DC Council Hearing on Chancellor Rhee

Councilman Gray and Chancellor Rhee discuss public policy during October 29, 2009 District of Columbia City Council meeting regarding firing of 229 DC Public School teachers.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• District of Columbia
• City Council
• DCPS
• Vincent Gray
• Michelle Rhee
• Public Hearing
• Teacher Layoffs
• Reduction in Force
• Reallocation of funds
• city budget
• reprogramming

[DCVisions]

Once again, I've deleted the comment from the poster with the offensive username, but the comment again is valid, so I'll repost it here: "dude it's in Juley 13 article you're telling people to check out"

My response: Sure enough. July 13 was a long time ago and I didn't remember. I do have to wonder why the test scores started to go down? Didn't Rhee replace all the bad teachers with shiney new good teachers? She might have done better to support the old ones.

[DCVisions]

I've deleted a comment from a poster with an offensive username, but I thought the comment was fine. So, I'll repost the comment which was, "Officials also reported that the percentage of students scoring at advanced levels has doubled in elementary and secondary schools since 2007. "After rising 20 percentage points from 2007 to 2009, the elementary math proficiency rate dipped 4.6 points this year, to 43.4."

Comment continues in next post

[DCVisions]

@DCVisions Here's the rest of the comment from the post that I deleted. "She's still up by 15.4 points. Why is anyone complaining? It's not really a surprise. Americans have never had the balls to effect real change when it makes their lives even the slightest bit more difficult."

My response is that I haven't seen a 20 percentage point rise from 2007 - 2009 in test scores reported anywhere. If anyone can substantiate that claim that would be great.

[Mooo173]

change can be tough, especially in a city with intrenched bad policies and terrible education. SHE IS CHANGING THINGS FOR THE BETTER, what is the alternative? the status quo? no one is for that, i hope

[DCVisions]

@Mooo173

Sorry it's taken so long to respond to your comment. Have you read the Washington Post article from July 13, 2010 entitled D.C. elementary test scores show decline. Check it out.

[MsJanetWood]

I like that Mr. Gray!

[retsep81]

@Nenendude Better to teach to the test than what they're doing now.

[DCVisions]

@Nenendude

Progressive yet transparent. I couldn't agree with you more.

[Nenendude]

@DCVisions I just read the article, thanks for the recommendation. Looks like Fenty and Rhee has some explaining to do, they shouldn’t have placed as much emphases on test scores, now it’s come back to bite them. I never liked the idea of “teaching to the test”, which sounds like the meat of the issue. We need new ideas, something progressive yet transparent.

[Nenendude]

@DCVisions Will do.