Why Was There No Scrutiny

of former D.C. schools dictator Michelle Rhee BEFORE she got the job? Having ties to Kaplan is no excuse for the Washington Post to drop the ball on this. Rhee not only was unqualified to run a school district, but she never should have been allowed anywhere near a school, public or private, after having admitted to abusing students and joking about it.

Any teacher or substitute caught duct taping students would be fired on the spot and his or her license to teach revoked. It's that serious.

Not only that, but she blatantly lied on her resume:

A former D.C. math teacher, Guy Brandenburg, posted on his blog a study that includes test scores from the Baltimore school where Rhee taught from 1992 to 1995. The post, dated Jan. 31, generated intense discussion in education circles this week. In it, Brandenburg contended that the data show Rhee "lied repeatedly" in an effort to make gains in her class look more impressive than they were.

Rhee, who resigned last year as chancellor, denied fabricating anything about her record and said Brandenburg's conclusion was unfounded. But she acknowledged this week that she could have described her accomplishments differently in 2007, when then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) selected her to be chancellor.

At issue is a line in Rhee's resume from that year that described her record at Harlem Park Elementary School: "Over a two-year period, moved students scoring on average at the 13th percentile on national standardized tests to 90 percent of students scoring at the 90th percentile or higher."

On Wednesday evening, Rhee said she would revise that wording if she could. "If I were to put my resume forward again, would I say 'significant' gains?" Rhee said. "Absolutely."

Unless you had a private school class like mine, which was frontloaded with high-achieving students, you are NOT going to have your class in the 90th percentile in ANYTHING, much less do it in a couple of years. It simply isn't possible in public education, not even in the most affluent school districts. Even in my private school, my kids posted in the 78th percentile overall on the tests in my second year there, and that was including two or three students in a class of 12 who were in the 99th percentile on the Stanford Achievement Tests.

It's impossible without having your classes full of gifted and talented students to begin with.