 |
|
Key Topics include: Leadership · Teacher Training · Parents and Community · Trends in Education · Urban Education · Making the Tough Decisions · Improving Student Performance · Professional Development · ARCHIVE
Join our host Carolyn Pearson as she interviews the highly visible Chancellor of Washington, DC Public Schools, Dr. Michelle Rhee. While in the midst of a busy day in the schools, Dr. Rhee makes time to stop to answer tough questions about her highly publicized agenda and approach over the past year.
Their revealing discussion ranges across many areas including tough financial choices, conflict and opposition to change, teacher recruitment, changing and vision making. Looking ahead, we also benefit from a glimpse of her future years as Chancellor in DC.
Her district aptly describes Dr. Rhee’s dedicated professional initiative and visionary work:
She had these results in mind when she founded The New Teacher Project (TNTP) in 1997, and it is now a nationally recognized leader in understanding and developing innovative solutions to the challenges of new teacher hiring. As Chief Executive Officer and President, she partnered with school districts, state education agencies, non-profit organizations, and unions, to transform the way schools and other organizations recruit, select, and train highly qualified teachers in difficult-to-staff schools. Her work implemented widespread reform in teacher hiring, improving teacher hiring in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, New York, Oakland, and Philadelphia. Thanks to TNTP, 23,000 new, high-quality teachers were placed in these schools across the country. [From the District of Columbia Public Schools website]
Biographical Background
Chancellor Michelle Rhee was appointed by Mayor Adrian Fenty June 12, 2007. She leads D.C. Public Schools, a district numbering 50,000 students and 144 schools. In the Mayor’s search for a change agent for schools in the District, experts in education recommended Ms. Rhee, who had already transformed many urban public school systems through her work with The New Teacher Project (TNTP). Chancellor Joel Klein, whose work in New York City’s public schools is a model for effective change, said of her appointment that it was “the choice D.C. needs, given that, year in and year out, they have not gotten results.” Results drive the Chancellor every day.
Ms. Rhee’s commitment to excellence in education began in a Baltimore classroom in 1992, as a Teach-for-America teacher. The lesson she learned at Harlem Park Community School informs her mission today: with the right teacher, students in urban classrooms can meet teachers’ high expectations for achievement, and the driving force behind that achievement is the quality of the Educator who works inside it.
Chancellor Rhee currently serves on the Advisory Boards for the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ); the National Center for Alternative Certification (NCAC); Project REACH of the University of Phoenix’s School of Education. She is an Ex-Officio Member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees. Chancellor Rhee’s expertise on education is also informed by a Bachelor’s degree in Government from Cornell University, and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
.
- Washington DC Public Schools : http://www.k12.dc.us/
District Leader’s Podcast is produced and copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2007-2008. All rights reserved.
For more information email us at podcast@districtleaderspodcast.org or phone us at 1-866-435-5337 (toll free) and leave a voice message for our co-hosts.
[display_podcast]
