Michelle Rhee Challenges Public School Teachers
Washington D.C. Teachers Asked to Raise the Bar
Jul 7, 2009
Michelle Rhee has a "take no prisoners" approach to school reform. What is best for students is more important than what is convenient for teachers. Who is she and what are her methods for school improvement?
Michelle A. Rhee Background
Rhee was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan to South Korean immigrants. She spent much of her educational experience in the schools of Toledo, Ohio. Rhee earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell University in 1992 and a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
As a recruit of Teach for America in Baltimore, Maryland, she taught for three years. She left to found a non-profit organization, New Teacher Project, working with needy school districts to train and recruit new teachers. In the next ten years, her project expanded to twenty states and recruited over 10,000 teachers.
The Washington D.C. School Challenge
In 2007, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty asked Rhee to replace Supt. Clifford Janey as superintendent of Washington D.C. Schools. Rhee declined the offer until she was promised authority in decision-making and support from Fenty in her future proposals. Fenty relented and so did Rhee. Fenty wanted change and with Joel Klein’s recommendation from New York City, Rhee was named the new chancellor of schools.
Teacher Union Conflict
Rhee immediately came into conflict with the teachers union by supporting school choice and school vouchers. Teacher’s unions are on record as being against both acting as if both are totally anti-American. Rhee disagrees. "I would never, as long as I am in this role, do anything to limit another parent’s ability to make a choice for their child. Ever. We have an excellent choice dynamic for parents here. I’m a huge proponent of choice. I believe we should proliferate what’s working and close down what’s not. Period." [1]
Rhee has also shown no hesitation to fire principals, teachers or close schools without much community input, public hearings and formal evaluations. In some cases, administrators were terminated with only seven weeks on the job.
Rhee Gives 250 Pink Slips
In June of 2009, Rhee terminated 250 teachers and 500 teachers’ aides for being ineffective. Some were novices (60 probationary first or second year teachers), some were tenured (80 teachers) and some failed to become licensed in the length of time outlined by Rhee. While it is not surprising that Rhee dismissed non-certified teachers and aides, it does go against the grain of education to dismiss tenured teachers who are considered fireproof.
The 90-Day Dismissal Plan
Rhee has a list of 17 categories that make a teacher competent. The criterion includes content knowledge and classroom management. Of course, content knowledge is secondary if a teacher is lacking classroom management and can not effectively teach a concept.
If a teacher is deficient in 6 out of 17 categories, the 90-day mechanism is enacted which includes:
- A mentoring teacher
- A series of conferences
- Scheduled and unscheduled classroom observations by administrators.
Rhee believes in the value-added model which measures growth from the grade level the child enters a teacher’s classroom to the time they leave it. If a child enters three years behind, Rhee expects that teacher to show significant progress. The teacher is not considered ineffective if the child is not at grade level within one year.
After trying to reach a compromise with the teachers’ union with no success, Rhee went to the D.C. Council to receive wider latitude in terminating educators or reassigning them. She received support to do so. There is an appeal process that could extend hearings for up to twelve months. However, Rhee does not plan to have "padded rooms" for up to six years like other districts have in place. [2]
Rhee’s Vision for Salaries and Tenure
The Washington D.C. Schools of the future will have highly qualified teachers earning up to $130,000 per year and students achieving on a higher scale than at the present. Rhee is offering a tempting carrot. Give up tenure, go on "probation" for a year, meet goals and teachers could be paid $100,000 to $130,000. What if teachers choose to take the other track? After five years, successful and effective teachers may select a 28% raise over five years and keep tenure. [3]
Rhee is clearly not attempting to make friends. She is attempting to provide an excellent education for students in the public schools of Washington D.C. and to give teachers merit pay for their efforts.
[1] Wikipedia
[2] Bill Turque, "About 250 Teachers Are Given Pink Slips," The Washington Post, June 19, 2009.
[3] Evan Thomas, Eve Conant and Pat Wingert, "An Unlikely Gambler," Newsweek, Sept. 1, 2008.
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