This question is based on articles that have appeared in I-Blog (see “Two Ambivalent Views of Michelle Rhee’s Efforts” and “Michelle Rhee – What’s Really at Stake?“) as well as the Atlantic, Time, and Newsweek. Please share your thoughts on this issue by participating in this poll and using the comment feature below to explain your grade. To vote: (1) click on the grade, and (2) click on “vote.” Don’t use the “comment” in the poll to expand on your decision; instead, use the one that appears at the end of this article, below the poll. Thanks!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Atlantic, Grade, I-Blog, Michelle, Newsweek, POLL, question, Rhee, Time |
John Mark Walker: "If educational communities can continue to push platform integration and content portability, in the future, students may be able to design their own personalized degrees from smaller, modular chunks that cross institutional barriers" (
Richard Koubek
Judith McDaniel
Tim Fraser-Bumatay: "Although the format leaves us far-removed physically, the online forum has its own sense of intimacy" (Judith McDaniel, "
Ryan Kelly: "For me to be able to work with people clear across the country for an extended period of time opened me up to new things" (Judith McDaniel, "
Daniel Herrera: "As a Mexican American, I know that words of identity are powerful; so to discuss white privilege with my professor and classmates in a face-to-face class would have been terrifying and impossible" (Judith McDaniel, "
Cathy Gunn: "Traditional methods for effecting change at my institution aren’t getting us even to a trickle yet, let alone to thinking about or planning for a wave!" (
I’m giving Rhee a C for her approach to turning the Washington, D.C., public school system around. Although her methods may be effective, they’re much too narrow in scope and ignore a wide range of other approaches that may be just as or more effective and that address other learning needs — besides test scores — that are just as important.
I gave Rhee a “B” because her effect is to focus on one variable that is critical in education: teaching. And she goes all out all the time. That is laudable.
She will not get an “A”, however, until she also addresses how educators can work with peer groups and parents to achieve educational objectives, including how educators can use technology effectively in this effort.
BTW, I was impressed by the Time article where the author described the event where a student emailed Rhee complaining about defective computers in the computer lab. The student objected when Rhee fired the principal, but noted that thereafter all the computers in the lab worked.