in honor of michelle rhee and her soon to be released memoir. the 3rd edition of michelle rhee - a glossarhee

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Rheeality:  an existence devoid of facts

Rheeally:  used to express surprise, interest or doubt as in “RUFKM?”  Serheeously!

Rheeap:  to obtain employment, wealth or stature through the efforts and/or contributions of sugar daddy billionaires

Rheecall: to cancel, take back, or revoke – sort of – a lie one has told

Rheecipient: an individual receiving kudos or monetary prizes based on false data

Rheecommendation:  a suggestion made by a highly unqualified person

Rheedact: to delete factual information from written or oral communication because said information does not support the rheetoric

Rheeduce: to diminish the status of professional public educators

Rheedundant: to rheepeat talking points endlessly in order to avoid questions whose answers would not support a particular rheeality

Rheefer: an herb smoked by corporate education deformers, often used to come up with the ridiculous shit they rheegurgitate incessantly

Rheeform:  drastic change imposed by clueless people and unsupported by peer-reviewed research or facts

Rheeformer:  an education deformer committed to imposing drastic change while willfully ignoring input from experts

Rheefudiate: to refuse to be challenged when telling lies, regardless of evidence

Rheefund: bonuses forced to be returned by rheecipients of rheewards based on excessive rheerasures

Rheefurbish: to attempt to repair the status and reputation of one caught in a lie

Rheegret:  sadness felt by a rheeformer when caught in a lie and/or cheating

Rheegurgitate:  to spew out nonsense; usually done by education deformers

Rheehearse: to practice and repeat key phrases or sound bites for later public performance; e.g. status quo; dramatically change; change the trajectory; put adult interests ahead of students; rheesearch shows; a teacher’s value-added; I don't give a crap.

Rheeinstate: to call back teachers fired based on criteria that violated contract

Rheeinvent:  to spin shamelessly in order to aggrandize one’s self

Rheeism:  a lie

Rheelay:  to receive and pass on misinformation and/or lies

Rheelinquish: to give up one’s throne due to the anger of the constituency

Rheeluctant: unwilling or disinclined to deal with facts

Rheemail:  an electronic communication generated by an education rheeformer

Rheemember:  to rheecall alleged facts based on hearsay

Rheemove:  to fire without cause; to fire and replace with cheap, unqualified labor

Rheepeal:  in tandem with complicit union leaders, to make invalid contractual protections, denying educators of important rights

Rheepeat:  stating a lie over and over in an attempt to create a truth

Rheephrase: to express a lie in a different way, especially with the purpose of inciting fear or deflecting truth when confronted with facts

Rheeplace: to change a wrong answer to a right answer; provide or find a substitute for an ousted quack or fraud

Rheeplay:  to play back a section of a rheecording in order to watch and/or hear one’s self again and again and again

Rheeply:  an answer most likely untrue

Rheeprehensible: see Michelle Rhee

Rheerase:  a strategy employed to raise test scores

Rheerasure:  the outcome as a rheesult of rheerasing.

Rheesearch:  a billionaire-funded investigation initiated to support a predetermined outcome

Rheesign:  to leave a job after 3 years

Rheesist: to vigorously deny facts

Rheespond: to answer a question with a lie

Rheespect: a positive feeling of esteem or deference given to public education deformers, Teach for America, or those determining education policy with no background in education whatsoever

Rheestate:  to state again the same lie in a new form

Rheesult:  an outcome obtained through questionable, unethical, illegal, or immoral means; a fake outcome

Rheesumé:  a page full of lies

Rheetaliate:  to seek revenge in an especially evil manner

Rheetard:  a devotee of Michelle Rhee; a member of the Michelle Rhee Fan Club

Rheetell:  to change one’s story multiple times; back peddle

Rheetire: to be forcefully driven from one’s position or occupation under a cloak of controversy

Rheetoric: sh!t spewed by Michelle Rhee and other like-minded deformer idiots (See Duncan, Gates, Broad, Kopp, Guggenheim, Oprah, and most of the cast of Waiting for Superman)

Rheetract:  to quickly take back or disavow incorrectly marked test answers or verifiable statements of intentional misinformation

Rheeturn: to elect, or rheeelect, legislators favorable to corporate deformer agendas, usually Republicans or Neo-Liberal Democrats

Rheeverse: acting, operating, or arranged in a manner contrary to proven effective public education policies

Rheeview:  to examine facts then willfully and intentionally dismiss them

Rheevile:  to criticize in an abusive or angrily insulting manner, often involving the word crap or crappy

Rheevise:  to prepare a newly rheerased, edited version of what rheelly was; to intentionally change or modify in order to mislead

Rheevision:  an illegally altered final draft or new version of existing material

Rheevoke: in high-stakes testing, a revoke is a violation of important rules serious enough to render the results invalid. A rheevoke is a violation ranked in seriousness equal to overt cheating, a major offense that is not accidental.

Rheeview: to look over, study, examine facts again then choose to ignore them

Rheevolution: an attack on public education orchestrated by the corporate education deformers.

Rheeward:  a monetary prize based on bogus test scores

Rheewrite:  to write something again in order to embellish or falsify an existing document

Unrheedeemable:  not capable of being cured or reformed due to vicious, destructive actions taken in the name of corporate ed deform

Unrheesonable:  having unsound judgment; unfair and insensible; often in regard to education policy

kindergarten criminals

"The sources I have is I went to the Department of Education and got a list of kindergartens and I went to the safety department and got the crime report," he said. "In general, the towns with a kindergarten have 400 percent more crime than other towns in the same county. In every county the towns and cities with kindergarten had more crime."

Rep. Bob Kingsbury (R-Laconia)

New Hampshire

Are. You. F@#king. Kidding. Me.

 

r u smarter than a 6th grader?

So I was sitting in a sixth grade classroom waiting for our staff meeting to begin.  Looking around the room, taking in the environment, I was trippin’ on how different the kindergarten room environment is from where the big kids are.  The words, Final Push, written on the whiteboard caught my eye. Uh oh, I thought.  I’ve heard that term before and since we’d just began the fourth quarter I knew it wasn’t referring to the end of the year.  Nope.  It was referring to the stupid totally fucked waste of time waste of money brain killing ulcer inducing upcoming high-stakes, standardized State test.

“Crap,” I thought.  Oh yeah, now I’m making a connection!  Grades two through six have been gearing up for these tests with their Final Push test prep extravaganza.  Yep.  Six weeks of mind numbing, stomach wrenching, enormously boring, enthusiasm sucking, test preparation.  Six whole weeks stressing kids out while denying them access to a real education where their natural curiosity and ability to think critically has been sorely eliminated – along with social studies, science, music, art, recess, etc.

I looked at the terminology on the board and thought, wow!  Just. Wow!!!  I also thought, Are You Fucking Kidding Me really???  Srsly!  I'll bet if I asked any non-sixth grade teacher in the room, including our principal, no one, I mean NO one, could define all of those terms.  I’d be willing to bet NO one at the district office could define those terms.  Our local school board couldn’t.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet that Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michelle Rhee, Wendy Kopp, Geoffrey Canada, Michael Bloomberg, Joel Klein, and even Oprah couldn’t define those terms.  Yet our SIXTH GRADERS are supposed to be able to know these terms and apply that knowledge on the State test? Why?  I mean, seriously, why?  Who came up with the ludicrous idea that this was grade level appropriate material, let alone relevant to sixth graders?

All I can say is, “Shit is fucked up!”  Totally.  This year has been the most frustrating in my entire career.  I am sick of District and State generated test data.  I’m sick of test prep.  I’m sick of testing.  Yes, even kindergarten teachers are now testing our children into oblivion. (More about that in an upcoming post.)  I’m disgusted by the reward parties for children who have made the grade, so to speak.  I weep for all those kids who NEVER get to attend any of the special events because they couldn’t make the grade no matter how hard they tried.  My stomach clenches when I think about walking into the multipurpose room at the beginning of the next school year.  Will I see the NAMES and SCORES of the kids who scored Proficient or Advanced on the State test posted on the walls for all to see, AGAIN? Will we spend $6,000 on Accelerated Reader when we spend $0 on new books for our library?

The only good thing about having furlough days for the third year in a row is that it means that I have five fewer days to put up with this shit.  Class sizes continue to rise.  Testing continues to increase.  More mandates that do nothing to help kids learn proliferate. Really, people, I can’t possibly take any more meds than I am currently taking.

So, dear readers, please take the test below and see if you’re smarter than a sixth grader.  If you’re not, and you are a parent with a school-aged child, please opt your child out of high-stakes testing.  If you don’t have kids, tell all parents you know that they can opt their child out of high-stakes testing.  Check out http://unitedoptout.com/ for more information.

 

All I can say again is “Shit is really fucked up.” And not in a good way!

i heart george buzzetti or f.u. arne duncan

Recently the US Secretary of Miseducation, Arne Duncan, traveled to Pico Rivera, California to have a 2-hour-long town hall with parents and community leaders, hosted by the US Department of Education. As usual, Arne didn't give a sh!t about wasn't interested in meeting with teachers.  Anyway, over 1,000 people came to ask questions and share their thoughts with Arne. I guess Arne didn't expect such a large crowd, eager to ask questions and tell their stories. So after 20 short minutes of blah blah blah blah from Arne, he split. Yep. He left. After. 20. minutes. Gee, Arne. What happened? Weren't you feelin' the love? Afraid of what the crowd might say? Come on, dude! Where are your cojones? Aren't you the All Powerful Oz??? Oh, that's right. You're not. Bill Gates is. My bad!

But as Arne was trying to slickly sneak outta town, a voice was heard from the audience, "He has no respect for students, parents or teachers, he is now on his way to get money."

OMG! If I'd have been there, I may have had to light a cigarette. Oh, yeah, baby! That was the voice of George Buzzetti (who I am SO gonna Scroogle after I finish this blog)! When an article covering the event was published in the LA Weekly, George commented:

I am the person who yelled to the audience "He has no respect for students, parents or teachers, he is now on his way to get money."  I did not plan that.  It happened as a reaction to his total disrespect, and if not addressed right then and there he would get away with it.  I was not going to allow that to happen as I am the one who originated opening up a closed meeting to all comers through Lydia Grant, Board Member of the Parent Revolution, and Yolande Beckles with the LAUSD Parent District Advisory Council (DAC) and new Parent Union.  I am with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) of California and requested attendance for three members myself, Celes King IV and Miguel Paredes.  We received that Sunday.  Monday I called Lydia and Yolande to send in requests on their letterhead, they did.  Within several hours both received phone calls, from officials representing Duncan, asking them to bring every student, parent, teacher and community member they can so they can be listened to by the Secretary of Education.  Also, go to the press so we can have as many people there as possible.  This was done.  From San Diego to the edge of L.A. County they came including a bus load paid for by The California Teachers Association (CTA) who helped parents go to this supposedly important event for the public to be heard.  Channel 11 was there and got video of me calling down Duncan and ran on the news he ran from parents.  He was there by helicopter no more than 20 minutes total.

When I went outside with one of his aides, and a lot of police, I ripped his aide apart so much the police started laughing.  Students were watching all of this intently.  The aide left and I spent the next hour plus with many students who told me and my other friends there what is really happening to them.  I also had my laptop and wireless card and showed them the statistical facts.  I took them to the California Dept. of Education (CDE) website and asked them to give me a school and we went there and I showed them how to use the website to do what I do to learn the truth.  They gave me their emails and I am sending them my spreadsheets and the instructions on how to use the CDE website. 

I must ask you to also ask yourselves the same question I asked myself, and that is "Why were they not out there talking with the students?"  Isn't that supposed to be their MISSION!!!!!

Unfortunately, we are seeing the same Arne Duncan as in Chicago.  He helped to ruin the Chicago Public Schools academically and financially.  Please go look at the new University of Chicago study on Chicago Public Schools from 1988 until now.  He did not do good.

Also, while superintendent of Chicago he and Senator Feinstein wrote letters to the California Legislature stating that those before Daley and Vallas took over in 1995 had put the district into $1.8 billion in debt.  I have the financial income and expenditures from 1994 and there was a surplus.  They lied.  Is this who we want for Secretary of Education?  A person with no respect for the public and a liar! 

George, I hope you don't mind that I published your comments in my blog, but they were just too awesome not to share! And, Arne, dude, all I can say is, despite your evidently petite cojones, you are a dickus maximus... and I DON'T mean that in a good way. FUAD and the helicopter you rode in on! Srsly.

arne duncan - the BS whisperer

Sometimes I wonder why I do the things I do. Last year, watching MSNBC's, now annual corporate education deform infomercial, Mis Education Nation, my already hormonally hot self became even hotter. Despite having this prior learning embedded in my schema, I decided to watch the segment, Classrooms in Action: A Window on Great Teaching to see what 'great teaching' looks like because surely, as a veteran educator, I couldn't possibly know. And since none of the corporate ed deformers have been able to substantively define it, I thought maybe this segment would finally crack the code. ...Oh, crap! This segment is brought to me by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation! ...OK. Never mind. I probably won't see any code being cracked in this segment, after all. But since I'd already pointed and clicked, I thought I hang in there to see what my idiotic dimwit of a Secretary of Education would have to say about "great teaching".

After viewing Arne's pick for "great teaching" in action, IN the classroom of the "great" teacher an interesting question was asked:

Anne Curry:  Secretary Duncan, here’s the situation. In this particular school, on paper, is an affluent, suburban middle school: 82.95% white, 90% non-economically disadvantaged. You can see that they have all kinds of materials. There are lots of schools where the students don’t even have pencils, don’t have notebooks, and yet look at what these kids have! So of course these kids have a better start! Isn’t this something we should have for every school, no matter what the economic background? 

Arne Duncan:  Absolutely. (<--That was his answer. Period! Then he goes into empty rhetoric mode. -->)  Education has to be the great equalizer and whether you’re coming from an affluent background, or whether you have parents who neither one graduated from elementary school, every child in this country deserves a world-class education. Teachers like Kyle are just absolutely amazing. Every teacher needs a great great teacher like that but a huge part of our job is to make sure children in traditionally underserved communities, be they urban or rural or remote, have a chance to have a world-class education. As a country, that’s what we stand for.  (<-- BS ALERT! WE DON’T, as a country, stand for that! We stand for war and corporate greed, dude!) We all have to work together, the federal level, the state level, local level ….business community, philanthropic community. If we’re not giving children these kinds of opportunities, we’re just robbing them of their future and ultimately hurting the country.

Me:  Arne, are you really that dim or are you just trying to mess with us? Let me help you out here. Curry was asking you to tell the audience what you could do to make certain children in impoverished schools received those resources as well. Specifically. Empty rhetoric not allowed. But that’s all you gave us. More of the same, empty BS.

Anne Curry:   …Secretary Duncan, I think what we are really seeing here though is that we need to figure out a way for all schools to get the resources to be able to get this kind of opportunity for these students to get hands on learning that seems to part of the equation for creating good teaching. 

Arne Duncan:  Hugely important. (<--That was his response. Then he changes the narrative yet again. -->) I just want to thank Kyle. He’s an amazing amazing teacher. His students are so lucky to have him. You asked me to pick one highlighting great teaching, but let me tell you we have hundreds of thousands of teachers around the country every single day with Kyle’s creativity, passion and commitment. We can’t do enough to shine the spotlight on great teaching. I appreciate the opportunity you’ve given us to do that.

Me:  Arne. Arne. Arne. Curry reframed the question in an attempt to get you to answer it. But again, you didn't! Well, bully for you! Rather than answering questions in a substantive manner, you simply cut and paste a collection your BS sound bites into the dialogue to fill the time. You, Arne, are a chicken. I dare you to tell us how you can make sure ALL schools receive the resources that affluent, suburban schools do! I dare you.

NOTE TO ARNE: While we're at it, saying "great great" or "amazing amazing" is not the way to increase the power of a word. At least try pulling out a thesaurus, dude! You're modeling bad English for our nation's school children. And given your hard-on enthusiasm for world-class academic standards, I would expect the Secretary of Education to be more erudite!

sh!t arne says

We also want you to enjoy so many other enriching experiences that are so important to a complete education. We know you have great music, art, and physical education teachers at your school, and we believe that these subjects are essential for a well-rounded curriculum. And so is recess. We want you to have fun!

Arne Duncan

An Open Letter from Secretary Arne Duncan

and Karen Duncan to Their Children

Arne, I'm really happy for you that your kids attend a great school that provides them with such a rich educational experience. I truly heart how you think music, art, physical education and recess are important! That your children's elementary school actually has teachers for those subjects is remarkable! And Arne, though it may be hard for us to believe, it would appear that we actually agree on something! How 'bout that?

But here's the thing, Arne. Schools in my city don't have such enriching experiences for our children. (BTW - Elementary schools in my city have NEVER had specialized teachers for music, art, or physical education.) And thanks to NCLB and RTTT, rich educational experiences are not part of my kindergarteners' day. While your kids are rockin' their rich educational experiences, my 25 students' day looks like this:


  8:35 - Greeting, roll, lunch count, news
  8:55 - English Language Development
  9:25 - Learning to Read, Word Work, Writing & Language
10:25 - Strategic Support for English Language Arts
10:40 - Nutrition Break
10:55 - Math
11:25 - Strategic Support for Math
11:45 - Lunch
12:15 - Dismissal


Yep. Welcome to my world! Tell me, Arne, does the above look like a rich educational experience for my 4 and 5 year olds?  (Hint: Hell to the no!) Instead, our world delivers to America's future a "Sit-down-Shut-up-Listen-and-remember" educational experience. We have one workbook for Language Arts, one workbook for English Language Development, and two workbooks for Math. Lots of seat time and paper and pencil activities for these young learners. Sadly, you probably don't even get why this is a bad thing. And why don't you get that? ANSWER: BECAUSE YOU AREN'T A TEACHER! Not to mention you've never studied education theory or child development. Other than photo ops, public schools haven't really been part of your life experience - especially high poverty public schools.


So Arne, it just seems that every time you open your mouth you say something that is guaranteed to piss me off. Our mandated curricula sucks. It's developmentally inappropriate, narrow narrow narrow, greatly irrelevant (I mean who cares what a possessive pronoun is, anyway? Srsly!) and BORING! And thanks to the stupid sh!t you keep promoting through your Federal Education Bribery Schemes... Well, regarding irrelevant, boring education... I'm thinking we ain't seen nothin' yet!


I have no faith in you, Arne, as the Secretary of Education for our nation. Maybe I'd look more kindly on you if you'd put your own kids in one of the many high poverty DC public schools near your workplace and let them experience all the richness that our test prep factories have to offer. Hey, you can even put them in one of those high poverty DC charter schools you're so enamored with, hopefully in a classroom with a Teach for America 'teacher'! You know, one of those best and brightest! If you did that, then maybe I'd believe that you think that what you're doing IS what's best for kids.


Come on, Arne. I dare you!

an acrostic poem

Rheeviled                          
Heretical                              
Education                          
Entrepreneur 

Dude's
Unqualified
Needs
Clues
A
Non-educator

Geeky
Annoying
Temperamental
Egotistical
Slimeball                             

sh!t arne says

Diane Ravitch is in denial and she is insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country who are proving her wrong every day.

Arne Duncan

US Secretary of Education 

OMFG, RUFKM?  Seriously, dude, seriously! Arne, YOU are the one in denial. YOU are the one insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country who are proving YOU wrong every day! Fire yourself, Arne. Just fire yourself. You are highly unqualified for the position you hold and continue to be willfully ignorant. Your hubris is stunning. Secretary Duncan, you are an embarrassment to our public schools.

rufkm?

The past few weeks have been kind of sucky for public education teachers. The end of the school year is an exhausting yet rewarding time as we finish our year with culminating activities. We know we will miss our current students yet we look forward to what and who next year will bring.

Teacher Appreciation Week began with a love letter from Arne Duncan to teachers. Despite the plethora of policies and rhetoric that are clearly anti-teacher, Arne waxed poetic about our nation’s teachers:

I consider teaching an honorable and important profession, and it is my goal to see that you are treated with the dignity we award to other professionals in society.

That letter certainly impassioned teachers. It also really pissed them off. That was RUFKM moment #1.

Next, Laurie Calvert, a Washington Teaching Ambassador Fellow, posted “More than a Memory: Teacher Appreciation Week” on the Department of Education’s website.  Calvert wrote:

No doubt about it, last week was a great time to be a teacher at the Department of Education. During Teacher Appreciation Week, the atmosphere brimmed with teacher focus and teacher gratitude.

Ms. Calvert, I’m really glad that last week was a great time to be a teacher at the Department of Education. But for those of us out in the trenches daily…. not so much.  RUFKM moment #2.

Then, when I thought things could not possibly get any more depressing, National Education Association Endorses Obama screamed the headline. Seriously??? NEA’s endorsing the guy who’s made George W. Bush look like public education’s best friend? Have you forgotten that President Obama and his faithful sidekick, Dumber Arne Duncan, applauded when every teacher at Rhode Island's Central Falls High School was fired? This is the administration that ignores scholarly work in favor of poorly done research by think tanks, advocacy groups, and the media. This is the guy who wants to impose failed strategies nationwide: charter schools, school turnarounds, increased testing, and linking test scores to teacher evaluations and merit pay, to name a few. On top of all that, Obama cozied up to Jeb Bush in Florida recently:

We are also honored to be joined here today by another champion of education reform, somebody who championed reform when he was in office, somebody who is now championing reform as a private citizen -- Jeb Bush...The truth is I've gotten to know Jeb because his family exemplifies public service. And we are so grateful to him for the work that he's doing on behalf of education. So, thank you, Jeb.

All I can say at this point is OMG!!!  RUFKM moment #3.

So today, I will gather with teachers, students and parents as we protest the massive budget cuts to education in our state. It will feel good to be among people who get it and support public education. I’ll look forward to going to Washington, D.C. in July to participate in the Save Our Schools March and Call to Action. To gather with teachers, students, parents, education scholars, and interested citizens from across the nation will be invigorating and uplifting.

I’m glad the sleeping giant has finally awakened. We are poised to take back the pulpit from the corporate education deformers and their supporters. It's about time!

status quo

• the existing state of affairs
• large class sizes
• developmentally inappropriate curriculum (a.k.a. higher standards)
• narrowly focused, densely packed curriculum
• scripted curriculum
• vocational education classes
• test prep overkill
• high-stakes standardized testing
• intensive intervention services for struggling students
• inequitable funding for schools
• education policy being driven by corporate education reformers

"What keeps me up at night is the historic lack of urgency, the acceptance of the status quo. We need to change. Anyone who is defending the status quo is part of the problem."

Arne Duncan
US Secretary of Education

When corporate education reformers like Arne Duncan, Bill Gates and Michelle Rhee rail against those who defend the status quo, they should really start looking in the mirror. Dudes, you ARE the problem!

338 words

Dear Mr. President,

Recently you spoke to students about education and said, “One thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching the test. … young people do well in stuff that they're interested in. They're not going to do as well if it's boring." I absolutely agree.

Why then, Mr. President, do you want to continue to impose an inferior educational system based on high-stakes testing on the rest of the nation’s non-elite children? Why is it acceptable to subject children living in poverty, most of whom are children of color, to a punitive educational system that limits their curricula, kills their love of learning and fails to support the most struggling students, effectively making it impossible for these children to catch up to their more affluent peers. Why do you support a system that begins labeling children as failures at 5 years old, and makes it essentially impossible for those children to escape that label?

Research does not support the policies being advocated by your Secretary of Education. School turnarounds and charter schools staffed by unqualified teachers have been proven failures. Both you and Mr. Duncan need look no further that your former backyard, Chicago, to see the failure of those policies. High-stakes testing serves to dumb down curricula and encourage cheating. Look what happened recently in Ms. Rhee’s former school district.

Think of your own children, Mr. President. Would you want Sasha and Malia taught by highly qualified, experienced educators, or recent college graduates with no background in educational theory, pedagogy or child development? Would you want your daughters’ curricula limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic? Would you want your daughters sentenced to an educational system that is nothing more than a test prep assembly line? I am sure your answer would be ‘absolutely not’.

Please, Mr. President, we want our children to have an educational system like your daughters have. We want equitable funding in our schools. Those are goals that would be worthy of your administration.

Sincerely,

A Teacher Anon

an education rheeform fable

TeacherSabrina fights for our schools

Our children, our teachers

All of them jewels

She steps out, she steps up

to fight for what’s right

Determined, courageous

Addressing our plight.

But TeacherSabrina is more than just that

She clearly loved reading the Cat in the Hat

She knew not that later an author she’d be

Writing of schools, some in Washington, D.C.

Much kinder, much smarter, than dreadful Ms. Rhee

What could she write for all people to see?

A cautionary tale she did pen and record

To be viewed by the masses who clearly adored

The pains that this advocate took on their behalf

So read it and listen

Get ready to laugh!

Rhee the Reformer, A Cautionary Tale
by Sabrina Stevens Seuss

schooling arne

Arne loves to hear himself talk in his “aw shucks” kind of way. With his fingers on the pulse of public education and the teachers he leads, it puzzles me how he can just be so wrong, so often. Aw shucks Arne is very accessible to Bill Gates, but to teachers, not so much. I’d love to school Arne. If I could, here are a few of the claims he’s made that I’d really like to discuss:

Arne: “More and more, teachers, parents, and union and business leaders want a real definition of teacher effectiveness based on multiple measures, including student growth, principal observation and peer review.”

Me:  No. You want to judge teacher effectiveness primarily by one test score. We assess our effectiveness daily by authentically assessing student learning. BTW, how do you define "effective teacher" anyway?

Arne: “School districts and their local partners in inner cities and rural communities are overcoming poverty and family breakdown to create high-performing schools, including charters and traditional public schools.”

Me:  Name those schools, please.

Arne: “Today, American students trail many other nations in reading, math and science…”

Me:  No. American students attending schools with <10% of children living in poverty score at the top on international assessments. In fact, American students attending schools with 49.9% of children living in poverty still score above the international average!

Arne: “Some districts have reshaped labor agreements around student success - and teachers have strongly supported these groundbreaking agreements.”

Me:  No. Teachers do not support merit pay or denial of due process rights (tenure). FYI, teachers generally don't support any of your policies. They pretty much failed in Chicago but you're committed to rolling out failure across the nation??? What's up with that?

Arne: “The urgency for reform has never been greater.”

Me:  No. I mean, seriously, what planet have you been living on? Teachers have been advocating for real reform for decades. You just haven't been listening. We’re just teachers. What do we know,right?  But if you'd really like to know what real reform would look like, I'd be happy to enlighten you!

I’m sure you were a proficient basketball player (not advanced though, otherwise you’d have played in the big leagues), but you don’t know ‘crap’, to quote Ms. Rhee, about education. You’re not qualified to teach in a public school, nor have you ever experienced one as a student. If you’re sincere about applying the highest academic standards in public education, then you really need to fire yourself. Arne, you are just so Far Below Basic.

real reform vs. faux reform

Teachers have been advocating for real reform: 

• fully funding education, especially at the most high-needs schools
• hiring highly qualified, credentialed teachers and administrators
• implementing a deep, well-rounded, developmentally appropriate curriculum 
• elimination of developmentally inappropriate academic standards
• reinstatement of vocational education 
• smaller class sizes 
• elimination of high stakes testing 
• freedom from scripted curriculum 
• freedom to innovate 
• openly addressing the effects of poverty on our children 

Rhee, Arne, Gates, Broad and Company want faux reform: 

• more testing
• larger class sizes
• minimally educated teachers
• more charter schools
• merit pay based primarily on one test score
• laying off our most experienced and effective teachers by eliminating LIFO based layoffs during budget crises
• hiring non-credentialed teachers with no background in education (TFA, TNTP, etc.)
• longer school day, week and year
• no due process rights for teachers
• scripted curricula
• privatization of public schools to enrich charter management organizations with taxpayer dollars
• administrators without a substantive background in education
• mayoral control of school districts
• closing “failing (poverty)” schools