Radical Quotes

“Research and practice have repeatedly shown that we can improve a child’s education by elevating the teaching profession and ensuring that every child has a quality teacher in his or her classroom; empowering parents with information and a role in the direction of their child’s education; and creating accountable governance systems and fair and sustainable sources of education funding.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“For too long we approached education policy decisions by pitting the interests of the adults in the system—the school boards, the union leaders, the textbook manufacturers, the charter operators—against one another. The special interests won. And students lost.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“We don’t want to tell great teachers they’re great and ineffective teachers that they’re not, so we essentially tell all of them that they’re doing well. In rating teachers nationwide, fewer than 1 percent are given an unsatisfactory rating on their performance evaluation. The unfortunate result is that we don’t celebrate greatness, because we’re not differentiating at all.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“It was very clear to me in talking with this father that he was very engaged in his child’s education and also really wanted to keep sending his kid to the neighborhood public school. When faced with this unfortunate situation, though, his thinking about the solutions was parochial. He was 100 percent focused on fixing the situation for his child, which is very understandable. However, what parents need to understand is that if they concentrate only on fixing the problem for their own child, the problem will arise again for their next child, and their neighbor’s child, and then one who lives a few doors down. Parents must begin to see their role in changing the laws and policies at the district and state level so that they can solve the problem once and for all. For all kids.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“Evidence from a recent study of teaching by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation showed that students know a great teacher when they see one. The foundation’s “Measures of Effective Teaching” (MET) project studied student feedback through surveys on teacher evaluations. The study found that there is a very strong correlation between how students rate their teachers and how well those teachers do at attaining gains in student achievement. Students can tell us with pretty good accuracy whether their teachers are effective. Many who underestimate students would guess that kids would dislike teachers who might be good ones, but were strict or gave a lot of homework. As it turns out, children can effectively synthesize information about their teachers without a lot of bias, and on the whole, they can identify great teachers.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“Yeah,” said Max, “he’s right. We know that when our principals come in the room or the outsiders show up to observe, sometimes the teachers start doing things they never do! It’s like ‘who are you and what did you do with our teacher?”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“I had a conversation with a legislator that went something like this:

“I don’t believe we can make judgments about the effectiveness of a teacher based only on test scores,” he said.

“I don’t believe we should, either,” I responded. “We should look at teacher effectiveness through a variety of lenses. However, I think it’s critical that student achievement growth is a significant one of those factors.”

He looked at me skeptically. So I continued:

“When I came to Washington, D.C., public schools, eight percent of the eighth graders in the city’s schools were on grade level in mathematics. Eight percent! That means ninety-two percent of our kids did not have the skills and knowledge necessary to be productive members of society.”

I told him that when I looked at the evaluations of the adults in the system at the same time, it turned out that 98 percent of teachers were being rated as doing a good job. How can you possibly have that kind of a disconnect? And I asked, “How can you have a functional organization in which all of your employees believe they’re doing a great job, but what they’re producing is 8 percent success?”

“Well, that’s not the teacher’s fault,” the legislator said.

“Exactly,” I said. “The teachers weren’t the ones who created this broken and bureaucratic system. They know the evaluation system isn’t good. They also know it needs to change.”

“But I still don’t think we should look at test scores,” the legislator continued. “It just isn’t fair.”

“Let me ask you a question,” I said. “Do you have children?”

“Yes,” he said. “I have a daughter who is going into the fourth grade.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s say that there are two fourth-grade teachers in your daughter’s school. You find out that for the last five years, students in one of the classes have consistently scored in the bottom five percent of the state on standardized test score. The other’s students have consistently scored in the top five percent of the state on the same test. What would you do?”

“I’d make sure she was in the classroom of the person who had the high test scores,” he answered—without a hint of irony to his response.

“What?” I responded. “But how could you do that? You made that decision solely on the basis of test scores! You didn’t even go into their classrooms!”

He stared at me for a moment, confused. Then he smiled and said, “Okay, you got me.”

“My point is that student academic achievement does matter,” I said. “It shouldn’t be everything. I think it’s important to consider a broad range of factors in a teacher’s evaluation. But how much students learn has to be a major piece of it.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“According to a 2011 report prepared by the Center for American Progress and the Education Trust, “Students who have three or four strong teachers in a row will soar academically regardless of their racial or economic background while those who have a sequence of weak teachers will fall further behind. . . .” Many argue back, “But that’s a measure of in-school factors. Compared to the factors outside the school, teachers don’t play as large a role.” I would ask, “What is our job as educators?” I would argue that we, as educators, cannot be focused on the external factors. There are social service agencies and programs that exist to help families deal with problems beyond the schoolhouse. Educators should, while acknowledging those circumstances, focus relentlessly on what can happen when we have the children in the classroom.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“The debate is taking place on those extremes: either we cannot expect teachers to make a dent with poor kids, or poverty doesn’t matter. That’s not how the vast majority of Americans see the situation, though. And it’s certainly not how I view it. Having been a teacher in a low-performing urban school, I know firsthand how difficult it is to teach students who face a multitude of challenges before they even set foot in the schoolhouse door. These challenges are real and severe and have dire consequences. I don’t believe that educators and schools can fix all of society’s ills. That said, I do believe that schools and teachers can make a tremendous difference in the lives of kids who face these challenges every day. Do our children face significant obstacles that impact their ability to learn? Absolutely. Can we, as educators, still make an enormous difference in their lives, if we’re doing our jobs well? Absolutely. Those are not two mutually exclusive notions.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“There's a misconception that because teachers unions are against certain reforms, then teachers must be against those reforms. That’s anything but true. In D.C., while the national teachers union opposed the changes we wanted to make in the union contract, 80 percent of the membership ended up voting for it.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“How can I be anti-teacher when I believe, and research has repeatedly shown, that it’s teachers—high-quality teachers—who hold the key to improving student achievement? To paint me as anti-teacher is simply inaccurate, a caricature to fit a political agenda. It is neither honest nor real.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“We knew that if we closed the twenty-seven schools and right-sized the district we could ensure that every school in the district had an art, music, and physical education teacher as well as a librarian, nurse, and guidance counselor/social worker. It was what families across the city had told me they wanted. It was just at a price they weren’t necessarily willing to pay.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“I was convinced that the culture of the school system and the quality of instruction in the schools had combined to frustrate superintendents and fail students. The national studies proved my case: it was not just the poverty or drugs or broken families or violence that made it hard to teach kids. To paraphrase Clinton adviser James Carville: It was the schools, stupid. And the mind-set. Tim pointed out a sign he’d found in Slowe Elementary, one of the stops on the tour of schools that first day: “Teachers cannot make up for what parents and students will not do.” Wonder why I was enraged?”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“Contract rules often put promising young teachers—and their students—in a precarious position. A more senior teacher could bump a new teacher from a classroom, even if the more experienced teacher was known to be a lousy educator who had failed to teach students effectively for decades.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“If you told me the race of a child and the zip code in which she lives, I could, with pretty good accuracy, tell you her academic achievement levels. That’s the most un-American thing I can imagine!”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

“If its children were not prepared to compete, how could Singapore hope to gain a foothold against the United States, Germany, or China? The country made sure to establish a first-class education system that was linked to the financial and commercial sectors. Seems obvious: invest in education and you ensure a strong workforce and vibrant economy. But in the United States we see education as a social issue, rather than an economic one. When budgets get cut at federal, state, and local levels, education often falls first under the ax. That, too, must change if we hope to compete.”
― Michelle Rhee, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First