Rhee's firing of 75 D.C. teachers in 2008 was improper, arbitrator says

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/08/AR2011020804813.html?wprss=rss_education

An independent arbitrator has ruled that former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee improperly fired 75 new teachers still serving their probationary period in 2008, and the arbitrator ordered them reinstated with back pay because Rhee failed to give them a reason for their dismissal.

The ruling, issued Monday by Charles Feigenbaum, was narrowly cast. It said the school system had the right to fire teachers during their two-year probationary period if they had received negative recommendations from school principals. Feigenbaum said the "glaring and fatal flaw" in Rhee's action was that the teachers were not given reasons for their terminations.

"They had no opportunity to provide their side of the story," Feigenbaum wrote.


<snip>

Feigenbaum ordered the District to make a 60-day good-faith effort to find the fired teachers and offer them reinstatement in an appropriate job. He also ordered that they be made financially whole. Union officials estimate the back-pay award could amount to $7.5 million - a considerable sum for the cash-strapped District.

In other bad news for Rhee:


Michelle Rhee's early test scores uncovered

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2011/02/michelle_rhees_early_test_scor.html

G.F. Brandenburg, a retired D.C. math teacher with an irresistible blog, has done it again. If he had chosen a career in journalism instead of teaching, no U.S. president would have finished out his first term. He has found the missing test score data from former D.C. schools chancellor's early years as a classroom teacher, something I did not think was possible.

He has proved that Rhee's results weren't nearly as good as she said they were.

You can find Brandenburg's revelations if you scroll down on his blog to the Jan. 31 item "The Rhee Miracle Examined Again--By Cohort." Then go back further for other recent pieces he has done, with many charts, to make his findings clear. You may also be enlightened by his most recent Feb. 8 item, "The Cluelessness of Rhee, Kopp and Mathews," which finds fault with my Feb. 3 column on Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp's new book. It is an honor, of a sort, to be mentioned by Brandenburg in the same headline as Rhee, who has been his prime target for years.

<snip>


checked Richard Whitmire's new biography of Rhee, "The Bee Eater," to see if he has more on her Baltimore teaching years. He does not mention Brandenburg's research, and appears somewhat neutral on the argument over this issue. He quotes Rhee as saying on her resume that after two years 90 percent of her students had reached the 90th percentile in reading and math, but he also quotes other officials casting doubt on that statement. Rhee's principal, according to Whitmire, backed up Rhee. She said the students' achievement level climbed impressively. But she did not have the results to confirm that. These were not official state tests that would have been preserved and made public, but private company records.

Mathews goes into gyrations in his article to smooth over any unpleasant suggestion that Rhee might have lied, so I'm not giving him pride of place in his own thread. His claim is that she would have unknowingly made the claim that her scores got massively higher because her principal told her they did. Even if that is true, I think if I were going to use that as my bragging point on an already thin-as-ice resume', I'd make damn sure it was true before braying about it in every media outlet.

[LisaM]

1. K&R

:kick:

[Confusious]

2. What this country needs is for someone to come out and say

"liar"

I don't understand what is with all the sidestepping. It doesn't help us, and it certainly doesn't help the person lying.

[MichiganVote]

3. What this country needs is more honesty and fewer make a fast buck celebrities

[RandomThoughts]

4. Funny thing,

When I tell the truth and they don't believe it. Some do, some don't.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Well, it won't be Jay Mathews.

He was an early Rhee cheerleader. He'd lose face if he had to admit he'd backed a liar. From a year ago:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/02/rhee_uncompromising.html

I think she is one of the best big city school chiefs in the country. I have spent three decades studying what methods are most likely to improve inner city schools. She is using nearly all of them---installing strong principals; giving them the power to hire and fire teachers; insisting on effective teaching and high expectations for all kids no matter what their backgrounds; and taking test results seriously.

If student achievement does not improve, the principals or teachers responsible have to go. The only thing on my list Rhee has not done yet is significantly increase the time for instruction, but I suspect she is looking for ways to do that too.

For an education reporter, there is no better story than Michelle Rhee. Can a school superintendent that uncompromising survive and have the effect on teaching and learning she wants?

As she said, we have never before had a person like this run such an important, high-profile school district. The politics of the city are still in her favor, because people are so turned off by how bad the schools have been. Look at the many readers who voiced their support for Rhee in comments to Bill Turque and Jon Cohen's story on her poll results.

Rhee is an original. I am rooting for her.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. "The only thing on my list Rhee has not done yet is significantly increase the time for instruction"

Silly me, that's the FIRST thing I would have done. LOL

[roody]

6. good news

[Hannah Bell]

7. actually, rhee's claim has been convincingly debunked. the data is public. she's a liar.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=299154&mesg_id=299154

[Starry Messenger]

8. My mind must be going.

I k&r'd the thread there, too. o.O I need to start eating more brain food.