No+Excuses

One thing to note is that reformers, before 'miracle schools' op-ed you wrote, were less careful about saying 'poverty is not destiny.' Now they don't say it as blatantly

Duncan Before Op-ed (September 2009)

http://www.nea.org/duncan#poverty

Test scores are tied to parents’ incomes. When will politicians realize that although schools can help to mitigate some of the disparities in society, we cannot be the great equalizer that will leave no child behind? //Lori Mayo//

//High school English teacher, New York City// //Secretary Duncan:// I disagree. I see extraordinary high-performance schools where 95 percent of children live below the poverty line, where 95 percent are graduating, and 90 percent of those who graduate are going on to college. I think we have to raise expectations. We have too many examples—whether it’s inner-city urban schools or rural schools—where, year after year, class after class, not just one child somehow breaking out in some miracle, but where schools and school systems are routinely beating the odds. So I would really challenge that teacher to look at what’s happening, in New York City and other places around the country, rural and urban, where children from desperate poverty are being very, very successful because adults had the highest of expectations, pushing so hard to help them. I know how tough that work is. I know it doesn’t happen overnight. But this is the most important work going on today. And we have too many examples of success now to think that it’s not possible. It is happening consistently, more so today than ever before, which gives me tremendous hope for the future.

Duncan

After Op-Ed Feb 2012 http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/fighting-wrong-education-battles "Everyone who has worked with poor children knows that poverty matters and affects school performance. But everyone who has witnessed the life-altering impact of great teachers and great principals knows that schools matter enormously too."

Rhee

Rhee's belief is that “with the right teacher, students in urban classrooms can meet teachers’ high expectations for achievement, and the driving force behind that achievement is the quality of the Educator who works inside it." http://www.blitzkriegpublishing.com/Michigan%20born%20educator%20shakes%20up%20failing%20DC%20schools.htm

Good Huffington post article about poverty and destiny http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirp/is-michelle-rhee-a-16th-c_b_842858.html

May 4, 2009 Joel Klein in US News -- this is the 'bible' of 'poverty is not destiny' Urban Schools need better teachers not excuses to close the education gap http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2009/05/04/urban-schools-need-better-teachers-not-excuses-to-close-the-education-gap "In fact, the skeptics of urban schools have got the diagnosis exactly backward. The truth is that America will never fix poverty until it fixes its urban schools."

"either resources nor demography is destiny in the classroom—and no big-city school district demonstrates those truths more powerfully than the public schools in the nation's capital."

Rhee 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/02/AR2007070201829.html Rhee testified that being poor would not be an excuse for low test scores under her leadership. "We will no longer describe failure as the result of vast impersonal forces like poverty or a broken bureaucracy," she said.

Greatest Hits from The Answer Sheet http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/dc-schools/michelle-rhees-greatest-hits.html Includes “The reality in Washington D.C. is if you live in Tenleytown versus if you live in Anacostia, you get two wildly different educational experiences. It’s the biggest social injustice imaginable. What we are allowing to happen in this day and age, we are still allowing the color of a child’s skin and the Zip code they live in to dictate their educational outcome, and therefore their life outcome. ... We are robbing them every single day of their futures. And everybody in this country should be infuriated by that.” //In a speech at a D.C. restaurant in May 2008//

On Charlie Rose in 2008 RHEE: A teacher, number one, has to be extraordinarily clear with the

students about what the expectations are. Those expectations need to be very

high, because the kids know when you don`t have high expectations of them.

And they will rise or fall to the level of expectations that the adults have

of them. And then they need to be just absolutely relentless in their

pursuit of those expectations and of those goals. They have to hold the kids

accountable. They have to hold themselves accountable. And they have to make

sure that all these things that could serve as excuses are challenges that

need to be understood and they need to be recognized, but they won`t stand

in the way of, you know, these kids achieving at the highest level.

Transcript: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2008/07/michelle-rhee-on-charlie-rose.html Actual show: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9170

Rhee Speech from American University 2008 http://www1.media.american.edu/inaugurationnewsroom/index.htm http://www1.media.american.edu/Audio/2008%20Inauguration/Inauguration%20Week%202-6-08%20Breakfast%20with%20Michelle%20Rhee.mp3 (I'm listening to this for quotes now) (This is paraphrased. If you like some of these, I will make an exact transcription.) In the middle of the interview she explains she got a letter from a teacher who said that her job is hard: Kids haven't had breakfast. Nobody helped with homework, no electricity in house. All factors which are real things. I don't mean to say they are not real. The bottom line is we can no longer use those things as excuses. This is where I differ. They say "You can't overcome environmental factors." Have to solve problems around poverty and parental involvement. That's where I completely disagree with a lot of people in this town and with a lot of educators. I believe that we need a different kind of educator in this system. If you believe that laundry list are too difficult for us to overcome, you can teach somewhere else. If you are going to teach in D.C. you have to take responsibility. Despite all obstacles. It is absolutely possible. We see it in schools day in and day out. Teaching fellow in ward 5 doing great things. Across hall, bad teacher.

In this day and age we are still allowing the color of a child's skin and the zip code they live in to dictate their educational outcomes. It is the biggest social injustice imaginable, and it has to stop.