By: Paul A. Moore

KIPP Method Goes Primetime

Have you heard the news Chicago!? Michelle Rhee is going on Oprah.

Now the whole nation gets the chance to be entertained with Chancellor Rhee's minstrel show. She does Al Jolson proud! She doesn't blacken her face but she does Black dialect as part of her routine and tells a story of bloodying Black children in a perverse attempt at classroom management. As a 28-year teaching veteran at an inner-city public school, I was horrified at Rhee's story but seems like it was a big hit at this year's DCPS opening of school meeting.

The new white Teach For America missionary teachers just hooted when Rhee described placing masking tape over her 8-year-old student's mouths in inner-city Baltimore. The new hires seemed to accept this as a proper way to treat the kids. Hey, they're Black right! One wonders how many of these Ivy Leaguers will try Rhee's method on their charges this year. After all the Chancellor never told them she had probably committed a crime. Guess that would have killed the frivolity they were all sharing.

Then in the story of a field trip she botched in her few days of teaching Rhee launches into her imitation of Black speech. "Lawwwd Ms.Rhee whatchu gonna do!!!!??" Rhee boomed, drawing a big laugh. "Lawwwd Ms. Rhee whatchu gonna do!!!!??"

But a transcription doesn't do Michelle's racist comedy justice. You got to listen to it here in case she's ashamed to perform it again for Oprah.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/13/VI2010081305444.html

By: Carla N.B.

Respond to Paul Moore statement about Michele Rhee

I don't know who you are, but I was on the Oprah show and saw Ms. Rhee and unfortunately for you it was not the performance that you expected. I also listened to the transcripts that what you refer to as racist comedy. Are you serious???! Ms. Rhee has gone through a lot of trying to reform the sad situation with the public school system in Washington D.C. and I applaud all of her efforts. Your commentary here shows absolutely nothing!!! I have gone through so much nonsense with my children in the Chicago public school system that it makes me so relieved to know that there are human beings in America that actually care and willing to fight tooth & nail to get this matter right!!!

By: Lela

Fighting tooth & nail to get the matter right

Carla perhaps you should do a bit more research on Michelle Rhee to really get to know what kind of leader she truly is. People like Michelle Rhee really know how to sell themselves to the naive public. Most of these young reformers fall into the do as I say and not as I do category. Here is what Michelle Rhee fights for:

http://thatsrightnate.com/?s=michelle+rhee

By: Paul A. Moore

Here's Your Michelle Rhee

Sexual Misconduct Suit Filed Against D.C. Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Former Teacher

Alleged long-term sexual relationship with teenage plaintiff resulted in pregnancy

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A law suit filed this week in the District Court for the District of Columbia alleges that former District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) teacher, Robert Weismiller engaged in a sexual relationship for several months during the 2008 to 2009 school year with Ayanna Blue, a student at Shadd Transition Academy, a school for students who have been diagnosed as "emotionally disturbed."

The suit alleges DCPS officials and staff, including Chancellor Michelle Rhee, acknowledged being aware of the 58-year-old teacher having sex with the then-18 year-old student but did nothing to protect Blue at the time. Weismiller was not even reprimanded or terminated for his actions after school officials conducted an internal investigation.

The suit also documents the plaintiff's struggle to maintain her emotional stability and her inability to financially care for the child. DCPS conducted an investigation months after allegations surfaced and still did not find Weismiller liable for any misconduct despite concrete evidence showing his culpability.

According to the school system, he was eventually terminated in October of 2009 as part of a system-wide reduction in force. Additionally, Rhee didn't bring attention to this tragedy until there was media scrutiny earlier this year over her comments about having to fire irresponsible teachers, including ones "who had sex with students" in a Fast Company profile.

By: Carla N.B.

To Lela

The point in my statement is that America has a SERIOUS issue with education. What kind of person should be taking a stand and doing something about it? I guess your suggestions is not her? Then who? Because I'm sure anybody that jump into the fight is going to be trampled on one way or another. It seems to be a trend that when someone decides to do something about a situation they end up being the wrong person. It is a sad situation of what her husband was involved in, but how long must we put up with the bull. I don't defend any adult in the matter of education because it is all about the children and what WE as adults are going to do about there well being! Here in Chicago, children are KILLING each other almost every single day.

I clicked this link because I saw "KIPP Methods Goes Prime Time" thinking I would be able to read further about the KIPP method. I found it interesting as described in the movie. Only to find negativity about someone else.

By: Jay Rehak

False Prophets

The problem with the "Michelle Rhee's" of the world has nothing to do with their efforts, but with the premise from which they begin. These self-proclaimed reformers begin by ignoring or minimizing the greatest impediment to learning. Anyone with half an eye open should recognize that the greatest hindrance to learning is poverty. Period. Those who do not understand this or do not want to understand this are not only misguided but also perform a disservice to children in poverty.

Until we as a society value every child enough to provide quality meals, quality housing, and quality standards of living, we will continue to have a population of students who are perforce going to underperform their counterparts who do have adequate food, shelter, and clothing.

The reason New Trier High School students, for example, do well as a group, year after year, is the result not only of the school they attend, but also the homes they return to each night. Imagine the advantage students who go home to numerous computers and more than adequate housing have over those who lack basic necessities.

The Michelle Rhee's of the world would have us believe such issues are unimportant. This is sophistry. The terrible truth is, where a child spends her/his time out of school is more important for her/his education than the time spent in school. Every legitimate study on learning recognizes this.

As an educator, I try my best to serve all of the children I teach, but I recognize that my students come to school each day from a wide variety of circumstances.

Any person who would lead a school system in this country should recognize and publicly acknowledge, first and foremost, the issues children in his/her district face on a daily basis. To somehow proclaim such realities as "unimportant" or "irrelevant" to learning is an insult to everyone who works and learns in schools.

By: bob

Poverty

Poverty The Excuse.

If poverty was the only reason for academic failure I would not be writing this

response. I grew up in a single parent home because my mother was a widow.

She worked all her life and never finished High school. One of my earliest

recollections was killing a rat with a stick in our closet one cold night.

I only bring up these personal, and painful, memories to point out that

next to my family the most important influence in my early life were my teachers.

Looking back now the discipline, skill, and attitude of these wonderful

people, combined with the structure provided by ferocious school policies,

went a long way to cure the curse of poverty.

Nobody cared how poor are parents were or how unique our domestic situation was

They only cared about their students thus me. It is very PC to blame poverty for all

the ills of society but to some extent that is also a cop out.

One does not have to be rich or attend New Trier to have clean clothes and a clean body.

I can personally report that a kitchen sink will provide wash water almost as good as a bath tub.

The dining room table is sufficient space to write spelling words.

If we as a society are ever going to put a dent in poverty those of us who see it every

day have to provide our students a roadmap out.

By: A teacher who agrees.

poverty?

Poverty does trump the other variables, sorry to say. I attended a very elite liberal arts college, but had a very hard time making it there. My family background provided verbal encouragement but little else. Parents thought college important for future, but could barely keep the utilities on from month-to-month. It took my brothers until they were well in their 30's to get B.A.degrees from state-supported schools. My peers from more affluent homes attended "Ivy League" schools, performed better than I did academically while there, and are most probably not teachers (lawyers, doctors, MBA, etc.). All the studies on test scores correlate "income" with high performance on standardized tests too. Bracey is a good source for this phenomenon. Money gets you tutoring on the AP exam so you can get a 4 and get early admission to Yale. $ lets you take off a year or two, and experience the world, become fluent in another culture and language(the European and Asian ones seem to lead to the best careers or career-starters like Georgetown's School of Foreign Service) It sucks to be poor. Please don't romanticize or valorize it.I am cognizant of my background and plauged by it. Meritocracy rules in the U.S. Those few (like our current U.S. President)who are able to excel (beyond the meager accomplishments of a first-generation college grad who became a CPS teacher)through its ranks will have something of a future. It takes alot more than being clean and copying spelling words at a card table to make the grade today, and it always has.

By: Carla N.B.

Poverty maybe a factor but does not trump other variables

If poverty is the link, why is it that children from other countries that don't have half the resources here in America, can do much better than our American children? Last time I checked the library was free. Being rich doesn't solve the problem either (ie George W. Bush).

By: Bob

poverty

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Poverty is not an excuse for a persons\rplight. As much as I disliked his morals former President\rClinton got by on his brains not wealth. The clothes and table example were\rJust a way of saying that today ambition, work ethic, and a strong family\rcan make the difference between success and failure.\r Many of the professions you mentioned with such awe are overrated.\rA lot of them are miserable and far to many suffer from overrated expectations\rassociated with wealth.\r \r

By: Jay Rehak

Missing the Point with "success stories"

Those who believe "poverty is an excuse" and provide individual success stories absolutely miss the point. We are talking about the evaluation of a group of students. The collective test scores of groups of students. Of course there are individuals who beat "rats with sticks" at home and still do well in school. But clearly, those people are not at an advantage in school as compared to those students who do not live in such difficult circumstances.

Yes, New Trier has a poverty rate of 3% so, it is true that not everyone who attends New Trier has it made. That is not the point. The point is individual bootstrap success stories means it can be done, not that it is easy to be done.

This does not mean poverty is an excuse. Poverty is a reason. A profoundly deep reason that children do not perform well. Anyone who believes family income is irrelevant to school success are fooling themselves. IF family income is irrelevant to learning, why is it that most people strive to provide their children with adequate learning tools such as computers at home, and additional materials when possible.

Resources do make a difference. Those who claim home life and available resources do not factor into student success should ask themselves this question: If they had children, would they provide their children with the best resources for learning, or would they prefer to have their children learn in squalor.

Again, all legitimate studies on learning have confirmed this. It's called the "Volvo Effect". Beyond studies, again, I ask those who believe poverty to be irrelevant to learning to ask themselves how they would like to have their own children equipped at school and at home. The answer should be obvious.

By: Margaret Wilson

Poverty?????????????????

I agree that poverty plays a major role in how well students do at school. When I was teaching in the inner city, many of the students came to school hungry and missed time from school because they had to care for younger brothers and sisters or translate for their parents. It is hard to learn when your thinking about food and it is hard to learn when you're not at school! I think those that argue that poverty doesn't play a role have never been there. In today's economy, many more people than ever before (or at least since the depression) are struggling. I know my pension check is usually gone by the end of the second week (if that long) and then you are trying to find money for expenses. It affects us as adults (fighting with friends over money because it is a sensitive topic, etc) so children of course are affected. I don't need a study to tell me that it plays a major role.

By: Bob

Poverty the end

Just a couple of points to the last two post’s then I am done.

If Poverty is such a hindrance to entire groups of people why doesn’t the board

Use it as a criteria for admission to selective enrollment schools so that smart

Kids of little wealth can see how the other half lives?

Poverty is a relative term .Poverty in America is vastly different from that in

Sweden , or Uganda. American poverty is so bad only the rich can afford a

computer .That is utter nonsense computers are cheap .As an IB project a couple

of years ago a student and I built a brand new computer on the Library counter for $ 72.00

It had all the bells and whistles .Every second hand store has loads of good monitors

for $10.00.Anybody in America who wants a computer can afford one.

I only ate before school if I found enough empty pop bottles on the way .

At two cents deposit six bottles were enough to get me a 12 oz Pepsi and two

pretzel sticks from the store. We did not eat breakfast. Lunch was always the same

two pieces of bread and one piece of American cheese. My teachers knew this and let

me distribute the milk to classrooms. If a kid was absent I got to drink the unopened

milk when it came back to the milk room. I was hungry every day.

Today we have, thankfully, provisions for poor kids to eat a free breakfast

And a free lunch .Why would any kid go hungry today?

Finally I will stick to my guns and say Poverty is no excuse. We as teachers must

Not patronize the plight of our kids we must make them stand on their own two feet

academically.

By: Margaret Wilson

To Bob

I don't think poverty should be an excuse either but for some children the food that they get. All I think we are trying to say is that there is much more for a child born and raised in poverty to overcome. Some can and some can't. Just one small example, in homes of the middle to upper class, most children are read to from a very younger age. Homework help is available either by the parent or the parent finds someone else to help (i.e. a tutor or a special program). Children are taken to the zoo, museums, plays, etc. In low income homes, the parent works and often is not there to read to the child or help with homework and they can not afford additional help. Often the children do not get out of the neighborhood because entrance fees are too high as is the price of gas and bus fares.

All I am saying is that it plays a major role

is how difficult it is for a child.

By: Jay Rehak

Ignoring the implications of poverty

Bob,

While I laud your own rise from poverty to academic achievement, I find it puzzling that you don't realize that what you achieved was despite your difficult economic circumstances, not because of them.

As Margaret Wilson and I are trying to point out, children who live in poverty have a much more difficult road to success than their contemporaries who have fewer barriers to academic success. Again, I'd like to ask you to move beyond the Reagan-esque notion that an argument can be won through personal anecdote. Look at the studies on poverty and its implication on learning. EVERY legitimate study regarding the impact of poverty on learning reports very similar findings. Economic constraints on children hinder learning. As Margaret Wilson points out, if you're truly an educator, you don't need a study to tell you this.

By: Sarah Loftus

What type of Poverty?

Poverty comes with many different faces. Economic poverty definitely makes a difference in a child’s life experience, but the poverty that most seriously affects our students is poverty of parenting and nurturing. Unfortunately this happens in both the most affluent suburbs and in the poorest inner cities and rural communities. Yes, children who have all the newest bells and whistles have an advantage, but it doesn’t guarantee anything. Children who see books for the first time when they enter kindergarten (yes, it’s true and much more prevalent than most will admit) have already missed some of their most important formative learning time.

Jay states that society must ‘provide quality meals, quality housing, and quality standards of living’; the more society (aka government) ‘provides’ the more people become dependant and personal responsibility is slowly whittled away.

Lao Tzu: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

But schools can’t be the only teachers. It starts at birth (and even before) and lasts a lifetime.

Not to be sound too Reagan-esque but I’ve taught students from extremely depressed neighborhoods. Some students come to school prepared to learn, they have their supplies and if they don’t bring their own supplies they take care of the supplies provided, and they show respect for themselves and others. When they go home they have family and friends who encourage them and nurture them. Although they are economically poor, they are truly rich and if the nurturing continues with their teachers they will be one the way to being happy and well educated adults.

However, other children arrive to school barely awake, they rely on the school for all books and supplies and meals. School is school and doesn’t exist once they leave the building. No one asks how he or she is doing in school; no one helps with homework. These children are true victims of poverty and neglect, and are not necessarily from only economically deprived areas.

Perhaps those ‘studies’ should broaden their approach because the term ‘poverty’ is way too simplistic.

By: Bob

education

Educator

I am not sure what the studies would show but I am in my

42th year as a Teacher and Librarian with CPS.

By: Margaret Wilson

To Sarah

Sarah, I agree with you that the worst form of poverty is when children are not given encouragement and support from the home and are not raised to believe that education is important. I don't want to keep repeating myself but for those who question the role of limited resources on education just think about us as adults. When I am worried about something or have to try to figure out where I am going to get money to pay for something that is a necessity (gas money, rent, etc), it is hard to focus on reading or other things. As an adult, I can tell myself to forget my concerns and do what I need to do but it is a lot harder for a child. Most are aware of the family's concerns (at least I know I was) about providing necessities, and you are going to carry these worries into the classroom. Going back to our education, think about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the first is shelter, food, water, etc. Self-fulfillment and higher learning are much further down his chart and he stated from experience that these need to be satisfied in order (at least the first few levels). Yes, there will always be exceptions but again, thinking back to my early educational years, I remember being taught in English that for every grammar rule there is an exception and that it is the exceptions that prove the rule.

By: Marian

Poverty

Bob, you made it because your mother had middle class values. Despite your father's death, your mother clearly continued to take care of you the best way she knew how. She gave you encourage, enrichment and modeled how to be a good citizen and person. Many students who live in poverty do not come from families who give them that foundation.

The Hart/Reisley study confirmed that children from upper and middle class families heard many more vocabulary words and had enriching experiences that contributed to their education before the arrived at school. Children who live in low socio-economic families do not bring these experiences/vocab to school with them. They must be taught these basic words/ideas/concepts at school. You arrived at school with much more than many students do because of the history of values in your family. That is why President Obama is such a success. His family history was rooted in healthy values by both of his parents despite his father's death.

By: Pissed DC Parent

Chancellor Rhee and Masking Tape

I just listened to an audio of Chancellor Michelle Rhee admitting to abusing children when she was a teacher at an inner-city Baltimore school.

Chancellor Rhee tells her new Teach for America employees about how she used masking tape on the mouths of 35 children to keep them quiet.

She jovially elaborates on how their mouths were bleeding and the children were screaming and crying when the masking tape was yanked off.

That’s not the worst part. What’s more repulsive is that the Chancellor of DC Public Schools (DCPS)—Michelle Rhee—and her new Teach for America employees found the story hilarious.

Here’s the link to the audio from The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/13/VI2010081305444.html

The irony is that Chancellor Rhee made false child abuse claims against 266 DC teachers in a national publication, when in fact she’s the one with the questionable judgment and past.

She would have never placed masking tape on the mouths of dogs or children from higher income households; she would have placed them in the “naughty corner,” including Fido. If this happened to one of her daughters she would have immediately fired the teacher.

By: Bob

Tape

I heard the story she told and do not believe one word of it. If she did tape

little kids mouths shut that is a felony If they were bleeding that would be

Sure to bring angry parents ready to kill her to school.

By: dear bob--

Rhee taped students' mouths while TFA

she said this herself! I beleive it. Even the way she talks about the students in her car sounds bad..no one stopped her--it took place. Why wold she lie about this?\rThere is something wrong with her if she did, but her voice and tone makes it true.

By: Bob

Out To Lunch

I heard her say it and you may be correct. If she tried that in a South Side school

Now she would be taken out in handcuffs .The more I think about what she said

It sure sounds like the deranged drippings of a very hysterical mind. Keep her

away from my students.