Former D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee released a policy agenda for nationwide education reform Monday that criticizes tenure and teachers’ unions while lauding Rhee hallmarks like merit pay and Teach for America. Although no one is particularly surprised about Rhee’s agenda, plenty of education traditionalists are already fuming over the document from StudentsFirst, the nonprofit education-reform advocacy group Rhee founded last month.
Rhee’s 24-page agenda includes 35 policy recommendations for state and local officials. Chiefly, she recommends that teachers’ evaluations be based at least 50 percent on student test scores and that these evaluations should drive staffing decisions; that states should relax laws that cap charter schools and alternative-certificate teaching programs; and that schools should be more open in releasing performance and budget data to parents and taxpayers.
