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CAT Tracks for October 13, 2010
"BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS" |
I shall abide by the wishes of Ronald Wilson Reagan, forego another rant, and bite my catty tongue.
Instead, I shall respond to your questions concerning the announced resignation this morning of Washington DC Chancellor of Schools Michelle Rhee in the same manner (and with the same sentiments) as the Rabbi in "Fiddler on the Roof".
The Russian ruler/Tsar has sent his soldiers to the town of Anatevka, ordering the Jews to leave...or be forced out. Having no other choice, the villagers comply. After packing their meager belongings onto hand-drawn carts, the villagers gather for a final farewell. After the Rabbi has offered up blessings on the town, its people, and their impending journey through the harsh Russian winter to their new home, one of the villagers makes an obviously frustrated inquiry:
"Rabbi...Do you have a blessing for the Tsar?"
Without hesitation, the Rabbi responds: "Yes."
(Okay, okay, I made a couple of slight editing changes to the movie script...of title Tsar/Chancellor and pronoun him/her.)
"May God bless the Chancellor...and keep her far away from us."
From the Education Week Website...
Michelle Rhee Resigns as D.C. Schools Chancellor
By Dakarai Aarons
By guest blogger Sean Cavanagh
District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced this morning that she is resigning after three and a half years in the job.
"I put my blood, sweat, and tears into the children of the District of Columbia," Rhee told a news conference. She thanked the parents in the district, as well as the teachers, with whom she has frequently had a contentious relationship.
Rhee said she hadn't determined her next step but planned to take "a little time off." Her goal, she said, was to serve the children of this nation.
She is confident, she said, that the policy changes she pushed during her tenure would continue after she departs, including the implementation of a new teacher contract and new teacher evaluation system.
"The best way to keep these reforms going is for this reformer to step aside," Rhee said. She added, "this was not a decision we made lightly."
Rhee's future in the district had been in doubt since Mayor Adrian Fenty's loss in the mayoral primary last month to Vincent C. Gray, the city council chairman.
Gray, who is widely expected to win the general election next month in the overwhelmingly Democratic city, joined Rhee at the news conference. Both Gray and Rhee described her resignation as a mutual decision. Rhee said the presumptive mayor should be allowed to choose his own leadership team. During the same news conference, Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson was introduced as the district's future interim chancellor, to take the helm after Rhee leaves later this month, and she said she would continue Rhee's work.
During her tenure, Rhee drew national attention for pressing for reforms in the troubled D.C. school district. She pushed to close underachieving schools, overhaul a teacher contract to include performance pay, and fire underperforming central-office workers. Her role in the newly released film "Waiting for 'Superman'" has given her even wider recognition.
In an interview with Education Week reporter Dakarai I. Aarons the day after the primary election, Rhee said she and Fenty had no regrets about the pace of reform they undertook in trying to fix one of the nation's worst-performing school districts.
"What a lot of people were thinking was it was too much or too fast or something like that," Rhee said then. "But I think we can rest soundly at night knowing that we really believed that that sense of urgency was necessary. We didn't want to wait another day knowing that another D.C. child was not getting the education they deserve so it was only the best intentions we had in terms of the pace of reform."
