harvest

Rhee's partisan political agenda

The Examiner brings us news of Michele Rhee's invasion into Ohio, to peddle her variety of school reform snake oil.

We have discussed at length the problems with some of the kinds of reforms Rhee peddles. Whether it's value added assessments, teacher observations, and the inevitable playing of favorites in a subjective "performance review". None of these known problems appear to matter to some so called reformers, not least of which, Rhee.

Before ever sitting down with teachers in Ohio to understand some of the reforms already underway or being studied, Rhee instead sat down with the Governor to watch a discredited movie, one she features prominently in.

Now she is beginning, not a reform campaign seeking to bring in stakeholders - but instead launching a political campaign to lobby legislators.

Rhee has set up an Ohio Action Center online at StudentsFirst's website. "We're working to pass laws that will give Ohio's schools the power to identify, reward, and retain great educators, and give Ohio parents the choice they deserve to ensure their children receive a great education," she wrote.
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in a message supporters are to send to friends, family, politicians and anyone else concerned about education in the Buckeye State.

Her website, www.studentsfirst.org, even takes on the appearance of a political campaign website, replete with prominent donation buttons and a big popup splash screen to harvest emails when you first enter the site.

Even the pledge page, again designed to harvest emails first and foremost, is nothing more than meaningless pablum anyone could agree with, rather than spelling out the true goals of her effort to undermine teachers and the teaching profession.

Rhee's brilliance as a reformer came under fire recently, when impressive teaching performance claims made during her three-years as a recruit for Teach For America in Baltimore, Maryland were shown to be exaggerated at best and false at worst.

Our emphasis. If Rhee was genuine in her goals she would be keen to sit down with educators and discuss ideas. Instead she is seeking to run what now appears to be a partisan political campaign.