Interesting

I watched this documentary today.

Watch The Education of Michelle Rhee on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Quite interesting.

I've been fascinated by Michelle Rhee, especially during her time "reforming" the Washington DC schools.

What I like about her (and don't think she's going to go away.  I think she will be secretary of education after Arne Duncan):

*She holds teachers accountable.

*She holds administrators accountable.

*She believes the #1 way to improve education is to get excellent teachers in front of every class.

What I dislike about her:

*She holds teachers accountable through high stakes testing.

*She is too much of a media personality.  I don't know that she can live outside of the spotlight.

What I find most interesting about this documentary is the apparent extent of cheating on the high stakes tests that hold teachers accountable took place.

And it's not just teachers and proctors who cheated.  It's gone all the way up to superintendents (look at the shameful example in Atlanta).

In Noise elementary school, a school celebrated for significant test score improvements, in Washington DC the principal there reported clear examples of teachers falsifying test scores.  When security was tightened (the principal changed the locks on the rooms where the tests were kept and hired more proctors), the result? Test scores dropped 30%.

It seems while NCLB had a nobel goal: to eliminate the soft bigotry of low expectations of inner city and minority children, it has most certainly not done much to eliminate those low expectations.  Instead it has exposed (or perhaps created) another tragedy: cheating.

Here is one of my favorite takes on how to improve education and why we should shy away from high stakes testing as the sole measure of student achievement and teacher quality.