AMEN!
Thanks for your coverage on this issue. I also featured Rhee on my blog today since our DC Schools Chancellor Rhee (AKA The Broom Lady) gets the cover story in the soon to be released Decmber 8th issue of Times magazine titled "How To Fix America's Schools". In the cover picture, Rhee appears with a broom. Sound eerily familiar to a former DC mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly who vowed to clean house with her infamous broom ? Some would argue that Rhee is on a singular mission to get rid of teachers (good and bad) and that she suffers from tunnel vision because she lacks multifaceted solutions to complex problems that plague public education and fails to include all of the stakeholders. Her real goal is union busting so that she can field more hefty contracts to TFA'ers and her ole stomping ground New Teacher New Project.
Of particular interest to me was a comment posted by Suzie from Maryland on the Times on line site. Suzie sums up her thoughts this way: " Rhee is right that too many crappy teachers stay way too long in some of our schools. But I think she as someone earlier said needs to get more of those involved on board. She can do that by looking at what problems other than bad teachers lead to low student achievement and working on those problems too. Her current tone and singular mission isn't the way to do it. Black and white answers to problems shaded in gray won't solve those problems."
In DC we have multifacted problems as I am sure that you are aware. Our teachers union executive board will be meeting next week with AFT President Randi Weingarten to discuss our next steps because it looks teacher contract talks have stalled even with Prez Randi Weingarten now getting involved with Rhee and company . We are still lacking rheesources under Rhee and school violence and over crowded classrooms are at at an all time high. Teachers shortages still a problem but yet we perservere on. Check me out on:
www.thewashingtonteacher.blogspot.com 
Good luck with Ms. Weingarten. I certainly hope she does better by you than she did by us, and I will have much more to say about that, probably next week.
It's good to sea more people focusing on Rhee in DC. Obama's praise for her in the debates was a bit scary but if she gets a position that would focus some heavy attention on her claims as a teacher.
The Daily Howler has done some great stuff on Rhee, taking apart her worshippers in the press. He actually did teach in the Baltimore schools for quite a few years. He is running a 4 part series this week. I put up direct links on the ednotes blog.
As NYC points out, good luck Candi with Randi. What you will find is she says militant things in the room with you but rather than be your strong advocate, she becomes an intermediary between you and Rhee. You might get something like "Rhee has agreed to let you have tenure for the next 4 years and you will get a raise anyway. What a victory." Thus Rhee will get exactly what she wants only a bit later.
Keep your hands in your pockets as when you dig down the AFT and UFT essentially believe all too many of the underlying assumptions of the reformers. Otherwise, why did they agree to hand over seniority rights? What they want is for people like Rotherham to say that the union is reform minded, which as we know is limited to focusing on teachers as the problem.
How should we get rid of bad teachers, then? Perhaps more to the point, how should a teacher's success be measured?
In response to Former NYC Math teacher, I'd start with supporting teachers more- I think it's really hard to say who is not a good teacher when that teacher is getting no help. I was terrible my first year, but at the same time, no one helped me- not the staff developer, not the AP, even when I asked (pleaded, really) for help. I do think that there needs to be something in place to help bad teachers get out of the system, but I think Rhee is just firing people at random, and that isn't fair.
Test scores aren't a fair way- what about people who teach art, or social studies, or even kindergarten? Is it fair that all the heat is on math and ELA teachers? Fifth graders do take a state SS exam, in November. Those teachers have two months to get those kids ready and deal with anything they didn't learn in 4th grade. Again, is it fair to hold these teachers accountable? I don't know the answer. But I do know that I haven't been asked for a lesson plan by a supervisor in years. I had one formal observation in 3 years at my old school. I think I'm a good teacher, but if I wasn't, whose fault would it be if I'd slipped through the cracks?
Also, the DC schools have many problems- crumbling schools, overcrowding, insufficient materials.
I have a feeling that if teachers worked in respectable environments, the quality of the teaching would improve, if not for all, at least for a good number of them. What message is being sent in our cities? My classroom is infested with bugs and mice. Is that a way to motivate anyone? I think not.
And let's not forget the magic bullet - low class sizes. I know people in elite private schools who started in the NYC schools but had lots of problems. Notice how that has just about been banned from the debate, even by the UFT when they talk about wanting to be held accountable. It has been considered one of the excuses Klein and Rhee talk about but is the elephant in the room.
If I see one more news segment on her, I will vomit. She is now seeking to overthrow the contract by going through Congress. She blames everything on the teacher!!!
I hope the DC teachers have more of a backbone than NYC teachers and stand up to her regardless what Randi thinks and says.
It's amazing with all that's going on that anyone can focus on teachers. How about the quality of the people who did this to our country? Plenty of them will still be around next year, and they'll be complaining about teachers.
Awesome picture of Captain America! 
Hey, I hope you will submit something to this week's Carnival of Education!!
Now that was jeeesssttt right!
I have had a craw full of Ms. Rhee as well, and allowed my inner snarkiness (aw, who'm I kiddin'?) free reign on her feature story in Time magazine.
But I think she taught THREE! WHOLE! YEARS!
And she admits that in the first year, she was awful.
It is a shame the media has not inquired more about Rhee's two-years of teaching. It's always a problem when they just take an official's word for it, especially when that official is getting the obsequious coverage that Rhee is getting.
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