Rhee on Time cover

The media's interest in all things Rhee continues. This week DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee is Time magazine's cover story.

More Rhee in the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal has another crack at profiling "The Hammer", this time by the editorial board.

DC teacher on America's Most Wanted

This is definitely *not* how you want to earn your fifteen minutes of fame:

Federal investigators are hoping that last night's "America's Most Wanted" broadcast will help them find Eric Toth, a former D.C. area private-school teacher who disappeared after a fellow teacher found allegedly sexually oriented images of at least one boy on a school camera in Toth's possession.

The two-minute segment included new details about the case of the 26-year-old former teacher at Beauvoir, an elite private school on the grounds of Washington National Cathedral. In June, the day before classes ended for the year, another teacher reported finding the images. Toth was escorted from the campus, and the camera was turned over to authorities.

AMW profile here.

Obama kids postscript

Now that the president elect has chosen a school for his two daughters the press & pundit coverage over the whole ordeal is winding down. My two cents:

The coverage (much like everything Obama related these days) was overblown, and the political posturing and opportunism a bit unseemly. The Obama's kids are not tools of policy, or things to "make statements" with. They are their kids, and as parents their job is to look out for their kids best interest. If those interests are best served by a private school, so be it. If by a charter or public school, likewise.

Now, if you find that in his administration Obama's education policies are somehow in conflict with the choices he and his wife made for their children, then feel free to point out the hypocrisy. That's politics; that's fair territory. You don't like where he sent his kids. Tough noogies.

Anyway... here's a roundup of other coverage

• Instapundit's take
• Post coverage on the final decision
• The Corner thinks Obama should support laws that give everyone the same choice he has
• Homeschooling as an option?
• GothamSchools weighs in
• TNR scribe and Georgetown Day alum has his say...
• ... as does Jonah Goldberg

Six DC high schools offering anti-prostitution program

Bell Multicultural, McKinley Tech, Woodson, Coolidge, School Without Walls and Anacostia high schools are offering programs to teachers and students that raise awareness of such issues as human trafficking and sexual exploitation in order to help identify and combat exploitation of DC's youth.

Powell founded Fair Fund five years ago and has developed a curriculum that warns students about human trafficking. Since November 2007, Powell and three other workers have reached 820 students, trained dozens of teachers and received 56 notes from students, many of them anonymous, seeking help. Some said they were raped by their fathers or know of teenagers involved in prostitution. A few said they were homeless.

Police and advocates say some juveniles trade sex for a place to stay or food.

Newsweek on Obama and

Newsweek has an interesting article about the incoming administration and what it means for Fenty and Rhee's proposed reform of DC's "awful schools."

[posting has been light... should hopefully pick up here in the next few days as the hairfires get extinguished]

DC Children First petition

DC Children First are circulating a petition in support of DC educational choice, including public, public charter, and scholarships.

I believe you share our passion for DC education and our sincere desire to see every child achieve. Today, we’re circulating a petition to help ensure that desire becomes a reality, and we need your help.

As we speak, great strides are being made in Washington D.C. toward achieving equal educational opportunities for all children. Mayor Fenty, Chancellor Rhee, and others are taking on the hard job of reforming and improving all schools, for all of our children.

An important part of that reform is the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. This program has helped thousands of families find the right school for their children. These children are learning and on the path toward success, and their families are happier and more engaged in their child’s education. That’s why Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee, former Mayors Anthony Williams and Marion Barry, former Councilman Kevin Chavous and many other business and community leaders support the DS OSP.

The DC OSP is part of a three-pathway education package from the federal government that includes additional resources for DCPS as well as Charter Schools in the District. These historic, bi-partisan investments are helping Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee in their efforts for reform, and we need to keep it going.

That’s where you come in.

We are circulating a petition and are hoping to get thousands of signatures in support of educational opportunities and specifically the continuation (reauthorization) of the DC OSP program. If you share our desire for a quality education for our children and our passion for reform, we urge you to not only sign this petition, but also send it to others and ask them to sign as well. We seek signatures of any DC residents, 18 years of age or older.

Elizabeth Plant
DC Children First
1825 K Street NW, Suite 1080
Washington, DC 20006
cell: (202) 280-9785
office: (202) 772-0429

The world will recommence spinning...

...its Sidwell Friends.

Fight, stabbings at Anacostia High School

Five students were injured during a series of events Wednesday at Anacostia High School.

The disturbance at Anacostia High School began shortly after 12:30 p.m. when two students began fighting in a second-floor hallway, said Assistant Police Chief Diane Groomes. While officers assigned to the school were breaking up the fight, someone set a small fire in another hallway on the floor, Groomes said. During the evacuation of the school's 1,100 students, more fights broke out among rival groups.

Groomes said five students were taken to hospitals -- three with stab wounds, one who was hurt in a fight and one who had an asthma attack. The teenager who was hurt while fighting is suspected of stabbing at least one of the other students with a "penlike knife," Groomes said. He was charged as a juvenile with assault with a dangerous weapon. Another youth was charged with disorderly conduct after he got into a fight outside the school during the evacuation.

This all happened on the day that Chancellor Rhee testified to the DC Council that the District needs to rethink its approach to combating violence in schools. (Video here)

City Paper profiles Yu Ying charter school

Another profile of the new Yu Ying charter school. This time its an in-depth cover story by the City Paper.

Obama watch day 4 (now 5)

I need an ostentatious graphic and audio sweep to introduce...

OBAMA SCHOOL WATCH: America on the Edge

Today's edition has BOE members Robert C. Bobb and Mary Lord riding the hype all the way to the USA Today op-ed page and a link on Drudge.

UPDATE: Public schools are on the table?

Obama watch day 3

Will it be Georgetown Day?

UPDATE: or Sidwell Friends?

UPDATE 2: Now with Video Goodness (tm)

UPDATE 3: Even the Nigerian press is reporting on it (awesome country, by the way. Had a fun 30 hours there once)

Around the blogs

More DCPS related postings from around the blog universe:

• The Ancient and Noble Order of the Gormogons have a post up about this WaPo article. (I always wondered what happened to the KLF)
• EdIn08's RoyBlog weighs in as well.
• Unbalance Literacy defends teachers unions after a Mayor Fenty profile on MSNBC's Morning Joe program.
• Jay P. Greene ask "Who Cares Where Obama’s Kids Will Go to School?" (ding ding ding... Jay wins a prize)
• Among the many who do are Keith Pavlischek...
• ... and Jessica Shyu...
• ... and Nick Gillespie ...
• ... and Stephanie Mencimer.

WaPo and Fenty and Rhee, oh my

WaPo education beat writer Bill Turque has an interesting post up at The Wire regarding the behind-the-scenes shenanigans involving Rhee and Fenty regarding Turque's request for comments from State Superintendent of Education Deborah A. Gist about Chancellor Rhee's "Plan B".

The City Paper's City Desk has more.

DC Teacher Chic update

In their weekly School Roundup feature DCist weighs in on The DC Teacher Chic's recent employment change. DCist looks at some of the positive and negative comments left at both the Chic's website and this one and says the following:

Reading these reactions made us start to question why teachers, particularly teachers in the most challenging schools, are held to such different standards than other professionals. Many of the city’s teachers (yes, even the ineffective ones) work for years under conditions that would be considered physically or psychologically intolerable by their peers in other fields, yet when they leave, are often accused of just not caring enough about the kids or being bad at their job. And often, these accusations are made by other teachers.

While some teachers may thrive in certain settings, others, even excellent teachers, may not, and all have personal reasons for staying or leaving. I had a relatively positive experience at the D.C. public school where I taught, but one of my colleagues experienced sexual and verbal harassment, the brunt of administrative politics, and had her courses and class lists changed multiple times without notice.

I pretty much agree with that sentiment. A couple of commenters took issue with my description of the Chic as "passionate" at her job; giving up being a quality that passionate people don't have. I respectfully disagree. There's a difference between being passionate and being a masochist. Saying in an environment that, as DCist states, is "physically or psychologically intolerable" is not a sign of passion.

"Hey, you got peanut butter in my chocolate"

Two of the hottest media stories merge into a single, swirling vortex of an article: Can Obama Help Rhee?

Rhee coverage continues...

... this time at the Wall Street Journal.

Dunbar update

In the article about Hart below reference is made to 19 girls being arrested at Dunbar High School, apparently for incidents related to fighting.  I haven't been able to find any reports of this in the news.  Any readers have any more information?

Also, over the weekend a Dunbar student was fatally shot.

A 15-year-old was shot and fatally wounded last week outside his home in Northeast Washington, D.C. police said. Ladonta Longshore, a ninth-grader at Dunbar High School, was one of the youngest people killed in the city this year.

Police said he was found about 10:30 p.m. Monday behind his apartment building in the 1200 block of Brentwood Road NE, south of Rhode Island Avenue and east of the Rhode Island Avenue Metro stop.

He died Wednesday at a hospital, and the shooting is under investigation, police said.

Hart principal fired

One day after the Washington Post writes a pretty devistating article about violence at Hart middle school Hart's Principal, Kisha Webster, was given her walking papers.

Dena Iverson, Rhee's spokeswoman, declined to answer questions and referred instead to a letter over Rhee's signature that was sent to Hart parents yesterday.

The letter, which did not mention the school's problems, said Webster would be replaced by a central office administrator, Billy Kearney, who had been serving as the school system's director of principal recruitment. Kearney was a key figure in the filling of more than principal 40 vacancies over the summer, about half of which were created when Rhee fired people for poor performance.

Webster, 37, a former assistant principal at MacArthur Middle School in Anne Arundel County, is the third principal to be replaced since the beginning of the school year. Galeet BenZion, principal at Shepherd Elementary, was fired last month, and the principal at Shadd Transition Academy was reassigned to other duties.

In a phone interview yesterday evening, Webster said she had been "set up" by District officials. She said she was put in charge of the Anacostia middle school without the resources made available to other struggling schools. Hart was one of nearly two dozen D.C. schools placed in federally mandated restructuring for failing to meet benchmarks for math and English test scores. Last year, just 17 percent of Hart students read at proficiency level.

Webster said publicity about the situation at Hart also played a role in her dismissal. On Sunday, The Washington Post published an article that described a school in disarray, with students fighting, roaming the halls and disrupting classes, according to parents, teachers and police. One student was arrested for possession of a shotgun.

"If I had been able to keep things quiet, I'd still be there," Webster said.