First, JLF’s education policy analyst Terry Stoops and DC schools chief Michelle Rhee evalute education policy based on its impact on student achievement, not whether it serves the bureaucracy.
Second, both Stoops and Rhee believe the teacher — not funding — is the key factor that determines whether a student’s classroom experience will be fruitful or a waste of time.
And third, Stoops and Rhee don’t mince words and don’t mind ruffling establishment feathers.
To illustrate, check out this Duke Magazine story about Rhee, who visited Duke late last year to discuss her DC efforts. From the magazine:
During one recent visit to an elementary school in a low-income neighborhood, Rhee was struck by differences she saw in two classrooms across the hallway from one another. In one room, the teacher engaged students in a critical discussion about Greek mythology, while in the other, “the exact opposite was happening.” The teacher there was flicking the lights on and off and screaming at her pupils to quiet down.
This was in “the same crappy school with no air conditioning and rainwater flooding in through the ceiling tiles,” she said. “And one group of kids was getting a phenomenal education, and one was not, simply because of the teachers who were in front of them every single day.”
Now watch and listen to Stoops discussing Gov. Beverly Perdue’s recent shakeup of the state’s education establishment by giving the top job to former Cumberland County schools chief Bill Harrison and relegating elected superintendent June Atkinson to the role of “ambassador.”
It’s refreshing to hear plain talk from two real reformers.
