Rhee Gets Defensive

Michelle Rhee, in response to yesterday's damning USA Today article, attacked the messenger instead of addressing the message.  She contends that the unbelievable number of answers changed from wrong to right were not an indication of wrong doing. This, even though test experts asked to investigate the allegations concluded, "At one school, Noyes Education Campus, the number of erasures in one class was so high that the odds of winning the Powerball grand prize were better than the erasures occurring by chance." Furthermore, it was revealed that many the same students who made dramatic improvement in one year, showed an equally dramatic decline the following year. 

Ms. Rhee apparently believes she is beyond accountability.  In a statement she made on the Tavis Smilley show she said USA TODAY's investigation into test scores "is an insult to the dedicated teachers and schoolchildren who worked hard to improve their academic achievement levels."  Really?  Massive irregularities are indicated and taxpayers should not investigate?  I know teachers who have been investigated for only two suspicious erasures. But, apparently we should hold those under Ms. Rhee to a different standard. She is acting suspiciously like someone who is afraid of the the truth. There is a chance, a very slim one, that these irregularities are innocent, but the fact remains that she did nothing to investigate them when she was chancellor and is now attacking the investigation instead of supporting it.  

Serious Allegations of Cheating Under Rhee

U.S.A. Today has a lengthy article  about some serious allegations of cheating on standardized tests under the leadership of Michelle Rhee.  It gets worse, the reporters also reveal a concerted attempt to avoid investigating the allegations, as well as what could be interpreted as a cover up.  Parent concerns were ignored and a principal, who was central to what appears to be the most glaring example of test tampering, was promoted.  The schools, where tampering is suspected, showed dramatic gains in scores that did not hold up over time.  The allegations center around a high number of erasures of wrong answers changed to correct answers.  The average in the D.C. district of these types of erasures is less than one per test.  Some schools had has high as ten per test.  District officials made feeble attempt to explain these high numbers, but if you have any experience with this sort of testing you know that there is no  legitimate way to justify large number of tests that have ten questions changed from wrong to right.  When I was a testing coordinator I reprimanded over two tests with a high number of erasures.  You can read the whole article at USA Today.

Facts About Charter Schools

1.  83% are worse or no better than regular public schools
2.  Teachers are not as well qualified in charter schools.
3.  Teachers quit at twice the rate as those in regular public schools.
4.  Few charter schools accept students with disabilities.
5.  They don't need to tell you where your tax dollars are going.
6.  Most charters choose their students.
7.  Charter schools can expel students with low test scores.

Assault on Teachers

I became a teacher at age 40.  I went back to school at night while working full time for a corporation, quit my job to student teach and started teaching at half my previous salary.  I knew my career would not be prestigious, but I wanted something more meaningful.  I have always worked in schools with a majority of low income students and in districts that were thought to be challenging. I became used to patronizing, condescending or dismissive reactions at parties when I told people what I did for a living and where I worked.  I just enjoy working with students. 

Lately, however, I have come to realize that a large group of the public is not only condescending and dismissive of teachers, but actually hate us. I understand that these people think we are not only incompetent, but greedy, lazy, over paid, have gigantic pensions and  are socialists. 

As a teacher I have gone through endless trainings and re-trainings. I have spent hundreds of hours taking required classes to teach ELL students and others. I have spent thousands of dollars for tuition to get credentials. I have always done what I was told. I have worked late, spent a great deal of my own money on supplies and students and taken several pay cuts.   My salary is lower now than it was 12 years ago. 

The people who hate us, some who taught for a very short time,  seem to want to replace us with young people from “elite” universities.  The suggestion is that those of us who went to state colleges are less qualified they young people form elite colleges.  Experienced teachers are held in such low regard that these young teachers are not required to conform to the standards and qualifications insisted upon for the previous generation of teachers. 

My hope is that this blog will help provide a response to this assault on the profession, because it also feels like a personal assault as well.