Radical? Sorry, just an attention seeking flash in the pan and one responsible for countless incidents of age discrimination in the teachers she fired. (Threatened by earnest classroom experience, perhaps?) ANYONE can get a principal's license after 3 years in the classroom. Is that the school leadership you want for your children- a few night and weekend online courses while they neglect to correct papers and are never available for after-school help. Rhee is SO the "modern" teacher/admin. Kiss the current crop of students a big fat good bye after telling them the truth: You Lost.
I am in awe of all the "well-educated savvy professionals" that fell for her charade and elevated her. Real status symbols of stature. Let's see their toolboxes coming out for the big fix now, like where?

"years of experience working in Baltimore inner city schools"? She taught three years with mixed results barely getting her feet wet in terms of becoming a true educator. What a joke.

Michelle Rhee, Annoying

It's all about the kids. Uh huh. It's about the book tour.

Humans have been teaching since the beginning of time. You stand in front of a group of children and explain to them how to read and write and do basic math problems. Teach them HOW to learn. Make it fun and exciting. Then go home at 3:00. Get up the next day and do the same thing. If you don't enjoy it, find another occupation. But for the past 30+ years our children have been the victimized by blowhard bureaucrats and "consultants" and their flawed theories about education. How was this woman making six figures?! It's mind-boggling. Go away, Rhee.

Leonard: you asked about the patent and perceived unfairness of measuring teacher performance against standardized tests. Standardized tests are like cannons filled with grapeshot that take out good and bad targets in an attempt to level everything: in this case to "level" all children with their multifarious inate and environmental challenges into one basket of young scholars. Ms. Rhee answered with unformulated fictional gobbledygook regarding pre-testing and re-testing children to gauge the individual student's (and thereby, the teacher's) progress over the school year. Such testing is not developed nor used much, is not part of the "standardized testing" that both Ms. Rhee and Students First champion, nor of the metrics she employed in her public positions of trust, where she boldly forced teaching to the "test" with all the well publicized negative results.

In fact, you caught her in this central "great lie" but did not pursue it. The fact that she is clueless as to why other demagogues of social Darwinian bent among the tea party would embrace her scorched-earth brand of education speaks volumes. No one this self-absorbed should have anything to do with our children in any capacity: public or private.

Ms. Rhee's breathless brand of newspeak is only practiced profitably at Fox: here's hoping that WNYC does not partake of this arsenic again any time soon for purported fairness or any other misguided reason.

How does someone with absolutely no credibility in Education get so much air time? Oh yeah corporate sponsored lies. Why does WNYC give this menace to public education any time at all - I wonder?

Has WNYC negotiated a deal with FOX? Sure sounds like it.

School yards are ugly. They look like prison yards. My daughters school food is so bad, fried mozzerela stuckss moldy burgers, gram cracker pbnjs. No recycling, everything disposable, this is horrid.

john from the office -- I wonder who raised your ignant azz...

John from Westchester - same here - 50 kids in rows in Catholic school upstate - all my siblings did well, really good at thinking for ourselves and smelling BS. I think she sounds pretty ego-driven, like Tiger Mom's equivalent in the world of education - wants the fame and really slashes and burns, kids be damned, her goals are the ones that matter.

Please ask her about the cheating scandal. Clearly her intense pressure and the reward system that she instituted prompted teachers to change and inflate test scores in the DC school system. In a recent documentary on PBS her lack abilty to take any responsibity for the cheating scandle is disturbing.

As usual, you gave this megalomaniac a free pass Lenonard.
She's a fast-talking liar, and a proven fraud, and you asked her the same questions everyone else asks her. She ran right over you.

...Your tone...

Yes, Michelle, exactly! HOW you do it matters. I hope it becomes a major takeaway for you.
Yes, public education desperately needs improvement, but NOT by disrespecting teachers – who have been neglected for years and are still under-valued/supported for this very hard job requiring many, many skills.
You tone, for example, is counterproductive.

She is at least consistent in that she ALWAYS defends her failures and bad decisions by inoculating herself with "but it's for the children." Talk about no accountability....

Please Leonard -- she is a publicity hound with very little to say and even less that she has in fact accomplished.

The queen of doublespeak,she doesn't even realize that she is pausing in the places where she is embellishing.

ms. rhee:

do video games have any place in the learning process?? should they EVER be allowed in a SCHOOL building?

Leonard, you need to start advertising your show as a pure PR vehicle. You allow guests, including this one, to get away with rolling through their talking points and say things that are slanted and untrue. She goes unchallenged. Your questions don't even rise to the definition of softball. Very disappointing and beyond frustrating for the listener.

Wow, the elphant in the room has not come up, RACE and the lack of parenting skills of certain groups.

Those who can, do; those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach go into politics as education reform advocates.
This woman is the Sarah Palin of American education, following the same path from failure in an official position to media darling manque.

I would like Ms. Rhee's take on why when my mom went to school in the Bronx and when I went to school we had 35 to 40 in a classroom, a mixed group of recent immigrants, and English as second language students and next to no technology and we sat there and learned. We learned well. My mom is now 89 years old and still has the best penmanship and reading habits of us all. Why?

John

Much research shows that reduction of class size improves student performance.
by helping teachers become able to give more attention to individuals.

What were class sizes in DC, and why did she not advocate for the increased funding that class size reduction requires to hire more teachers?

I was a teacher for 16 years with S ratings until the Bloomberg/Klein nightmare threatened to close my school, and was kicked out of my classroom
which was the only place that had the equipment where I could teach my subject. How was this putting children first?

Michelle Rhee is just mean. She has an idea, and it may be a good one, but in the real world, you cannot discard people like garbage. Her lack of compassion for the teachers who have been working in difficult situations, and for the children and families that are trying their best is just appalling.

Black/African American...choose one please

why this lying ball of bile was allowed to roll into the studio?
she doesnt need any questions to answer, she needs to be hit aver the head with a dirty broom.

Leonard,

I'm sure you were bored in school and I'm guessing have a balanced brain (each hemisphere gets its share of juice) - can't see voraciously curious minds like yours and your brother's getting excited about the irrelevant, dry presentation of curriculum material back in the day. I was in my late 20s, got a nice commission, took some tests that measure you against the rest of the work force - I had no idea my aptitudes were off the charts till then, just always heard I wasn't living up to my potential - well I don't think that was MY fault! After listening to your show for so long I can reasonably say your c's were your teachers faults.

Would larger qunatities of lower stakes tests lead to less test anxiety and more meaningful sample sizes?

Leonard, come on, another guest who has been on every other show in the World!!! She's even been on The Daily Show already. And, she's a pain in the butt. Look at the photo - does anyone on the planet look meaner? We need fresh guests! Not another re-tread like this person. And, she's saying the same things she's already said on the other shows. You're better than this, Leonard.

Teachers and principals KNOW that teaching to the test does not work. It is school boards, superintendents, and chancellors requiring standardized tests for student and teacher measurement that forces teaching to the test!

How involved was she in the cheating scandal in D.C.?Why did she stonewall and then go off on U.S.A. today (she has already apologize for it) for reporting on the cheating scandal? Why did she brutally fire a principal on camera (PBS Frontline)?