Another Michelle Rhee Stooge Writes in the Daily News

Oh it is always nice to read the Daily News op-ed page and see some shill for Uncle Mike, or Michelle Rhee, thinking they can speak for education, schools, teachers, their children with a artificial guise of independent thought.

Today we had another on of those type people write an opinionated op-ed in today's Daily News. Keoni Wright penned some gibberish about teacher quality and his twin daughters in the same school, PS 158 in Brooklyn, yet with disparate teachers.

Mr Wright at first glance is a manager (whatever that means) for the NYC Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene. He is also a card carrying member of MichelleRheeFirst. 

While we here at SBSB applaud Mr Wright for taking an interest in his twin daughter's education, we hold our heads in indignation at the words that Mr Wright wrote of his own free mind and will. Words, that were his own. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. 

Mr Wright wrote, I have a unique perspective on this, because I’ve got twin daughters in kindergarten. They go to the same neighborhood elementary school and sit in classrooms right next to each other. It’s clear to me, however, that this year, they are not getting the same high-quality education.

OK. So if the classrooms were further apart they both would be getting the same quality education?

One has a teacher who always seems to go the extra mile. She works hard to understand my daughter as a person and pushes her to learn and grow. My other daughter has a teacher who appears to do the bare minimum.

What exactly is the "extra mile?" Describe please, I mean without cliches. The other teacher, what is the bare minimum? Please describe.

Yet under the system we have for evaluating teachers, the two get treated the same. They’re paid the same, based only on the number of years they’ve worked and the number of advanced degrees they have. The quality of the work they do every day is irrelevant.

Yep, that is how it is. Same with cops, firefighters, paramedics, park employees, DPW workers, sanitation workers, and even MANAGERS AT THE NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH!!!! Please Mr Wright, share with us how you are evaluated. 

The difference between my daughters’ teachers became even more obvious to me after superstorm Sandy, when the school was closed for a week . During that time, one teacher assigned daily homework to make sure her students continued to exercise their minds and keep up with the lesson plan. The other teacher never reached out at all. This didn’t make sense to my kids — and it certainly doesn’t make sense to me.

That is great that one daughter's teacher called daily. But, do you know for sure what the other teacher did not call? Perhaps she was more concerned with her damaged house. Perhaps she was concerned with a injured loved one. Perhaps she was injured. Perhaps she was tending to her parents. Perhaps she had no phone service. Perhaps she did not leave work that Friday with the class phone numbers and/or emails. There are countless perhaps to go through that for Mr Wright to make a blanket statement as he did above in arbitrary and capricious. 

 

Funny, during the week my son was out of school, not one of his teachers called at all. Nada. Bupkus.  But why didn't Mr Wright contact that teacher? 

I do my best to work with both of my girls to make sure they are learning, but one has a clear advantage based on what she’s getting in the classroom.

Do you know what the dynamics are of each classroom?Perhaps the classroom of the daughter with the teacher you don't think is any good has more students that have come into Kindergarten without any skills. Perhaps that class has more students. Perhaps that class has more students that disrupt the educational process that the teacher spends an inordinate amount of time giving attention to. Perhaps the daughter with the teacher that you think is great there is a para or aide in that classroom. Again, too many perhaps to list. Perhaps Mr Wright should rethink what he "wrote."

When I send my child to school, her teacher should at least be doing what I can do at home.

Again, where is the clear, concise evidence?

That’s why I am part of a group of concerned parents

 

Concerned parents? Why not just say MichelleRheeFirst? 

 

A new evaluation system will, I hope, help my one daughter’s outstanding teacher start to get the credit she deserves for her hard work. Maybe she can share her successful techniques with others so they can improve. It will also help my other daughter’s teacher understand that just getting by is not enough.

No. It won't. It'll just make your daughters a statistic for test makers. Besides, teachers share, and you have yet to show any evidence about the teacher you claim is "just getting by."

We also need a deal on teacher evaluations so that the city’s schools will get about $250 million in state funding.

Yet you don't complain about the millions and millions of dollars that Uncle Mike has cut from classrooms and schools over the last 4 years. 

Mr Wright did say something funny back in November at some rally at City Hall;  “I can see just from those two children that the reading level is totally different,” said Wright, whose daughters attend P.S. 158.

We need to know if the daughters are maternal or fraternal twins. I am sure Mr Wright realizes that Monozygotic twins can develop differently, due to different genes being activated. Just because they are identical, does not been they learn the same. And if they are maternal, well Mr Wright, they are two different people. 

When my son was in Kindergarten, his teacher told us that we really won't notice anything, especially his reading until January. January is not yet here Mr Wright, and these words you first said were spoken in November, which basically gave you September and October to make this uninformed opinion of your daughter's teachers. Shame on you.