THE SIX BOGUS BELIEFS OF MICHELLE RHEE’S DC SCHOOL REFORM

THE SIX BOGUS BELIEFS OF MICHELLE RHEE’S DC SCHOOL REFORM

[This is a guest column by EFavorite, asking us to actually think about Michelle Rhee’s slogans and what they mean. Well worth reading!]

Of all the outrageous information I’ve heard about DC Public Schools under the leadership of Chancellor Michelle Rhee, nothing is quite as bogus as the “Core Beliefs” section on the DCPS Website.  It consists of six beliefs and says, “We expect every adult in the system to act in accordance with these beliefs every day.”  Here they are, with my response to Chancellor Rhee after each belief:

WHAT WE BELIEVE

1. All children, regardless of background or circumstance, can achieve at the highest levels.

Can we just say that all children have potential that can be developed — or is that not dramatic enough?  Instead, our students are not acceptable unless they’re all high-scoring automatons.     Students have different talents and interests and different motivations. Even kids in the same high socio-economic status family can’t all achieve at the “highest” levels.  Anyone who ever had a sibling or more than one child can see this.  It’s hype and hogwash.  It’s an insult to our intelligence, to the concept of human individuality and to long-established knowledge about the devastating effects of poverty.

2. Achievement is a function of effort, not innate ability.

Achievement is a function of effort AND innate ability.  All the effort in the world is not going to make me a top-notch statistician, but if I study hard, I’ll be able to pass Stats 101 (which I did once, barely). And if I’m creative and persuasive enough, I’ll think up good statistical research projects and convince a really talented statistician (like the operator of this website) to carry them out.

3. We have the power and the responsibility to close the achievement gap.

We do?  You mean believing makes it so?  Like the Michelle Rhee Baltimore Miracle of wildly improved but sadly undocumented test scores? How about providing some details on how to close the gap?  If it were simply a matter of drilling for standardized tests, it would have closed by now.  Why doesn’t anyone try to close the White/Asian achievement gap?  It certainly exists.  Perhaps concern about that particular gap is low because both Whites and Asians are doing pretty well.  Also, many Whites don’t know or care about the gap and Asians are not expected to feel guilty about it.  So why not just concentrate on helping people who are not doing so well to do a lot better, and just drop the phony “achievement gap” language.  No need to be enslaved by a contrived term.  We’re not striving to close the singing-in-tune gap or the two-left-feet gap.   Let’s forget about closing the achievement gap.

4. Our schools must be caring and supportive environments.

Finally we agree on something!  Oh, but I bet you mean just for the kids.  Children first, of course, but I fear your constant berating of teachers means you think that the need for care and support at school does not extend to them.  Perhaps you think that schools where teachers are in constant fear can still be caring and supportive environments for the kids, and that teachers who can’t handle a toxic environment of forced discomfort should look for work elsewhere.   But if you get your wish and most teachers leave at the end of the year, who will replace them?

People aren’t lining up any more to take part in the DC school reform miracle that you invented and promulgated with help from the national media.  If you could run a school system the way you can wow a crowd, we might be on the road to recovery.  Unfortunately, your management skills have not improved, your ego is out of control and your press has been terrible lately, what with the mid-year RIF, your rash and unsupported “teachers having sex with children” remark and your refusal to apologize for it, even when asked by your devoted Washington Post supporters, Jay Mathews and Jo-Ann Armao.  Then there’s your attempt to open schools during a blizzard, refusing to acknowledge that irate parents ultimately influenced you to change your mind, and your attempt to revamp highly functional schools like Hardy and Ellington without consulting parents or staff.

5. It is critical to engage our students’ families and communities as valued partners.

Again we agree! But when have you engaged families and communities as valued partners?   Certainly not with Hardy Middle School.  You avoided meeting with parents there and your staff lied about plans to replace their principal.  The Ellington School for the Arts first learned about your plans to relocate their school in a Washington Post article.

6. Our decisions at all levels must be guided by robust data.

Does “robust” mean accurate and complete, or does it mean, “If Michelle Rhee says it’s robust, then it’s robust.”  Telling national media outlets that you’re data-driven, repeatedly and in a very determined tone, makes good copy that will be widely distributed, but it doesn’t make you honest about data.  The indications are that you are driven to distort data. The pretense that you are guided by robust data is shattered simply by reading the well researched and truly data-driven contents of this website.  You can’t take credit for the rising NAEP scores.  You don’t mention that the achievement gap you think is so important has actually widened on your watch and you simply lied outright to the Washington Post and PBS about DC-CAS scores at Shaw Middle School.

In conclusion, Chancellor Rhee, as much as I enjoy proving you wrong, and as easy as you make it, the whole point of my effort is to help others wake-up to the sad fact that DC schools can’t begin to improve until you leave, and take your phony reforms with you.

[Repeat, this was a guest column by EFavorite. I think it’s well worth reading.]