Scandal in Leadership

[THE MICHELLE RHEE SCANDAL]

The board of education and education reformers all have one eye pealed on Michelle Rhee and her leadership tactics back in 2008. Currently she is still in question for the alleged state test erasures from 170 teachers while under her chancellorship. This memorandum recommends some specific policy changes that will help refocus the media and her followers back to her Student First reform.

Michelle Rhee, the former Chancellor of District Columbia's Public School is facing serious allegations of her school improvement tactics. The evidence suggests that in 2008 70 schools under her leadership were accused of systemic cheating. 191 teachers were said to have artificially inflated students test scores by erasing wrong responses to multiple choice answers on the state test. This will remain in question until future investigation is taken, in spite of many attempts to get interviews with speculated teachers and Ms. Michelle Rhee herself since 2008. Although some of the students did pass the state examine, many of the passing scores were attributed to the erasure scandal. Although Rhee has been accredited to increasing teacher hiring with her organization The New Teacher Project, this is a very serious case that can result to federal time if any party involved is found guilty. To keep the integrity of the school system, I recommend that Michelle Rhee step down from an authority position in the schools and reform to reduce any further speculation and other damage that may occur from her tactics.

Rhee started her teaching career shortly after graduating college. Her new found love for youth lead her to sign up with the Teach For America. During Rhee's first year she was placed at Harlem's lowest performing schools and proved to have a very difficult time with her classroom management tactics. She admitted to putting duck tape on all of students' mouths while they were in the hallways, making their lips bleed as a result."I'm not going to let eight-year-old kids run me out of town", she responded to the Washington magazine. Ironically, her first year teaching experience was not a high performing one; in fact her average percentile for math and reading dropped significantly. However, during her 2nd and 3rd year, she was able to teach with a team of teachers. Together they reportedly increased the test scores of their students. Shortly after the erasure scandal occurred, someone unearthed Rhee resume that falsely stated that she more than doubled test scores during her 2nd and 3rd year teaching. When she was confronted about the false resume, she responded that her principal at the time had told her about the test increase, but may have not given her official numbers. As it is seen from Rhee's past, her main concern is that her students appear to be well behaved and excel on their test. Whether they actually do or not is not her most pressing concern. Now as we look more into debt about the erasure scandal, we recognize the pattern of her character in the actions that follow. After gaining the chancellor position shortly after presenting her false resume, and with no administration experience, she took on the challenge of being the D.C. states chancellor. It was questioned that her acquired leadership role was based on popularity and not on true effectiveness with both people and work improvement. When she fired a large number of staff while chancellor, she was seen as a leader who cares more about raising numbers in the organization and not at all on the employee.

One of the recommended policy alternatives is as radical as she. I recommend that she resign from her education reform and high stakes test advocacy. She needs to stay out of the public lime light for a considerable amount of time simply because what she has been presenting is contradictory to what she truly stands for. Currently she has a organization called Student's First as well as a book out that is titled Radical Fighting to Put Student's First. Putting student's first is the exact opposite of making sure that test scores are high. High student test scores do not equal