Title:
What Next for Michelle Rhee and Her School Reform
Campaign?
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
Michelle Rhee had never led a school system before
she came to the public schools in Washington, D.C.
in two thousand seven. By the end of the following
year she was on the cover of Time. The magazine
recognized her as a national leader in education
reform. And now Ms. Rhee appears in the film
"Waiting for 'Superman,'" a documentary about
problems in the American educational system. Ms.
Rhee closed underperforming schools in Washington.
She dismissed hundreds of teachers and
administrators -- including the principal at her
daughters' school.She angered the teachers union and
teachers who were traditionally protected in
permanent jobs. She said they were not doing a good
enough job. She negotiated a new labor contract that
measures teacher success based in part on student
performance. Many of her actions were the same as
those supported nationally by the Department of
Education and President Obama. But in October,
Michelle Rhee announced she will leave her job after
almost three and a half years. She said Washington's
next mayor, Vincent Gray, should be able to start
with someone of his own choice. Democrats in
Washington nominated Mr. Gray over Mayor Adrian
Fenty in September. People can argue about why Mayor
Fenty lost after one term. But for many voters, one
reason was his hiring of Michelle Rhee and his
support for her aggressive reforms. Public opinion
studies showed a racial divide. A majority of whites
but only a third of blacks thought the public
schools have improved. Close to seventy percent of
whites told the Washington Post that Ms. Rhee was a
reason to support Mayor Fenty. But more than half of
blacks saw her as a reason to vote against him. Mr.
Gray and Mr. Fenty are both African-American, as are
three out of four students in the District of
Columbia public schools.Mr. Gray promises to
continue school reform efforts. Ms. Rhee's
leadership team will remain until the end of the
school year. Her deputy, Kaya Henderson, is taking
her place, at least for now. It is unclear what
Michelle Rhee will do next. Shortly after her
announcement, she launched a website,
michellerhee.org. She says she will continue her
efforts for education reform, and she is asking
people to share ideas. She also says she wants to
live closer to her future husband, Kevin Johnson,
the mayor of Sacramento, California. For VOA Special
English, I'm Mario Ritter.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
