Ending Poverty through Education

[cjbgreen]

Source: Spotlight on Poverty and Education

On global poverty, economist and author Jeffrey Sachs created a splash with his argument that we can solve the problem of poverty in our lifetimes. In The End of Poverty, he cites examples of success in communities all over the developing world, showing what works in empowering communities and building foundations for prosperity.

Examples of extraordinary success also exist here in Washington, DC, a district that is improving to become more competitive every year. For example, under a new principal at one school, student reading proficiency went from 24 percent to 85 percent in just four years, and from 10 percent to 64 percent in math. In another, only 9 percent of the students were on grade level, when just down the street in a successful charter school, over 90 percent of students were. Same kids, same neighborhoods and exposure to violence, same poverty, hunger, and parent education levels. At the successful schools, the primary difference was the team of adults who decided it was possible for lives and outcomes to move in other directions.

For many individuals who work with children, courage will mean changing a long-standing mindset that has excused us from holding high expectations for all children. In the DC Public Schools in 2007, performance evaluations had not been conducted for years in our central office, and teachers did not have clear guidelines about what we believed good teaching even looks like. Yet to educate all children well in any system, staff need the courage to participate in conversations about their performance that are tied to job security.

Read more: http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org/ExclusiveCommentary.aspx?id=f6886a5e-628e-411d-89a8-c8f9f0a73f4f

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Is Michelle Rhee once more espousing magical numbers and extraordinary claims to make her the "Chancellor Extraordinaire"? Did student scores at one school seriously increase from 24% to 85% in four years. How amazing that she knows this especially when there were no District Reading Tests administered in 2008-2009. Yes, if I click my red high heels three times and repeat to the press three times that test scores increased by 61 percentage points (everyone will know that failure is based on a teachers failure to believe) and realize I am the great and powerful Michelle Rhee. Okay all educators begin the chant or better yet get the mayor to chant "I do believe, I do believe, I do believe ... in every Michelle Rhee claim. These grandiose claims of miraculous mastery hurt the serious efforts of teachers and educational leaders committed to teaching and learning.

[tonysam]

1. You end poverty through jobs

and jobs that pay well enough for people to survive.

[emilyg]

2. To be paid well you have to be educated or have a skill.

[No Elephants]

11. Just ask all the unemployed lawyers.

[New Dawn]

4. Exactly. There are tons of people with bachelor's degrees working minimum wage jobs right now.

[OhioChick]

5. Damn straight. n/t

[babylonsister]

3. You don't think Rhee is serious? Really? nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I don't think she's competent

[babylonsister]

10. Really, with this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Rhee

Professional life

Rhee taught in Baltimore, Maryland as a recruit of Teach For America for three years. According to her resume, over a two-year period she moved students scoring on average at the 13th percentile on national standardized tests to 90 percent of students scoring at the 90th percentile or higher.<7><8> In 1997 she founded the New Teacher Project, a non-profit organization which works with needy school districts to recruit and train new teachers. In ten years, the New Teacher Project has expanded to forty programs in twenty states and recruited more than 10,000 teachers.

Through the DC Teaching Fellows program, Washington, D.C. participated in the New Teacher Project, and was successful in recruiting highly qualified applicants.<9> On June 12, 2007, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty announced that he had chosen Rhee to replace superintendent of D.C. public schools Clifford Janey and become the schools' new chancellor. Rhee initially rebuffed Fenty's offer, but relented when promised wide latitude and significant authority in decision-making as well as strong mayoral support for her proposed initiatives.<10><11><12><13><14> New York City Public Schools Chancellor Joel Klein highly recommended her to Mayor Fenty.

Rhee has served on the advisory boards for the National Council on Teacher Quality,<15> National Center for Alternative Certification, and Project REACH. She was a special guest of First Lady Laura Bush at President George W. Bush's 2008 State of the Union address.<16>

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Sounds like she had what we call a lucky pencil

Those gains in test scores smell very fishy to me.

I'll send you more stuff later. Gotta get to work:)

We talk about Rhee a lot on the education forum. She's a union buster and not very well liked among teachers. There is also a story about how she ate a bug in front of her 2nd graders. Pretty disgusting. She also claimed she had laid off teachers because they had sex with their students and was forced to take back that outrageous statement. She is rather repulsive, IMO.

[DeSwiss]

6. This may be of interest to you.....

http://sfreporter.com/stories/born_poor/5339/all/">Born Poor

[DissedByBush]

8. Love the article, thanks n/t

[handmade34]

9. should be required reading

much thanks for sharing it (and Elinor Ostrom is required reading also)

there are answers

[proudohioan]

13. Very interesting article. Thanks for the post.