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I read the article but I still don't get what was wrong with the school system that made it perform worse... all I see is a guy that is complaining (and he admits that's what it sounds like)... it didn't get at WHY the school isn't doing well... but then that wasn't the point of the article... the article just wanted to tell why the principal quit and it seemed with him opening a cupcake business, he burned his bridges and THAT was never told...
NCLB has absolutely nothing to do with the state of DC schools. The flight of the middle class starting in the 1950's does. DC basically has no middle class in the City. Rich parents, as was noted in the article, send their kids to private schools while the poor stay in public. That's the main problem there, the system is made uop primarily of the poor. Teen pregnancy, while dropping, is still incredibly high, drug use is rampant and diseases are epidemic (see AIDS).
NCLB has absolutely nothing to do with the state of DC schools. The flight of the middle class starting in the 1950's does. DC basically has no middle class in the City. Rich parents, as was noted in the article, send their kids to private schools while the poor stay in public. That's the main problem there, the system is made uop primarily of the poor. Teen pregnancy, while dropping, is still incredibly high, drug use is rampant and diseases are epidemic (see AIDS).
Well what you describe is happening in schools all over the US.
This is not limited to DC schools.
And yes, NCLB has played a big part with it's carrot/stick approach to funding.
Before becoming an independent consultant in education (I specialize in coaching teachers how to instruct special ed students who are learning English), I taught for many years. I have taught with many Teach for America teachers and have some very good insight.
Teach for America has done some great things for education. I have worked with some extremely gifted educators from TFA that have gone on to stellar careers in education.
With that said, the worst, least gifted at teaching teachers I have taught with during my career have almost exclusively come from TFA. For some reason, TFA is given a free pass as they produce more bad teachers than anyone cares to admit. TFA has a halo over it and generally is less scrutinized than education as a whole.
Ms. Rhee has made a lot of unfounded claims during her career. She is a charismatic and intelligent leader who also has the TFA halo over her.
Well what you describe is happening in schools all over the US.
This is not limited to DC schools.
And yes, NCLB has played a big part with it's carrot/stick approach to funding.
Now maybe, but DC's problems predate NCLB by decades. Fifteen years ago they didn't even know how many kids they had enrolled. Same thing ten years ago. They couldn't even tell you how mant teachers were employed. They were paying people who were dead. Rhee started to fix that, to her credit, but they still have problems. She instituted wholesale firings and claimed that the teachers fired were pedophiles. That has ended up costing millions in back pay. The cheating scandal is just now starting to break open that started on her watch (Baltimore it's happening, too). After leaving there started to be questions about her test scores in the year or two she spent in the classroom. She also meddled in the Mayoral election (and yes Fenty was different but the ethics scandals now breaking around Gray and DC Council members is turning into a real goat roping) and cut her own throat by doing so.
NCLB has it's own bucket of issues but it's a very small part of the systemic rot in DC Public Schools.
I'm not sure I get this. This guy didn't like his job...it happens everyday, everywhere, to everyone.
Slow news day and the race baiters are bored.
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