RHEE: Lightning Rod -- For Hopes & Hype

Despite all that's been written about Michelle Rhee in recent months, there's still much to like about this month's Atlantic magazine profile (The Lightning Rod). 

For example, writer Clay Risen does an excellent job of describing Michelle Rhee's demeanor and technocratic outlook on school reform. His piece raises concerns about economic displacement that have sometimes been left out of the DC reform story.  He does a good job placing Rhee squarely among those not focused on external factors like poverty and crime.  And he notes that there are complicated politics still lying in the way of Rhee's success.  All strong elements, executed with greater style and insight than anything I could have done. 

However, there are a number of other things about the piece that are concerning -- whether you support Rhee's efforts or not.   The piece leaves out how Rhee seems to have backed the teachers union into a corner from which it can only fight.    It leaves out the reality that many, many nontraditional superintendents have been brought into urban districts on white horses, only to fall prey to complicated politics.  It underplays just how much more confrontational Rhee's approach is than the previous half-generation of reformers with which Rhee is associated.

Right or wrong, my feeling is that Rhee has at times been unnecessarily confrontational in public, that her tenure has yet to distinguish itself from previous efforts in other big cities, and that the media has by and large swooned for the past year plus. 

Previous posts:  Hyping Michelle Rhee, Not Your Average Profile, A Contrast In Tactics. 

Comments

[john thompson]

The thing that struck me the most was Rhee's description of herself as a technocrat. Those are supposed to be fighting words.

Is it possible that "Rhee is just a symptom of the failure of liberal arts education? Maybe if she'd taken the time to read some classics, she/we wouldn't be in that mess. Maybe if we took her Blackberry away, Rhee would show better judgement. I wonder if she's ever kicked back a read an education classic. Has she ever read a book about education for enjoyment?

In my experience, most of the time administrators make huge mistakes they literally are not in their right mind. They are sleep-deprived, overstressed, and fear from the pecking order has pumped their bodies full of "fight or flight"chemicals. A Nation At Risk said that if a foreign power tried to impose our education system on us, it would be like an act of war. Perhaps that would be their strategy, juice up our educational leaders to the point where they lose their sense of balance.