PROGRAM SUMMARY

November Program Summary:
Women in the Public Sector
Wednesday, November 19

Speaker:
Michelle Rhee
Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools system,
and founder and former-President of The New Teacher Project

Wednesday morning Chancellor Michelle Rhee gave an inspiring speech about her mission to become a “change agent” for the broken DC public school system. Her goal is to close the achievement gap between white and minority kids. She sees herself as an advocate for children who don't necessarily have a parental figure to be an advocate for them. Michelle provided some startling facts:

• DC is the only school district in the country on high risk status.
• Only 9% of 9th graders in the DC school system graduates college in 5 years
• Only 8% of 8th graders are on grade level
• Kindergartners start off on par with other kindergartners in the country but by third grade they are several year behind.

Michelle believes we cannot blame he children for not being on grade level, instead we need effective educators.

She explained that she believes in four basic principals.

• Teachers are the single most determinate of student achievement and student success
• We must focus on quality teachers
• There are many great teachers in DC that do heroic things. We need to recognize and reward these teachers as never before.
• Kids deserve outstanding educators standing in front of them everyday.

Michelle went on to say that it's essential to move ineffective teachers out of the system. Teacher tenure does not necessarily equate to education value for children. She wants to reward and compensate teachers based on their ability to be skilled educators and not based on tenure.

In closing the chancellor passionately spoke about the job in front of her. She doesn't believe the color of children's skin and their zip code should dictate educational opportunities, but we need to take a stand as a community to make this a reality. Although the road ahead of Michelle is not an easy one, she seems to have the passion and tenacity necessary to make her vision a reality.

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