published March 2nd, 2011 in Ed Week
I have read several articles this year about Michelle Rhee and her controversial reign as chancellor of the District of Columbia and her views on education. She seems to be a very polarizing character with everyone either loving or hating her. For me personally, I am torn about how I stand on her educational views. As a future teacher, I would like to go to work everyday and feel confident in having job security. It seems fair that when there are budget cuts, the new guy would be the first to go. However, I am currently working in a district that is facing staffing cuts next year. There are several veteran teachers who are commonly referred to as “lousy, and ineffective”. The newest staff member hired is an amazing math teacher and I see students leaving his classroom with a solid foundation of Alegbra skills. In this situation, it seems logical that the newer staff member would be the best choice to retain. This is also Michelle Rhee’s stance that the newest teacher should not always be the first to be let go. It should in fact be the least effective teacher that loses their job.
I would guess that there are others like me, who have concern for their job security, but would fight to defend it by attempting to discredit Ms. Rhee. Even if this group of people could prove she falsified some statistics on her resume, it would do nothing to discredit her educational policies. I think it would be more effective to engage in open debate about what a highly effective teacher looks like and how to ensure teachers are being accurately evaluated.
I guess when I really stop to think about it, I am for the most qualified person keeping their job. What concerns me is the evaluation methods. As long as those could be guaranteed to be impartial and fair, then I could fully support Michelle Rhee’s view point on teacher retention.
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