Having had parents who put a premium on education and having a daughter myself who is in DCPS, I try to follow what’s going on with the public schools.  I have to admit being greatly disappointed every time Michelle Rhee makes an appearance on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi show.  She was on again this last Friday August 28, 2010.  You can find a copy of the transcript at the following link – http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2010-08-27/politics-hour.   A lot of what she says sounds great, but if you’re looking for specifics, you have to wait for a knowledgeable listener to make it on the air with a question.

Michelle Rhee’s Great Disapearing Act

For example, when Rhee was asked what she would do to improve special education in DCPS she gave a two paragraph answer, but the only specifics she gave came in these two sentences: “We spend upwards of $90 million a year transporting our students to a lot of private schools throughout the region. And we really need to look at what we’re doing to build the capacity within DCPS to serve a lot of those students better, so that they can attend their neighborhood schools.”  So hopefully,  Rhee is gonna ask her people to “look at what they’re doing,” with regard to special education.  That’s reassuring, I guess.

Another caller asked about the drop in AYP test scores, which much of her reform was designed to improve.   Rhee said that despite the fact that test scores have dropped, the huge gap between black and white student achievement has narrowed, has in fact narrowed significantly at the secondary level.  But after looking at the statistics provided by Epsilon, the caller who posed the test score question, I’m wondering how she defines significant.  According to Epsilon, “the most recent scores that came out for AYP shows that 88 percent of the schools in Ward 3 made AYP while 86 percent of the schools in Ward 8 failed. The achievements gap between blacks and whites is even more telling. The lowest achievement level for whites is at Watkins on Capitol Hill, which was 83.78 percent and then it goes up to 95.69 percent at Murch. While in Ward 8, we have Stanton School with the achievement of black — I mean, the achievement level for blacks is 12.72 percent. At Terrell, it’s 28.23 percent. At Savoy, a brand-new school, is 21.62 percent.”

I’m wondering how bad the gap was before the “significant” improvement.  I also wonder if the gap wouldn’t have narrowed further and perhaps without the pain of school closings and teacher firings if Michelle Rhee and the Fenty Administration had taken a look at the funding gap between low-income schools and wealthier schools.  I know that schools in DC are funded on a per pupil basis, but some pupils cost more to educate than others.  No doubt, a look at the individual school budgets will verify this.  Special education and special needs students, as Rhee herself seems to be aware, cost the city a significant amount of money in transportation alone.  So what does it mean when these students attend low-income schools at a higher rate than wealthier schools?   As far as I know, DC public schools don’t get more money for students that require specialized instruction.

How the city deals with special education students isn’t the only thing that contributes to the achievement gap between black and white students, but it is one thing that Rhee doesn’t seem to know a whole lot about.  What else is she missing?  Kojo Nnamdi and his guest analyst Tom Sherwood seemed more concerned about whether or not Rhee would stay on the job if Mayor Fenty loses his re-election bid.  (Sounds like the answer is no by the way.)  Neither of them questioned her about the controversies at Bruce Monroe or Hardy Elementary Schools.  They praised the physical renovations taking place in schools on Capital Hill, but no mention was made of other schools, like Parkview Elementary (which currently houses students from the recently demolished Bruce Monroe) continue to deal with rodent infestations in the food supply.   Rhee’s answers sounded like those of a politician, rather than an educational professional with an intricate understanding of the system she hopes to reform.

On the other hand, if you do in fact want to hear an educational professional willing to give detailed analysis and an honest assessment of the DC public school system, the place to turn would have to be WPFW.  Reporter Pete Tucker interviewed former DCPS teacher James Boutin about his experience within the system.  I have heard very little in the mainstream press about how many teachers and administrators are leaving DCPS voluntarily.  We are meant to believe that the answers to DCPS’ problems lay in the youthful idealism of the Teach for America protege.   According to Boutin, school reform under Michelle Rhee is not exactly sunshine and light, even for those within the system who desperately want reform.  Anyone with an interest in the DCPS should hear this interview, and so I have reposted it here:  Rhee’s Great Disappearing Act

Pete Tucker is not only reporting for WPFW, he has started his own blog Fight Back Radio where his audio podcasts are archived.  The link is thefightback.org.