What Would You Ask Michelle Rhee?
Michelle Rhee, founder of StudentsFirst and former chancellor of D.C. schools’, will be visiting Cleveland tomorrow, and we’ve snagged a few minutes to chat with her while she’s in town.
We want to know: What burning questions do you have for Michelle Rhee?
Michelle Rhee’s Background
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Rhee first got her foot in the education door when she signed up for Teach for America and taught in a troubled Baltimore school. She then went on to create The New Teacher Project, working to improve the New York City Schools and later revamping the D.C. school system.
in 2007, she became the Chancellor of Washington D.C. schools, a new position in a difficult school district.
It didn’t take long for Rhee to stir up controversy in her new position, starting with the fact that she had virtually no experience as a school administrator. She became known for what some have called a “take no prisoners” approach to education reform, downsizing the districts’ building and staff significantly in her first year and increasing the emphasis on data-driven education.
Rhee quickly butted heads with the teachers’ union. She became known as an advocate of performance based pay and an opponent of the tenure system.
Her three years as chancellor improved the districts’ test scores, but was accompanied by suspicions of wide spread cheating on those standardized tests, something Rhee has vehemently denied.
She founded StudentsFirst, an education reform lobbying group, in 2010.
Rhee has become something of an education reform celebrity. She was featured in the controversial film, Waiting for Superman, and graced the cover of Time magazine.
Do you think she’s the education reformer America’s been waiting for? Or do you disagree with her tactics and goals? Let us know in the comments below.
