It is not enough that Gov. Kasich has pushed through legislation to end collective bargaining in Ohio, dismantle seniority status, and eliminate the right of teachers to have a voice in class size and safety, now we are going to be instructed by someone with very little classroom experience and has created controversy concerning test scores, her resume, firing of staff, pushing charters, creating division in staffs, etc..
Here are some reminders about Rhee's background:
NY Times (7/24/10):
Michelle Rhee, the reform-minded chancellor who took over the District of Columbia public schools three years ago, on Friday fired 241 teachers, or 5 percent of the district’s total. All but a few of those dismissed had received the lowest rating under a new evaluation system that for the first time held them accountable for their students’ standardized test scores....
USA Today (3/30/11) investigated "Erasuregate" at Noyes School:
...Michelle Rhee, then chancellor of D.C. schools, took a special interest in Noyes. She touted the school, which now serves preschoolers through eighth-graders, as an example of how the sweeping changes she championed could transform even the lowest-performing Washington schools. Twice in three years, she rewarded Noyes' staff for boosting scores: In 2008 and again in 2010, each teacher won an $8,000 bonus, and the principal won $10,000.
A closer look at Noyes, however, raises questions about its test scores from 2006 to 2010. Its proficiency rates rose at a much faster rate than the average for D.C. schools. Then, in 2010, when scores dipped for most of the district's elementary schools, Noyes' proficiency rates fell further than average.
A USA TODAY investigation, based on documents and data secured under D.C.'s Freedom of Information Act, found that for the past three school years most of Noyes' classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones.....
DailyKos:
Michelle Rhee, tool of corporate edu-privatizers, is using Care2 to astroturf her anti-teacher, anti-union, Students First Foundation with a petition entitled "Save Great Teachers". (The foundation title itself is propaganda. For someone who is all about accountability, she should change the name to Profitsfirst.org, it would be more accurate.) Studentsfirst.org is well financed by the Billionaires Boys Club, Diane Ravitch's apt descriptor of the wealthy edu-privatizers who are crawling all over DoE, congress and state legislatures to lobby for laws to break teachers unions and teachers employment safeguards.
According to Ken Libby at http://www.schoolsmatter.info/... Rhee intends to raise $1billion through her Students First Foundation. Her sugar daddies are putting serious money behind initiatives to sell public schools to Wall Street.
Rhee said grants from foundations -- including several that sponsored the teacher merit pay plan Rhee introduced in the District -- will fund Students First, alongside membership dues and individual donations. Her goal is 1 million members and
$1 billion.....
Contact the Dean of the Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology to encourage her to keep Michelle Rhee out of any position of power and influence: Contact the Dean here.
Vote NO on Issue 2.