A Two-Tier Proposal for Teacher Pay - Michelle Rhee

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/05/Transforming_the_System_An_Interview_with_Michelle_...

Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, discusses her proposal to establish two pay tiers for teachers in the D.C. area. She explains how the proposal met with opposition from teachers' unions, as one of the tiers required teachers to give up their tenure.

-----

Transforming the System: An Interview with Michelle Rhee. This program was recorded in collaboration with Aspen Ideas Festival 2009.

Michelle Rhee is chancellor of DC Public Schools, a district with 50,000 students and 144 schools. She is also the founder of The New Teacher Project, a nationally recognized leader in developing innovative solutions to the challenges of hiring new teachers.

As president and CEO of TNTP, Rhee partnered with school districts, state education agencies, nonprofit organizations, and unions to transform the way difficult-to-staff schools recruit, select, and train highly qualified teachers.

Her work resulted in widespread reform in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, New York, Oakland, and Philadelphia. Rhee's commitment to excellence in education began in a Baltimore classroom as a Teach-for-America teacher. Rhee currently serves on the advisory boards for the National Council on Teacher Quality, the National Center for Alternative Certification, and Project REACH of the University of Phoenix's School of Education.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• education
• reform
• educators
• pubic
• charter
• schools
• teachers
• unions
• paid
• increase
• salary
• funds
• educational
• system
• teaching
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv

[1988rogers]

Thank you! All these union Commies get job security to send kids to community colleges. while european and asian teachers get paid to send kids to medical school and become scientists.

[lvll138inrs]

they should just privatize education. private schools vastly outperform public school

[itsjustme2919]

@itsjustme2919 and I can say with experience my teachers may have introduced the lesson, but the fear of my mother's punishment for a bad grade certainly helped keep me focused too.

[itsjustme2919]

@JohnLeeMD wouldn't say rampant. I think we need to stop treating education in this country as a one way street. What about bad parents? I think a great way to really force kids to learn is fine parents of students that start failing too many classes. I don't believe in nanny states but it would surprise how many parents have no idea what raising a child is about. The grades and low scores would turn around in a heartbeat if you hit them in the wallet.

[JohnLeeMD]

@itsjustme2919 While they "can" be fired, we both know that it's not done often. And you can't really blame the admin. They know the extra steps it takes to get a teacher fired, and they aren't willing to do it JUST for 1

(bad) teacher. One point I'd like to make on this too: "Bad" teachers aren't the problem. MEDIOCRE or COMPLACENT teachers are the problem. And this is much harder to try to document (i.e. for purpose of firing). That problem is almost rampant, and surely common IMO.

[itsjustme2919]

@fitnesschaser01 everyday? how is that possible with 80 teachers in a building?

[fitnesschaser01]

@itsjustme2919 I would love my principle to evaluate my child's teachers everyday instead of once or twice a year. It's very easy for a teacher to "fake" teaching, if they only have to do it on those evaluation days. And I'm one of the students who had teachers like that. Who only taught once or twice a year. Chemistry and Physical Education.

[itsjustme2919]

One thing I wish everyone would get right: You CAN fire a tenured teacher. It can happen. This whole business of tenure means you can't get fired is bullshit. What it means is instead of your boss breathing down your neck all day long, you simply might get checked on every once or twice a year. Which, if you have been awarded tenure, that means you must have been good to recieve it which means the liklihood of working so hard to just throw it all away and become a bad teacher is small.

[firstlaunch]

@MsJanetWood -I haven't heard any one blaming hard working , dedicated teachers. WE ARE BLAMING THE LAZY ONES!!

[MsJanetWood]

Michelle Rhee claims that she took 90% of her students from the 13th percentile to the 90th percentile or above in less than 2 years!

Isn’t that statistically impossible? “Normal Distribution”? “Bell Curve”?

Why hasn’t anyone interviewed her former students? Or their parents? Or her former principal? Or her former co-workers? Her fellow teachers?

I’m sure they all will have plenty to say about those scores!

Where's the proof of her academic success?