The author provides an excellent report on the differences in the way that one superintendent of schools is being attacked for colluding with teachers under her to revise test scores with another former superintendent of schools in Washington DC. The main difference is clear: the latter was a strong advocate of privatization of schools while the former was mostly trying to secure her and her teachers jobs from being eliminated.
Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of DC's public schools enjoyed a reign of terror over a couple years in which she fired hundreds of teachers, and a number of principals, and handed over public school properties to her favorite charter schools, and ceaselessly berated parents and educators. There are widespread allegations that she too fostered a “climate of fear” under which teachers and administrators knew that if scores on expensive, irrelevant tests did not rise, their schools would be closed.And, there was considerable evidence that many Washington DC's teachers and administrators also revised test scores to secure their jobs. If you have time, I recommend that you watch PBS Frontline's 53:40m report on Michelle Rhee's experience as superintendent of schools in Washington DC.
