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Dear Chancellor Rhee, Stop Cheating and Educate DCPS Students!

Finally, people are starting to wake up to Rhee's mis-handling of DCPS. She has been too embattled with scuffle after scuffle from libelous statements about fired teachers to retreating on her position to move Duke Ellington to be effective. She has caused more harm than good. On top of that, she is claiming success based upon initiatives that were put into plac... read more

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s job approval rating has dropped precipitously over the past two years, alongside Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s, despite sentiment among District residents that conditions in the city’s long-troubled public education system are starting to improve, according to a new Washington Post poll.

Support for Rhee has eroded most dramatically among African Americans. Two years ago, 50 percent of black residents backed Rhee, while 38 percent disapproved. Now, just 28 percent approve, with 62 percent dissatisfied. The intensity of African Americans’ unhappiness with Rhee’s leadership has also grown. The percentage who “strongly disapprove” of her performance has doubled over this period, from 22 percent to 44 percent.

Those with children in D.C. public schools have nearly reversed their opinion of Rhee. Two years ago, 54 percent of those parents approved of her; now, 54 percent disapprove.Read more at www.washingtonpost.com
 

Is Rhee Lying Again?

As a teacher, having sex with a student is horrible and they offending parties should be prosecuted. On the other hand, I don't believe a word that Rhee says. If there were teachers having sex with students, they should have been fired long before this so-called budget crisis. She should not be using such a horrendous excuse for firing teachers.

Just like all... read more

Amplify’d from voices.washingtonpost.com

Seems to be the theme of the week in the local ed world. First we had Sidwell Friends’ disclosure that it had fired a long-time social studies teacher charged in Montgomery and Queen Anne’s counties with sexual abuse of a minor and other sexual offenses.

Now we have Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s assertion, in the February issue of Fast Company magazine, that some of the 266 educators laid off in the October budget reduction had had sex with students, while others had hit them.

Rhee makes the statement while responding to union claims–never proven–that she contrived the budget crisis to get rid of older teachers.

“I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school. Why wouldn’t we take those things into consideration?” she asked.

Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com
 

Rhee may be backing down, but Fenty is not

After reading some of the online comments, I was shocked that some people are assuming that this is a black vs. white issue. Especially, people that have never stepped foot in or laid eyes on either location.

For the record, Ellington was not opened in Georgetown to give black kids an opportunity to go to school in a white neighborhood. It was placed there bec... read more

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, moving Thursday to quell a storm of protest, said that the District has no immediate plans to move the Duke Ellington School of the Arts out of Georgetown but that it hopes to eventually build a new facility to replace the school’s century-old home.

But Rhee said there was no daylight between herself and the mayor on the issue. “We’re always looking for the best options for all of our facilities.”

Addressing the controversy in an interview Thursday, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) was somewhat more open-ended than Rhee in his comments. He said it was “too early” to say whether — or how long — Ellington would stay in Georgetown. Asked if he could guarantee parents that the school, which is scheduled to be renovated in 2012, would remain in Georgetown beyond that year, Fenty said: “No, in fact, the opposite. We’re exploring all options for all of our schools.”

Read more at www.washingtonpost.com
 

DC Council member & Georgetown residents want to oust Ellington School of the Arts

Fenty and Rhee are at it again. This time they have the backing of Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans. It is appalling that they are keep tinkering with schools that work and ignore the schools that don't work.

They have already managed to oust the principal at Hardy Middle School and replace him with a part-time principal. It is a shame considering that Hardy c... read more

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

Representatives of Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and school construction czar Allen Y. Lew said no decision has been made and that there are no immediate plans for a move. But Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) strongly backs the idea, and a source familiar with the discussions, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals from officials in Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration for discussing internal deliberations, said Lew’s office has developed cost estimates for relocating Ellington to the former Logan Elementary School building on G Street NE near Union Station.

In November, she replaced Patrick Pope, principal of nearby Hardy Middle School, which has an art and music program that also draws a primarily African American student body from outside Ward 2.

Parents at Hardy, which completed a $48 million renovation, have said that Rhee is trying to squeeze African American students out of the middle school, a claim she denies.

Read more at www.washingtonpost.com
 

There is no such thing as privacy any more

America's concept of privacy and the overwhelming need to have it dates back to a time when we were still British subjects and we didn't want the King to tell us what to do. Well, that time is over, the King is dead (including Elvis), and it is time for us to give up our antiquated notions of privacy. More importantly, it is time to give up the notion that we hav... read more

Amplify’d from www.techcrunch.com

The fact is that privacy is already really, really dead. Howard Lindzon nailed it the other day when he said “Equifax, Transunion, Capital One, American Express and their cousins raped our privacy,” Everything we do, everything we buy, everywhere we go is tracked and sitting in a database somewhere. Our location via our phone, or our car GPS. Our credit card transactions. Everything. Honestly, a picture of you taking a bong hit in college is mice nuts compared to the mountain of data that is gathered and exploited about every single one of us every single day. You just don’t really see that other stuff because those companies don’t like to talk about the data their gathering. I don’t see an Equifax blog post outlining exactly how they are gathering and selling your information, for example.

Read more at www.techcrunch.com
 

Giuliani’s Amnesia

What was Giuliani thinking? Or not thinking? Did he think that we would just forget about all of the other domestic attacks during the Bush years? Did he think that we would forget about 9/11?

Maybe, he just thought that we would forget that Bush was President during that time. Maybe, he just thought that Bush is part of the reason we are in this mess right now.

Amplify’d from voices.washingtonpost.com

Updated 12:53 p.m.
By Ben Pershing
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani lashed out at the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism strategy Friday, saying in an interview with ABC News that the White House was making a grave mistake by trying the Christmas Day bombing suspect in civilian rather than military court. But Giuliani also attracted some criticism of his own from Democrats and media watchdogs, after saying during his “Good Morning America” appearance, “We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama.”

The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which helped catapult Giuliani to national prominence, occurred during the first year of George W. Bush’s presidency. That same year, five people were killed when anthrax was mailed to a variety of government and private offices. And that December, Richard Reid was stopped during an attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with a bomb in his shoe. The liberal watchdog group Media Matters catalogs other examples.

Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com
 

You Have No Style - The Economist Style Guide

If you call yourself and writer and you don’t use at least one style guide (AP, Chicago, e.g.), stop what you are doing right now and go out and get one. Use this one if you must because you, sir or madam, are no writer until you start.

Amplify’d from www.economist.com
This guide is based on the style book which is given to all journalists at The Economist. (See also our Johnson columns.) Read more at www.economist.com
 

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

By her own admission, Michelle Rhee is getting the credit for policies and standards put into place by her predecessor, Clifford Janey. She was put in charge to overhaul the schools from the ground up, but the foundation had already been laid by Janey.

It is just par for the course in this town wherein Fenty is reaping the benefits of plans that Williams put ... read more

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

The advances do not put the city schools anywhere near the same league as high-flying suburban systems such as Montgomery, Fairfax or Arlington counties. But the results suggest that reform efforts under controversial D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and her predecessor have begun to pay off in better student performance.

The District’s independently operated charter schools, which teach nearly four in 10 of the city’s public students, also made progress over six years. The fourth-grade score rose from 203 in 2003 to 217 in 2009. The eighth-grade score, 256, was up from 250 in 2005 (the first year for which a score was available).

Rhee took office in June 2007 with a mandate from Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to overhaul the schools from the ground up. Her combative style, especially in challenging the teachers union, has made Rhee a national lightning rod. Advocates of data-driven and market-based reforms admire her; many labor leaders loathe her.

Read more at www.washingtonpost.com
 

Just In Case You Didn’t Believe It Existed

This is the parent’s group that Michelle Rhee is talking to in regards to Hardy Middle School, not the actual parents of Hardy Middle School.

Amplify’d from www.keyschooldc.org

The Life After Key Committee (LAK) is a new joint committee of Key School’s PTA and LSRT. The committee is tasked with assembling information for Key families about public school options (especially middle school) after Key. While Hardy is naturally the main school on our radar (because it is the only school into which Key students formally feed), the committee also hopes selectively to compile information on both the out-of-bounds options and processes for select other public and charter middle schools. Private schools are not part of our focus.

Read more at www.keyschooldc.org
 

The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions

While I agree with Michelle Rhee's vision for DC Public Schools, I don't agree with her methodology. Her overall lack of communication with certain populations of the city, mainly minority, has me thinking that she has another agenda.

The fact that she says that she wants to make improvements is a rather empty statement. Who goes into a job saying that they wa... read more

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

Bax was part of a standing-room-only crowd of parents, teachers and students infuriated by Rhee’s decision to change leadership at the school, home to a highly regarded arts and instrumental music program that draws a predominantly African American student body from all wards of the city.

But in a tense and often angry two-hour session in the school cafeteria, punctuated by calls of “liar” and “no BS,” Rhee was confronted by accusations that she wanted to squeeze minority students out of Hardy to make it more palatable for white families from neighborhood “feeder” schools. Some said the neighborhood wants to “take back” Hardy now that a $48 million renovation is complete.

Rhee, who has held meetings over the past year with parents at nearby elementary schools such as Key, said they have long been confused by Hardy’s application process, which she said left the misimpression that it was not a neighborhood school open to all within its attendance area.

Read more at www.washingtonpost.com
 
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