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Michelle Rhee: Putting Students Last

Countdown # 10:

Top Ten Scariest People in Education Reform

This is the first in a countdown series of introductions,  a list of the  Top Ten Scariest People Leading American Education. 

 

It’s so troubling to see local and state leaders put their trust –and our childrens’ minds– in the hands of people who openly work to destroy the great American tradition.

It’s been said –and I agree– that American liberties are being lost because of the strange coalition of three unlikely groups:  the well-intentioned, the slothful, and the subversive.

This series will focus on the third group, the subversive.

Watch the antics of the people who lead the educational philosophies of our nation.  Topping my list of educational subversives: Common Core architect/College Board President David Coleman; Common Core testing advisor  /Obama campaign advisor Linda Darling-Hammond; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Sir Michael Barber, who is CEA of Pearson Education; and Dept. of Education consultant Bill Ayers.

Today I will introduce Michelle Rhee, President of StudentsFirst.   She is a self-proclaimed radical left wing progressive   “change agent”.     This Harvard graduate, former chancellor of D.C. schools and White House darling is  rumored to be the logical replacement for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Her book, “Radical,” was published last month.

It is troubling to read about the scandal in which Rhee was accused and partially acknowledged the erasing by adults of wrong answers and correcting student tests dishonestly to make the scores appear higher than they really were.

And it is very troubling to see how little student learning really means to her.  From American Thinker:

“Michelle Rhee, founder of StudentsFirst, had gotten into a discussion with former teacher Robert Pondiscio, of the website Core Knowledge, about curriculum. Pondiscio had just finished listening to a speech Rhee gave at the Manhattan Institute on December 16, 2010, when he asked her if she could comment on the importance of curriculum.

Here’s the exchange:

Pondisco: “I had the opportunity to talk briefly with Rhee about my reform game -curriculum, teaching and learning…

“I know you have a lot on your plate,” I concluded. “But I’d urge you to at least keep curriculum in mind.”

“The last thing we’re going to do,” she replied with a chuckle, “is get wrapped up in curriculum battles.”

A stunning reply if you think about it.

The poster child for bare-knuckle reform, who moments earlier was urging her listeners to “embrace conflict,” has no stomach for a debate about what kids should learn in school.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/03/suspect_common_core_standards_linked_to_studentsfirst_former_board_members.html#.UUkTCyJvIaY.email#ixzz2O62fGLq3
Rhee has been criticized endlessly by a California teacher whose blog about absurd education reforms  includes posts decrying common core, data madness, and Michelle Rhee.  At that blog I also found this Dr. Seuss-styled satire –about Michelle Rhee.

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I just did an Internet search using the term “common core implementation books” and got over eight million hits.

Corporations including Pearson, Microsoft and thousands of little mom and pop textbook writers you never heard of, seem to realize that Common Core implementation is the gold rush of this decade.

If the Common Core was honestly good for American education, maybe I could understand asking taxpayers to go more deeply into debt to pay and pay and pay…  for all the new teacher “professional development,” all the new software and hardware and endless consumables that implementation of national standards demands.

But taxpayers, parents and teachers, do you understand that Common Core is glutting corporate America while harming true literacy and numeracy?

But the truth is still the truth, no matter what story the spinners may spin about Common Core. All the shiny, colorful marketing for Common Core, all the repetitious uses of Common Core’s favorite phrases, “rigorous” and “benchmarked” and “state-led” and “college ready” cannot alter reality: common core is devastation to American education, privacy and autonomy.

With that introducation, please read Jenni White’s article in “American Thinker” on the subject:

     The Educational Tech Scam.  By Jenni White of ROPE (Restore Oklahoma Public Education)