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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee And The Relentless Marketing Of Education ‘Reform’ - Jeff Bryant

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee And The Relentless Marketing Of Education ‘Reform’ - Jeff Bryant:


Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee And The Relentless Marketing Of Education ‘Reform’

Is it over yet? Michelle Rhee’s barnstorming of America this week, to hawk her new memoir, taxed the stamina of even the most ardent education wonk. It was a relentless PR campaign that would truly be the envy of any tobacco executive or gun manufacturer.
In interview after interview Rhee recited a series of bullet points regardless of who was interviewing her and what the questions were – even sticking robotically to the same inflections in her pronouncements on the paramount importance of “eFFECtive” teachers, the “burEAUCracy” that “traps” families in schools, and her “COMMon sense solutions.”
This post is republished from theEducation Opportunity Network, a new online publication edited by Jeff Bryant. The publication is designed to serve the movement for progressive change in education by sharing provocative information, analysis, and opportunities for action – and by linking educators in the trenches, students, parents, community leaders, education experts and progressive activists who know education is crucial to the fight for democracy and economic progress. To subscribe to the Education Opportunity Network,click here.
It’s understandable that television program hosts complied with interviews that were generally void of even a hint of skepticism.
(With the exception of Comedy Channel’s Jon Stewart who managed a few doubtful observations on Rhee’s confidence in standardized testing, c