long way to go), I honestly do not think America can work together on education.
Agriculture, yes, America can continue to work well enough to preserve the best ag 'system' (if it is a system) that has ever existed.
But how can America pull together to improve education? to end the failed Drug War? plus many other depressing "issues". Liberalism/marxism may have originally been the prime cause of America's downward drift-- but not the only cause. My observation has always been that rightwing libertarians also have a low morality, degraded core beliefs.
Even Pat Buchanan said (to paraphrase):
'[leftists] are not the only ones to blame any more.'

I do not enjoy it, it is very sad America cannot work together for its most innocent citizens, its children. It is something to feel deep shame about
-- not schadenfreude.

Rev. Jesse Jackson| 10.18.10 @ 10:59PM

Alan Brooks,
Come on with it, Alan. I knew you had it in you! You didn't give us your usual short, one line "cute" comment. I'm serious. That was a good post. Keep it up. Together we can change our country for the good. I know it's hard to not fall into despair and sarcasm, but the U.S., inspite of it's faults (and they are many) is still one of the greatest nations, if not the greatest. (I think it's the greatest, but it's "Slouching Towards Gomorrah" like the title of Robert H. Bork's book says.)
P.S. Read Bork's book. I think you'll like it. The sub-title is "Modern Liberalism and American Decline".

Alan Brooks| 10.19.10 @ 12:14AM

I don't like the Sobrans, the Buchanans (at least not much); certainly not the Dukes, Stormfront, and the other one percent on the Right.
You can say they are only the fringe-- but so are real Commies.

Bob| 10.21.10 @ 10:04PM

And you, Rev., might wish to read Ayn Rand's novel
'Atlas Shrugged' for a description of the destruction produced by the "rude beasts". I have read Bork's book, and it seems we are in agreement.

Karen Cramer Shea | 10.18.10 @ 8:02AM

I have heard rumor that the rise in test scores in DC is because they cooked the books. I am told Ms. Rhee created K-8 schools in the worse performing schools then counted the 6,7 and 8 graders in those schools as elementary school students, getting them out of the upper school statistics and by doing so raising the upper school test scores.

I do know replacing Hardy Principle Pope was a disaster. I was no fan of Pope, but I realize he was a victim of no child left behind and a school renovation which resulted in an influx of out of boundary students, who came from failing schools. Pope could not bring these kids up to the level of the in boundary students in the short time he had them so his test score dropped.

This is a fundamental problem of No Child Left Behind, it looks at group scores rather than individual. Changes in the group dramatically change test scores. Want to increase test scores at a school, be mean to the parents of the worst preforming kids so they will take their kids out of the school, the passing rate for the test goes up.

oldmh| 10.18.10 @ 3:03PM

Pope was not removed from Hardy because the test scores dropped. Rhee said she was going to have him create a new arts magnet middle school, an explanation about which many people are skeptical for two reasons: 1) DCPS doesn't have the money to create a new school. 2) Rhee had met with white parents in-boundaries for Hardy who had complained about Pope.

Some people think that she removed Pope in order to please these white parents while ignoring the protests of the mostly African-American out-of-boundaries parents. Whatever the reason, it wasn't about test scores. But as you say, it was a disaster. Pope was a good principal well-loved by the families attending Hardy and now he is supposedly off starting some phantom middle school that most likely will never be opened in this current economic climate. Rhee tried to fix something that was already working. What a stupid move!

youfamissim| 10.18.10 @ 8:31AM

I recall the 8th grade when my gym coach whacked me with a paddle. He hit me (and others) so hard it left a bruise with tiny white holes that matched the paddle's pattern. I went home. The school had informed my parents. I found more discipline awaited me. My world turned upside down and my other teachers had gotten the word on my misbehaviors. My crime? Snapping towels in the shower. All of the boys received similar discipline. The ones I knew well lived around me and all of our dad's were military NCOs. My dad, Ole Stoneface, didn't mince words - "Try it again McGee. It won't be pretty." Howard Stern's complaints about his dad, Ben Stern, pale in comparison given the assorted names and slurs my dad threw at me. My dad didn't have an adult conversation with me until I was 27, married, with my first child in my lap. Until then, all he said was authoritarian and a top down order. When I questioned him years later, WHY?, he treated me that way his answer was succinct - "I was teaching you what the world would do to you." He was right. He always was. Reflection and experience has taught me that his discipline was love unfeigned. 20/20 hindsight makes every decision lucid. I wish I had loved my own children the way he loved me. That form of love is the missing ingredient in the schools. That, and the sad fact that America's best and brightest teachers were lost to the Women's Movement". The best minds found better employment options and took them. America's children are worse off as a result.

RacerJim| 10.18.10 @ 10:03AM

I was in my mid-30's before I realized that my Army NCO dad had always been right also.

Bob From District 9| 10.22.10 @ 1:06PM

Your father was an abuser.

If you failed as a parent that was probably why.

If you didn't fail as a parent, why are you bitching?

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 10.18.10 @ 9:04AM

If the article is true, then Michelle Rhee and TFA are no more guilty of doing wrong, then those in the farm business who have a monopoly on the nation's throat with ethanol.

All roads lead to D.C. when evil is afoot, and if the federal government left school systems to their own devices surely one of them would trip over success.

One of the benchmarks modern society likes is how many graduate from high school. Few ask how many have graduated from what?

Ironically, studies have shown that school systems that spend the least have the best results.
D.C. public schools spend more per pupil then any other system, yet still manage to have one of the largest dropout rates in the country.

Thanks for federalism bureaucracies grow and thrive in public schools systems and somehow accountability goes out the window.

Don't blame it exclusively on the Michelle Rhee types. Blame it on Uncle Sam.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 10.18.10 @ 9:04AM

If the article is true, then Michelle Rhee and TFA are no more guilty of doing wrong, then those in the farm business who have a monopoly on the nation's throat with ethanol.

All roads lead to D.C. when evil is afoot, and if the federal government left school systems to their own devices surely one of them would trip over success.

One of the benchmarks modern society likes is how many graduate from high school. Few ask how many have graduated from what?

Ironically, studies have shown that school systems that spend the least have the best results.
D.C. public schools spend more per pupil then any other system, yet still manage to have one of the largest dropout rates in the country.

Thanks for federalism bureaucracies grow and thrive in public schools systems and somehow accountability goes out the window.

Don't blame it exclusively on the Michelle Rhee types. Blame it on Uncle Sam.

Bob From District 9| 10.22.10 @ 1:10PM

"Ironically, studies have shown that school systems that spend the least have the best results.
D.C. public schools spend more per pupil then any other system, yet still manage to have one of the largest dropout rates in the country."

That is not true. Many large cities spend as much as DC, and have results just as bad. Those numbers are available, if you try.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 10.22.10 @ 4:02PM

You obviously flunked reading comprehension.

Bob From District 9| 10.23.10 @ 10:35AM

Nope. My response was directed at a particular part of yours, was on target, and hit that target.

Len| 10.18.10 @ 9:11AM

"A free society gets the public schools it deserves"

The above is to me an indicator of the writer's own lack of education, as a free society does not have public schools. In a free society all interactions are consensual, and government is only there to provide recourse for when the interactions are not free, such as theft, or assault.

In a free society, education would be something that is provided to consumers, the same as anything else, and the best product would squeeze out the inferior products. Education would not be something forced on people, and the product would come in a variety of offerings.

loulou| 10.18.10 @ 12:51PM

Public schools=Government schools.
The Constitution does not allow for government schools. It's money down a rathole.

Flee| 10.18.10 @ 2:07PM

Len,
I wish it were so but we live with what we have at the moment. My son just entered kindergarten and I have a long way to look forward to this sad system until I can afford somewhere private. I strongly support getting rid of public schooling and especially govt subsidizing of college. That is the biggest mistake and waste of tax receipts IMHO.

Len| 10.18.10 @ 2:21PM

Flee, yes I know what we are stuck with, but this writer here is actually endorsing the true cause of the problem, government involvement (AT ANY LEVEL) in education. Government is supposed to protect our free interactions and provide recourse for when someone has violated that freedom, but in taking over education even at a local level, we create special rights for both those being "educated" on other people's dimes, and for those schools which are able to outcompete pritvate educational institutions with subsidies. We also then force interactions through taking someone's money who has not agreed to such.

I'm only trying to help people along in better thinking and expose the errors of this writer.

GW| 10.18.10 @ 11:17PM

Yes! Let's abolish all schools starting tomorrow! Judge Len will strike down all public schooling as unconstitutional, and then watch as chaos ensues.

Actually, public education has a long history in the United States, and Thomas Jefferson of all people believed the state (state governments) should take part in providing education. Of course, private schools should be allowed and encouraged, and a voucher system would be an excellent way to introduce competition in the school system.

The DOE, by all arguments, is unconstitutional, as is NCLB. However ridding ourselves of public education would be an almost impossible task to implement productively, and unnecessary. Decentralization, however, is a possible way to improve public schools, and abolshing the DOE is a great way to start.

Bob From District 9| 10.22.10 @ 1:12PM

Public schools have been in existence in this country since before there was this country. Those who pioneered here, and those who founded this country, believed in public schools.

Private schools are a third world artifact. Public schools are part of the first world. Part of and a requisite for first world status.

1FreeMan| 10.18.10 @ 9:18AM

Like Dallas Texas, DC has problems meeting standards. What tod, oh what to do? Reduce homework to an absolute minimum (limiting grading events), write excessively easy tests and cook the books for state-wide achievement tests. Viola: We now meet the standards!

DCTeachFellow| 10.18.10 @ 10:11AM

I agree with a lot of your assessment here. However, I do have to take just a little umbrage at the designation of people in the Fellows program as "dim middle aged folk looking for a career change". I can't tell you what other cohorts were like but my own had it's share of duds and true gold. The average age was probably around 24 or 25 even though DC Teaching Fellows advertises itself as aimed at the older, more established citizen. But "dim" I don't think anyone could have had that adjective applied to them in my group. There were more than a number who had left very good jobs, with substantial salaries to go into something that doesn't pay very well. In my group there was a successful journalist, an IT specialist who was in charge of the technology for one of the major U.S. banks, as well as a few well established lawyers. For myself I can make no claim. I was a stay at home dad who saw an opportunity to do the one thing he had always dreamed about doing and I grabbed that chance. I have been teaching now for seven years and would not give it up for anything. The Fellows, and even TFA, can be valuable programs. The problems they have are numerous but the main problem is the attitude of the people at the top who bring in a lot of young people, whispering in their ears that they will save the system, and then giving them no substantial support at all. Much better would be to turn these programs into internship programs wherein the would-be teachers works in a classroom with a veteran teacher for two years before getting a room for themselves. This would provide two very good things to any school system - it would reduce the student to teacher ratio (always a good thing) and it would provide a novice teacher with the kind of experience that can often be hard earned. There are valuable qualities among the new as well as among the old. A good manager would have made the most of both. Rhee was not that manager.

jrjr| 10.18.10 @ 4:32PM

Good for you TeachFellow. But ....... what curriculum do you teach and is it from a book that teaches "progressive " subjects? Don't know what a progressive subject is? Any subject that has been conformed to modern trash studies by the politically correct, Democrats, liberals, complainers, tree huggers, save the whales pigs horses chickens cows, adopt a highway, etc..

RacerJim| 10.18.10 @ 10:14AM

Someone who has never taught anyone anything should be the last person in charge of how anyone is taught anything. Period. I could care less how many alphabet soup plaudets follow their name.

Bob From District 9| 10.22.10 @ 1:14PM

Which applies to almost everything the right wing in this country advocates.

Tom Osterman| 10.18.10 @ 10:15AM

The question we should be asking is why we even have a Department of Education. It has been in place for three decades and can only make the claim that it hasn't ruined education in America. No one makes the claim that the Department has significantly improved the public school system from pre-Department days, only that it's impossible to get rid of, like an inoperable brain tumor.

Lesser Weevil| 10.18.10 @ 4:31PM

Don't worry, the GOP has been all over this since 1980. It's just a matter of time until the whole thing is shut down. After that, Obamacare.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/io.....icans.html

Tom Osterman| 10.18.10 @ 10:27PM

Is this why the Tea Party can't get traction? Because the GOP has been hot on the job? I hope you're being sarcastic.

canuckistani| 10.18.10 @ 10:37AM

I am trying to figure out where we went off the rails years ago.
We see US test scores versus other developed countries way down in the 20's in science and math - the incubators of innovation, and #1 in "esteem", the incubator of mediocrity and false pride.
The "We're #1" groupthinkers that our parents and schools have become might be the real symptom we need to correct.
What happened to rewarding achievement? What happened to consequences for failure or incompetence?
We jump on the "No Child Left Behind" bandwagon, but is that really what the country needs?
Forced mediocrity makes us all beige, and diminishes our ability to drive forward.
America has been about successes, after failures and a few casualties along the way.
We have unionized our children into believing they are all at once "special" and really just the same as everyone else.
I would like to see every dime of the Dept of Ed go into achievement scholarships for kids that really make a go of it.
You can't run from your SAT score, the school districts can't cook the books, and parents are forced to focus on achievement. Is a tax break to parents of disciplined achievers the next populist goodie? Is it possible without gerrymandering?

Top-tiered colls are actively seeking foreign students from higher-achieving countries to fill their graduate ranks, because they know innovators drive investment.

Dai Alanye | 10.18.10 @ 10:45AM

This article was an eye-opener but not, unfortunately, a surprise. We live in bureaucratic times, leading those in authority to attempt to "manage" problems rather than correct them.

It would help, of course, if public education were treated more as a privilege to be earned by good behavior rather than a gulag for the temporary incarceration of juveniles.

Houston Rao| 10.18.10 @ 10:45AM

Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.

We gave up the liberty to choose for ourselves the schools that our kids would go to, the education they would get. In return for the promised security that the government gods would provide for the education that would be best for our kids.

Today, we have neither.

Bob From District 9| 10.22.10 @ 1:16PM

You really know nothing of public education in this country, do you.

There have been public schools in this country long before there has been this country.

Adam | 10.18.10 @ 10:54AM

As Walter Williams has succintly put it, the KKK could not design a better education system to keep the blacks down. That thought should be expanded to include most children in the public school systems. Competition nearly always creates excellence and with the government monopoly on schools today, we are not creating excellent minds. The first step in saving our school systems should be removal of nearly all government interference in favor of local control.

John Navratil| 10.18.10 @ 11:16AM

Adam,

I am repeating myself by posting this link to a David Warren column entitled "Back to Schools". He calls for privatization of all education.

http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?id=1191

If one really considers the issue, it is a fatal conflict of interest for a government to be responsible for the education of its citizenry.

Phil Sukalewski| 10.18.10 @ 1:31PM

Nice article, thanks for posting the link.

I'll add the following:
All the talk in schools about testing, class size, teacher pay is the distraction to keep the public from asking for schools to offer choices like the rest of society - a.k.s. COMPETITION. To wit: If you go to a restaurant and don't like the service, it is a lot easier to simply go to another restaurant the next time instead of returning again and again and complaining every time that you go.

If the money that each child represents could follow them to the school that they choose to attend, then schools would compete to get kids to attend their school, and those that offered results would succeed; while those that do not would close.

epignosis| 10.18.10 @ 11:24AM

More to the point of addressing problems in education, learning is hard work, both for the teacher and the student. The excellent performance of Asian students, as a group, owes to their attitude and effort. They work hard, in part because of the attitudes taught in the home.
The interference of politicians in education results in adopting a "program of the month" approach as well as causing teachers to jump through more hoops.
Education starts in the home and will not succeed unless students are taught and disciplined to work hard to learn and to respect the authority of the teachers and administrators.
You cannot solve this problem by focusing on only half of the "learning equation" as politicians has demonstrated.

Len| 10.18.10 @ 11:49AM

I agree with your comment that education starts in the home, but as far as students needing to learn to respect the authority of teachers and administrators you are only encouraging the continuance of one of the problems. The education system we have now was imported from Prussia/Germany and it was put into place not to educate, but to train people to obey the state and direct them into the niches that the elite wanted. I am not saying that we should disrespect authority, or encourage a bunch of troublemakers, but that merely instilling a blind obedience to any authority figure is to misdirect people, and train them to believe that any authority figure is to be obeyed. That kind of thinking only leads to "I was just doing my job", regardless of whether that job was good or evil.

Rather than students learning to obey authority, children need to learn to value others, and learn to cooperate with others in interactions. If education was properly a product offered to people, students would learn to honor contracts, learn to not cross lines where consent was not given.

As far as education itself, were it truly private and offered in the free market (if we were to ever have such a thing), educational institutions would be forced to actually teach people how to think, how to not blindly follow what someone is saying, but to be able to analyze what is presented to them, and learn absolute standards by which to measure thoughts against. When people learn to do these, subjects become more easily grasped, and we all benefit.

Sheila| 10.18.10 @ 11:53AM

Until people acknowledge the non-PC truth that all IQs are NOT created equal, American education will continue to be the dumb leading the dumber. All credentialed teachers go through a liberal teacher's college, and those with an undergraduate education degree have the lowest SATs and GREs of anyone (most teachers I've known through the years bear this out). There are a few gems out there, both in public and private school, but they're far outnumbered by the dross. As far as the student body goes, race and culture and IQ count. Just keep ignoring reality, throwing money at the problem, and continue moving towards the bright and shining future, folks. You have gotten the education and government you deserve.

John Navratil| 10.18.10 @ 1:03PM

Sheila,

Isn't is telling that we invest so much money at one end of the bell curve and so little at the other? At the other end, we might actually get some real return on investment.

A classmate of mine entered Rice U. at the advanced second year level of math - we aren't playing with counting blocks here. He had taught himself as there was no one in his local school capable of teaching him anything.

Bob From District 9| 10.22.10 @ 1:20PM

"All credentialed teachers go through a liberal teacher's college, and those with an undergraduate education degree have the lowest SATs and GREs of anyone (most teachers I've known through the years bear this out). "

Have you actually looked at the SAT stats? Or just taken the word of some right wing web site?

I have looked at the stats. Teachers are right in there in the bell curve portion of the stats.

If you want to move them up to the top end, pay top end *starting* salaries.

Common Sensesationalist| 10.18.10 @ 12:05PM

Thankfully the authors bio says only "..is a writer in Washington, D.C." and does not state that he is a factual, accomplished, or even particularly astute writer. I say thankfully because most of this piece is crap.

Ms. Rhee eliminated unnecessary and redundent positions within the public school system, thereby angering the teachers union's, state and national. Because they couldn't fire her, they spent obscene amounts of money to oust her boss, effectively ending her local career.

Fortunately for us, it also thrust her into the national spotlight, where she will undoubtedly be recruited by common sense administrators to institute change in public education on a national level.

Not unlike the UAW thugery that helped mortaly wound the US auto industry: heavy handed and selfish union tactics will ultimately backfire on them this time too!

Ufammism and RacerJim; I couldn't agree more. I have always been amazed that the older I got, the smarter my father became!

kk| 10.19.10 @ 10:32PM

Was her chauffeur a necessary position?

E Favorite| 10.18.10 @ 12:34PM

I was with the author until the end when he suggested that Mayor-to-be Vince Gray, like Rhee, did not listen to the community he served.

That is completely untrue, as the writer would know if he had been paying attention or had done the simplest of research.

Vincent Gray, as chair of the City Council spent endless hours listening to citizens testify - many of them teachers and parents.

He instituted youth hearings,where one Saturday a month, DC young people could come to discuss any topic of concern to them.

Gray is currently holding town hall meetings in every ward in the city, specifically to get input from people people who did not vote for him in the primary election.

I was very impressed with the writer's deep knowledge and careful analysis of information about Michelle Rhee only to be stunned by his quick and inaccurate measure of Vince Gray.

Senor Mick| 10.18.10 @ 12:44PM

" I don't understand it. We've been shovelling shit at the problem for thirty years, and the problem still exists!"
"Well, there's your problem--you're not shovelling enough shit. You need to shovel more shit, as the problem require a vastly increased amount of crapola. Unfortunately, our shit levels have been greatly underfunded due to thirty years of supply-side, dribble-down poopanomics."
"Bastards. Hmm...more shit, you say?"
"Of course. Now, with all that extra shit, we'll require a specialzed cadre of fecal management specialists to over see the distribution of the shit."
"Aha--the poopocracy."
"Precisely. Any questions?"
"Um, yes. How to generate all the extra poop, for one."
"Why, government-mandated force feeding, of course. Have you no vision?"
"What if the citizenry doesn't want to eat it? Suppose they're already full?"
"Don't worry. We've implemented Operation Foie Grois. It's now aginst the law not to overeat and thereby harm yourself. Must think of the good of the whole, you know."
"Brilliant! Can I be a poopacrat, as well?"
"What can you do?"
"Talk shit."
"You're hired! How doy you feel about unions?"

Mad Hatter| 10.18.10 @ 2:30PM

Mick seems to be a "Halls of Power" snooper,
As he captures their thinking quite super!
When they spread out the feces,
We're left to pick up the pieces.
And if not, we're a Dem Party Pooper!

Toldyaso!| 10.18.10 @ 2:53PM

Mick & MH.......brilliantly done!

Seek| 10.18.10 @ 12:49PM

So long as overwhelmingly black school districts remain black, improvements will be only incremental. Empricial evidence has established over the years that blacks learn cognitive and social skills at a slower rate than whites or Asians. Washington, D.C. public schools are in crisis mainly because of their demographic makeup; teaching styles or union demands are secondary problems.

Put it this way: Michelle Rhee never would have gotten her job in a predominantly white city like Portland (Democrat) or Salt Lake City (Republican). Her services wouldn't have been needed.

John Navratil| 10.18.10 @ 1:06PM

And your source for this empirical evidence is....?

Norman Conquest| 10.18.10 @ 3:38PM

The evidence is so blatant and obvious that only a liberal could miss it.

John Navratil| 10.19.10 @ 10:52AM

Well, this conservative missed it too! Tom Sowell and Walter Williams have a lot to say on the matter. I know the observations you refer to and having attended schools in the Deep South, England and Germany, I have seen every counter example.

So I ask again, where is this empirical data documented?

Fred| 10.19.10 @ 3:07PM

Read The Bell Curve. All the evidence you want, empirical and otherwise, is in there.

Fred| 10.19.10 @ 3:07PM

Read The Bell Curve. All the evidence you want, empirical and otherwise, is in there.

John Navratil| 10.20.10 @ 8:20PM

I think you read more into Part 3 than was there.

The original commentator suggested that LEARNED behaviour was slower in blacks than others. Even if you accept the rather controversial positions taken in the book that I.Q. is racially correlated -- for example that I.Q. as a single measurement is a sufficient measure for the results claimed -- you must realize that I.Q. is not learned and "The Bell Curve" is not the supporting document needed to validate the claims of the original comment.

Anthony Platt | 10.21.10 @ 5:33PM

False. That's his point. You seem to be misunderstanding his assertion. He's not claiming that IQ is learned. He's claiming that blacks learn skills at a slower rate than certain other groups. He's claiming that the learning of these skills is a consequence of a lower IQ or is simply synonymous with it. The functional corollary of a higher IQ is a faster learning period. Since IQ determines mental processing time, and also learning time, he has pointed to the proper literature... (yeah?)

David| 10.18.10 @ 4:33PM

Not true. Any child with a cultural belief that schooling and learning are worthless will not learn. Just as many, if not more, whites have this belief and everyone of them will fail to get an education.

Seek| 10.19.10 @ 12:27PM

If that's the case, why haven't such whites been stigmatized as "acting black" in the same way that studious blacks are shunned by peers as "acting white?" Black culture, I am sad to say, is more inimical to learning that whites, despite all the nonsense about an "expressive" oral tradition of learning in the black world. And it isn't just teast scores where this can be confirmed.

Bob From District 9| 10.22.10 @ 1:29PM

"that's the case, why haven't such whites been stigmatized as "acting black" in the same way that studious blacks are shunned by peers as "acting white?" "

Because they are called "nerds" and "dorks" you fool. Where have you been?

The movie, "Revenge of the Nerds" was not about black students.

"Black culture, I am sad to say, is more inimical to learning that whites, "

And how would you know this? All cultures are aimed at survival. Black culture is aimed at what is necessary for survival, and for what is rewarded.

When Jews first started immigrating to America in large numbers they were marked off as dumb, and scored low on IQ tests. When Irish flooded into this country they were considered dumb, and criminal.

Once integrated into this country both cultures produced leaders.

When a field opens to blacks then blacks achieve and lead. When opportunity is there all races achieve. It is a lie to claim we have equal opportunity in this country. Until we do you have no basis to complain about how anyone achieves.

Pat| 10.18.10 @ 1:04PM

Given a choice, what would you rather do for a living? A school administrator heading up one of our failing inner city school systems, a bodyguard to the most hated “gangsta rap” artist in New York or the unarmed moderator presiding over a “peace” council between 3 rival Hispanic drug gangs known for packing several 9 millimeters each and prone to snorting generous amounts of “cocaina” each hour? Sure, school administrator hands down, but you might be surprised to learn keeping your resume up to date is a career necessity. And why? Because in our inner city schools, administrators come and go on a regular basis, it’s all part of the never ending scam to “revitalize” these school systems – with your money.

After decades of pumping millions each year into failing school systems in decaying urban areas, you’d think we’d settle for defeat with honor and attempt to negotiate a lasting peace. But not a chance. Americans hate to admit defeat, so we’ll keep searching for the answer to our underperforming school systems. Is the answer “charter” schools? Or, how about “magnet” schools? Or possibly “cyclotron” schools or maybe “Log Cabin Fundamental Learning” schools? Apparently there is no shortage of catchy titles which attract taxpayer funding while simply performing the same identical tasks in the same fashion year after year.

“It’s for the children”, “, “doesn’t every American child deserve an equal chance?”. Voicing such powerful, magical phrases works to paralyze us taxpayers while “celebrity” educators rummage through our wallets. We notice, but hate to acknowledge, high school graduation rates are under 50% in these schools at the present time and continuing to fall. Or that those who do graduate read at only a 6 grade level. Someone, somewhere has that untried, and special, formula which can turn it all around. So, we witness the revolving door of administrator after administrator, each with their own “new” and “revolutionary” plan. Generous funding from the federal, state and local levels will pour into these schools and then, in a few years, we’ll admit that particular plan didn’t work, so now what’s Plan B? Whether it’s Washington D. C., or Detroit or New York or Oakland, the next plan will surely work, if only we give it a chance and plenty of funding.

For those working within these school systems, it isn’t the destination that’s important, it’s the journey. And the journey involves soaking the taxpayers, a fleecing not only by these professional “educators”, but by the politicians with their well connected “friends” who always seem able to obtain contracts which supply or maintain these schools at a handsome profit. In truth, there’s good money to be made in administering and maintaining failing urban schools, especially since Americans insist failure in this area is never an option. But, maybe it’s time we admit that failure is an option, that the next trendy concept is just the latest variation on an old con game and that, as a nation, we can no longer afford to rationalize, or finance, failure - however well intentioned.

Redstateboy| 10.18.10 @ 1:44PM

I those who elected School Board Chairpeople truly wanted results then they'd hire someone OUTSIDE of Eductation.

Douglas Fletcher| 10.18.10 @ 2:00PM

Roger Kaplan is a writer in Washington, D.C.

He may be in Washington, D.C. but I'm skeptical that he is actually a writer.

jrjr| 10.18.10 @ 4:40PM

Agreed! I thought the message was good but the writer was awful. Rhee is a product of the elitist establishment and apparently the low life Fenty couldn't do any better. The only thing required in DC is to get an invite to the WH and go along wif da peoples.

Sean| 10.18.10 @ 2:11PM

You have to look at the pool of talent that you get for teachers and administrators. They are primarily graduates of Schools of Education. These graduates are the most intellectually challenged students of all university students. Why do we have the dimmest bulbs in charge of education?

Raving Rabbi| 10.18.10 @ 2:52PM

By using dim bulbs, we're saving the planet!

Len| 10.18.10 @ 2:54PM

+5

Toldyaso!| 10.18.10 @ 2:56PM

An old adage.........
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

E Favorite| 10.19.10 @ 8:30AM

Very few people on Rhee's administrative staff, including Rhee, have advanced degrees in education. She has an MA in public policy.

There are few PhDs in any field on her staff and she fired many of those who were there when she came in.

Mad Hatter| 10.18.10 @ 2:16PM

D.C. voters blew their "time out" whistle,
Sent Venty a Rhee-Minder epistle.
"Michelle, please go back,
To Cal. city Sac.,
And guard your husband's Predator missile!"

Mad Hatter| 10.18.10 @ 2:46PM

D.C.'s anti-Venty vote was dual,
Turning to Rhee too, the shoulder cool.
Their voting for V. Gray,
Ruined my Plan of the Day:
Sending all Washington to Reform School!

David| 10.18.10 @ 4:28PM

Schools are a three legged chair -- the schools, the parents, and the kids. You can have gold platted schools, but without involved parents and eager kids, nothing will be learned. Our schools will fail without our parents and kids tuning into education and there is not a darn thing we can do about it.

Intelligent Design| 10.18.10 @ 5:37PM

The entire public education system should be turned over to private enterprise. Parents can get the ball rolling fast by taking their kids out of K-12 and putting them in private schools. If there are not enough private schools, start new ones. The public school system would be left without enough customers. With the closure of all K-12 public schools, local and state taxes would be cut in half. Provide for the low income families with vouchers and private scholarships. Private schools provide competition, which leads to better quality, competitive pricing, and easy access. Continue with the sale of all public colleges to private education companies. Dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, and eliminate all federal interference in education.

Pat| 10.18.10 @ 5:44PM

Of course it’s all Rhee’s fault, or at least it would be if the same nonsense wasn’t happening in other blighted urban schools around our nation. Take Detroit for instance, the new mayor, former basketball star Dave Bing, made a recent bid to take over Detroit’s Public Schools, essentially cutting out the largely incompetent school board in favor of his own control. And, naturally, he also has a “plan” to fix the schools. Strangely enough, it involves the usual scheme of taxing folks in Oklahoma so the Feds can “help” Detroit with money for education.

And after decades of “helping” Detroit, what has really changed? The “locals” still demand local control of their schools – great, and how has that been working out in past years? These are the same locals who 10 to 15 years ago were themselves the product of Detroit’s failing schools, only now adults with kids of their own. But, no doubt, Bing will listen to his constituents regarding his future efforts. The question the locals and Washington never seem to ask is what happens to these former students the system “failed”? The 28 year old man who dropped out of high school. Or the 31 year old woman whose self-esteem was wonderfully boosted in high school and decided to be a veterinarian, only her academic preparation was so woefully inadequate after graduation that today she works in a beauty parlor. Do they return to school now that Bing has a “plan”? If you’re over 40, is that the cutoff for repeating high school in Detroit and benefiting from the latest “fix”?

So what’s the answer for former high school students the schools have “failed”? The jobs they would have qualified for 60 years ago have been outsourced to India or China, or are being performed by illegal immigrants from Mexico. And the auto factories have moved elsewhere. Do the American taxpayers get a refund on the money Detroit spent failing these “locals”? Do the teachers and their union get a second bite at the apple, remedial education jobs, training older adults to obtain a GED? Maybe we should break the vicious cycle and take control away from the “locals”, at least until they get an education and master the mysteries of self-government. But then again we are talking about Washington D. C. here, not Detroit, so getting rid of Rhee will certainly solve all their problems.

burt| 10.18.10 @ 11:10PM

So ,the so called BRILLIANT Ms Rhee married the Sactown Ca Mayor Kevin JOhnson. Yes the same Kevin JOhnson who had TWO out of court SEALED settlements with 15 yr old girls. The same Kevin JOhnson that used his phony Project Hope as a Dating pool for VERYYYY young teenage girls. The same Kevin Johnson whose federally funded Project Hope that Michelle Obama stepped in to s get the US Inspectator General FIRED because he outed the massive fraud and unusual late night visits by Mr Johnson to the underprivildeged girls dorm rooms.

Yeah, That Ms Rhee has great instincts and she can really pickem !!

Yosemeti Sam| 10.19.10 @ 1:53AM

Um, may we have a word from one Joe Clark on the subject of school environments conducive to educating children?

Yo, Joe Clark - where you at?

GavInTucson| 10.19.10 @ 1:58AM

Burt, that's an interesting post. However, I would have preferred to stick to her policies, as opposed to her personal life, or her proclivities toward her choice of husbands.

Roy| 10.19.10 @ 4:38AM

This is basically a hatchet job, lots of personal innuendo and semi-decent points that still never add up to a coherent whole. Main point seems to be that the writer doesn't like all the adulation that has been going Miss Rhee's way.

Whether she deserves it or not, I don't know, but I do know that, while the public schools do indeed have more problems than simple teacher competence, that in itself is a plenty big problem. If she took serious steps to improve that those were important steps to take.

burt| 10.19.10 @ 8:57AM

Galvin , as any good parent knows , you are judged by the company you keep !
Ms Rhee sleeps and cohorts with amoral liars , frauds, and Marxist /Alinskites . That sums her world view.

Adult toys | 7.4.11 @ 3:41AM

three drunk friends made a bet whoever can make their wives scream the longest during sex win 1000.next day when they met.
　　first guy:I made love to my wife 2.5hours and she screaming for 1.5hours;
　　second guy:I licked my wife for 2hours and she was screaming whole time and even 1/2hour after I was done;
　　third guy:that’s nothing,I made love to my wife 10mins and I came twice,wipe my dick on the curtain and my wife still screming at me up to now!

weddingdress | 7.5.11 @ 4:47AM

So ,the so called BRILLIANT Ms Rhee married the Sactown Ca Mayor Kevin JOhnson. Yes the same Kevin JOhnson who had TWO out of court SEALED settlements with 15 yr old girls. The same Kevin JOhnson that used his phony Project Hope as a Dating pool for VERYYYY young teenage girls. The same Kevin Johnson whose federally funded Project Hope that Michelle Obama stepped in to s get the US Inspectator General FIRED because he outed the massive fraud and unusual late night visits by Mr Johnson to the underprivildeged girls dorm rooms.

Yeah, That Ms Rhee has great instincts and she can really pickem !

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