A Chance to Learn from Rhee's Mistakes

Congratulations to Mark Simon, former president of MCEA and founder of the Mooney Institute for Teacher and Union Leadership, for publication of the following op-ed column in yesterday's Washington Post:

A chance to learn from Rhee's mistakes

By Mark Simon
Washington Post
Sunday, September 19, 2010

Post editors and reporters appear to have latched on to every possible explanation for the public's rejection of Mayor Adrian Fenty. Racial politics this week. Fenty's personality. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's failure to communicate.

But Fenty's defeat isn't about race or personality. It's about bad decisions, particularly on school reform. His school reform strategies, as shoved through by Rhee, alienated the voters.

Rhee certainly rates as smart, charismatic and bold. But she made decisions early in her tenure that alienated every constituency she needed, and she rested her "reforms" on strategies that national education researchers have repeatedly warned against.

Over the course of her tenure, Rhee:

-- Over-emphasized standardized student testing and scores as the be-all and end-all of school and teacher quality. (See the Economic Policy Institute's Aug. 27 report "Problems with the Use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers.")

-- Failed to understand the importance of community and relationships, and marginalized dedicated and knowledgeable parent and community advocates.

-- Created churn in the workforce, with widespread teacher and principal firings, in the process instilling a culture of fear.


-- Rushed to install teacher evaluation rubrics, under her IMPACT program, that devalue teacher professionalism instead of emphasizing teacher and principal training and curriculum development.

These missteps reflected conscious decisions, not oversights. One example: Early on, Rhee rejected a staff recommendation to bring in the consultants used in Montgomery and Fairfax counties to train administrators and teachers in effective teaching practices. The reason given: Taking the route Montgomery and Fairfax followed would cost too much and take too long.

Schools are communities. Education is a complex, labor-intensive endeavor. Good teaching must be nurtured systematically. Parents understand these realities, which is one big reason they're instinctively wary of any test-and-punish approach. Under Rhee, the public senses that a profound disrespect of educators and the craft of teaching has permeated the D.C. system.

A responsible newspaper would have treated Rhee's reform strategies as controversial ideas worthy of debate. Instead, The Post seems to have taken the posture that anyone against Rhee's reforms must be for the DCPS status quo.

That simply is not the case. Rhee's critics have included veteran reformers who have studied the research and have good reason to warn that she was taking reform down the wrong path.

Vincent C. Gray, who after winning Tuesday's primary is the presumptive mayor-elect, needs to be resolute about improving teacher quality and holding schools and teachers accountable. But he also needs to take a hard look at the controversial strategies that Rhee has pursued. National experts shut out by the Rhee administration can help fine-tune more effective approaches.

And if Michelle Rhee is truly in it "for the kids," she'll muster up some humility, acknowledge her mistaken decisions and stick around long enough to transition to more experienced leadership.

The writer, a member of Teachers and Parents for Real Education Reform, is a DCPS parent, an education policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute and a former president of the Montgomery County teachers union.

FAIR Grades Education Coverage

Ever wonder why the mainstream media often seems to be little more than cheerleaders for top-down education "reform" and teacher-bashing? Check out this new alert from the folks at Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting for a critical analysis of the media's coverage of public education today.

Another school year is beginning, and corporate media are ramping up their attacks on teachers and their praise for corporate-friendly education "reform." FAIR's on the case with special coverage on CounterSpin and in Extra!.

Time magazine's current cover story (9/20/10) sounds all the usual notes: the corporate-style "reform" movement is a bold attempt to run schools "according to what actually works;" the White House's Race for the Top grants are an attempt to get states to "rationalize their systems," the KIPP charter schools are "an alternate universe where things worked the way they should" and Barack Obama "is standing up to his party's most dysfunctional long-term romantic interest, the teachers' unions."

The September issue of Extra! documents how these and many other favorite media truisms about education reform deserve far greater scrutiny. The special education issue features articles on teacher-bashing, the Obama administration's "Race to the Top," media darling and D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, and interviews with author Jonathan Kozol and journalist Barbara Miner. Follow this link to read more--or to subscribe to Extra! today, with the education special as your first issue: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4

Grading teachers based on their students' scores on standardized tests is a popular obsession with so-called education reformers, White House policy makers and journalists. The Los Angeles Times even published test-based rankings of 6,000 primary school teachers recently, sparking demonstrations. What you wouldn't know from most media accounts of this controversial policy is that many critics think the focus on testing actually undermines student learning.

CounterSpin talked about the fetishization of testing with education researcher Diane Ravitch, a contributor to a new report on teacher ratings from the Economic Policy Institute, and the author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. Follow this link to listen: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4152

The Morning After

Yesterday's primary elections yielded more than the usual number of surprises, and the Monday morning quarterbacking has already begun. One interesting analysis on the Maryland Politics Watch blog, points out the following:

Early Morning Analysis: Winners and Losers
Our early morning winners and losers analysis. It's a rough cut but here you go:

Winners:
1. Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA)
Love them or hate them, MCEA did well tonight in key races. Former President Bonnie Cullison is headed for a second place finish in District 19's delegate race. Teacher Eric Luedtke is winning the third delegate seat in District 14 even though he was not on the slate, he was outspent, and two of his mail pieces were sent to the wrong district!
     MCEA appears to be getting wins in other races in which they invested resources, including Craig Rice's big win in District 1 over former Planning Board Chair Royce Hanson and Sharon Dooley. Equally interesting, Hans Riemer won and Duchy Trachtenberg lost in the at-large contest. Sen. Nancy King is currently leading Del. Saqib Ali, though that contest remains close with all ballots not yet counted. Rona Kramer similarly trails Karen Montgomery by an even smaller margin......

Losers:
1. The Washington Post
The grand dame and maker and sinker of political reputations with a single editorial just didn't have the mojo this year. Leaving aside the failure of their numerous editorials to carry Adrian Fenty back to office on the other side of Western Ave., they didn't do too well in Montgomery either....

At the end of the day, it is the voters who decide elections. There are a lot of signs in yesterday's election returns that are encouraging for public education and educators in Montgomery County.
 
Voters ovewhelmingly supported the incumbent members of the Board of Education: a undeniable vote of confidence in our schools. Given that the current Board has strongly supported a collaborative approach to labor-management relations, voters clearly seem to be saying that they prefer it when the adults involved in public education work together to improve our schools, rather than fighting amongst themselves. As the Board begins its search for a new superintendent, this should signal support for a new superintendent who will carry on their vision of collaborative labor-management relations.
 
The victories of both Bonnie Cullison and Eric Luedtke in their delegate races also evidences the confidence voters have in our schools and our teachers. Both Bonnie and Eric are members of the MCEA Board of Directors. They have spent their careers advocating for greater public investment in education and greater support for our educators and students. The voters in Districts 19 and 14 chose them both - out of long lists of candidates; clearly indicating that they want elected officials who will be strong supporters of our schools.
 
Marc Elrich - another former teacher and MCEA activist - emerged at the top of the pack of the candidates in the County Council At-Large race. Marc's committment to the needs of our low-income and minority students is beyond question, and he is making a mark for himself as one of the smartest and most thoughtful elected officials in the county today. And in a hard fought race for State Senate in District 39, voters chose to re-elect Nancy King - a former member of the Montgomery County Board of Education - who is an influential advocate for our schools as Chair of the Senate Education Subcommittee.

Click here for the full election results.
 
In race after race, Montgomery County voters chose candidates who are strong advocates for public schools; demonstrating once again that ours is a county that wants our elected leaders to make our schools the best that they can be. As teachers, we are humbled by that support, and will do all we can to continue to improve the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.
 
Tom Israel, MCEA Executive Director.

Leading Educational Testing Experts Caution Against Heavy Reliance on the Use of Test Scores in Teacher Evaluation

Student test scores are not reliable indicators of teacher effectiveness, even with the addition of value-added modeling (VAM), a new Economic Policy Institute report by leading testing experts finds. Though VAM methods have allowed for more sophisticated comparisons of teachers than were possible in the past, they are still inaccurate, so test scores should not dominate the information used by school officials in making high-stakes decisions about the evaluation, discipline and compensation of teachers.

Click here to read the Report.