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Thursday, February 13, 2014

DCPS partners with Michelle Rhee founded group that promotes standardized tests and blames teachers.

The district has announced it is partnering with the New Teacher Project to maximize our human capital. So they can attract, maximize and retain excellent teachers, re: the teachers we have here now suck.

If that’s what they believe then they have partnered with the right group as Michelle “Blame the teacher” Rhee ran the TNTP for ten years before her controversial and unsuccessful stint of superintendent of the Washington D.C. school system. There she was known for firing hundreds of teachers whether they deserved it or not and creating a culture of fear and intimidation, that led to cheating.


Mrs. Rhee has made her distain for teachers well known and it’s hard to imagine the group she ran for so long feels any different.

The TNTP’s main policy seems to be that more involved and detailed teacher evaluations will lead to better instruction, re: lead to getting rid of more teachers. Funded by the Walton foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates foundation they aren’t interested in fixing the problems in education they are interested in kneecapping the teaching profession.    

This is the premise they start with:

There are at least ‘several hundred’ incompetents now in the school system [says the superintendent]. Other observers think there are several thousands, while still others insist that ‘several’ would be nearer the mark. Whether these incompetents were unfit to teach at any time, or have been rendered unfit by the passing years, is a matter of opinion. The question is, why are they allowed to remain?”


Their work has also been panned by professional educators.


And they have been called the most effective practitioner of Orwellian spin… They promote a high-stakes testing assembly line that turns teachers and students into widgets and they condemn educators who want to teach ideas and share creative forms of expression, and other knowledge that is not on the test. The TNTP turns facts on their head, and condemns advocates for the professional autonomy of teachers as defenders of the "widget effect." To them, wrestling with real-world implementation problems is a "dodge."


They have a reputation of being ideologically not evidence driven.


Finally here is a blog from the president of the TNTP comparing unions problems with common core to the Tea Party’s problem with ObamaCare, though to be honest I wasn’t sure who he was trying to insult.


Is this the best organizational available to help us out?

In the end it doesn’t matter because it is poverty friends and the sooner Vitti and the powers-that-be get it we can start to fix this thing but I have to tell you daily I think more and more that’s not their goal.

3 comments:

  1. This is the woman who forced her Principals to cheat to raise test scores. How can DCPS be partnering with this organization and was run off by the school board of DC.

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  2. These people who make the big decisions don't even understand how students learn, or they would change their tunes. They don't understand how many factors go into teaching an entire classroom of students. Some students learn very quickly because they come into school having a variety of background knowledge, a broad vocabulary, a basic understanding of how language works, number sense, etc. Others may come in with a different set of knowledge; however, that knowledge may not be as broad or geared toward academic subjects. That makes it more challenging to teach those students, and those students will learn at a different pace. One student may take a whole year to solidify one concept, whereas another student may only need to hear the information or learn the skill once. Much of teaching is reteaching; many of our students get that reinforcement at home, while others only get it at school. If there is anything I have learned over the past 8 years, it is that students, like adults, need practice all of the time. In my AP English class, I have a wide array of students, some of whom have yet to pass the FCAT. Each and every student wants to prepare for college; however, I do have to modify how I teach to reach each kid. Is every student going to pass the AP test? No; however, if given extra time (they are given 2 hours to write 3 essays), I am confident that each would succeed. People like Rhee might blame me for not ensuring that each student passes the test; however, once again, they don't understand how learning works. None of these policy makers or superintendents or even most principals really understand how learning varies by child.

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  3. Vitti must hate teachers, too. He's pro-Charter and pro-Rhee. I think the writing is on the wall. He has created fear among teachers, after promising us that he would eliminate the culture of fear.

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