Michelle Rhee Case Study PDF

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Introduction In 2007, the Washington D. C. public school system was failing miserably and the majority of people— parents, teachers, and lawmakers alike— agreed that major change was necessary. Newly elected Mayor Adrian Fenty made the first of many shocking decisions on the road to education reform and named Michelle Rhee, a tough, impassioned activist with little experience, as the Chancellor of D. C. Public Schools (DCPS). In her time as Chancellor, Rhee made many drastic changes and faced extreme backlash. In this article, using Moore’s Strategic Triangle, I argue that Michelle Rhee excelled in creating public value for the education system through improving efficiency and accountability. However, her unwillingness to compromise created a hostile environment in which she had limited support, and her low tolerance for failure resulted in the loss of valuable resources that could have made her policies a success. Public Value: (A-) Moore (2004) states that the creation and definition of public value is essential to an organization because “it is important to establish a sense of purposefulness in management even in a world where values were contested” (pg. 9). Although the general consensus in 2007 was for school reform, the mechanisms for this change were hotly contested. Within her first few days in office, Rhee defined two very specific areas of the school system that would be of public value: efficiency of the system and quality of the teachers. Efficiency. When Michelle Rhee was appointed as Chancellor, she inherited a school district that was unorganized, underfunded, and underperforming. Within the first months of her tenure, she conducted a massive overhaul of the organization central offices and the individual schools, redistributing supplies and textbooks that had been sitting in warehouses for months, and firing incompetent bureaucrats. Additionally, Rhee closed 23 schools that were not meeting their student capacity or their performance potential (Winig, 2012). While many people, mostly those affected directly by the school closings, were not favor of this drastic action, most “everyone... acknowledged that schools had to be closed” (Winig, 2012, pg. 6). Rhee made it clear that she was invested in creating a public school system that would provide educational value for children, and she wasn’t afraid to step on a few toes along the way.

Michelle Rhee Case Study 

Accountability. During her time as a Teach For America teacher, Michelle Rhee learned one thing: a quality teacher is essential for a child’s success. In 2007, 95% of teachers in DCPS were getting positive evaluations, however only 8% of eighth graders were performing at grade level in math (Winig, 2012). This mismatch between teacher’s perception of their own performance and student’s actual performance posed a major problem. Rhee developed a measurement of teacher quality (IMPACT) that took into account multiple factors to evaluate teacher success (Winig, 2012). The new system incentivized teachers to ensure they were teaching effectively and their students were performing. By adding value to teacher accountability, value of the system as a whole increased.  Authorizing Environment: (C) Enacting change often requires the support of many different people, platforms, and organizations. The second point of Moore’s Strategic Triangle focuses on the formation of an “authorizing environment” composed from many different sources that add legitimacy to a cause (Moore and Khagram, 2006). Michelle Rhee had unprecedented power to make sweeping education reform, but his freedom caused Rhee to neglect the importance of having political support from union leaders and disregard her responsibility of communicating effectively with the public about her decision. Unions. Michelle Rhee wielded unprecedented power as the Chancellor of DCPS with no Board of Education to answer to and a mayor who gave her full support. However, in light of all this power, Rhee failed to cultivate the support and cooperation of the Washington Teacher Union (WTU). WTU President George Parker speaks about the frustration of not having “the option of going to board members and getting them to help…” when Michelle Rhee refused to budge on her headstrong ideas (Winig, 2012, pg. 10). The WTU did not feel listened to or respected by Rhee, which ultimately led to her political demise when the American Federation of Teachers and WTU devoted their efforts to defeating Mayor Fenty in the 2010 mayoral election (Winig, 2012, pg. 10). Communication. As the leader of D. C. public schools, it was Michelle Rhee’s responsibility to manage communication with the general public about her decision making and goals so they can rally and support her. Rhee failed to communicate any of her decisions to the public, and she was subsequently demonized and mistrusted. Poll data after Rhee’s resignation indicated that people thought schools were improving, but did not think that decisions such as firing teachers was necessary.

Michelle Rhee Case Study 

In hindsight, Rhee realizes that “clearly, [they] were not connecting the dots for people” (Winig, 2012, pg. 21). Michelle Rhee did not attempt to create a public environment that would be receptive to the drastic changes she was making, which proved to be severely limiting for her success. Operational Capacity: (B-) To complete Moore’s Strategic Triangle, a leader must focus on effectively harnessing and applying resources in order to make their goals feasible in a real-world scenario (2004). During her three short years as DCPS Chancellor, Michelle Rhee fired an innumerable amount of administrators, principals, and teachers that she did not think were doing quality work (Winig, 2012). Her impatience and unwillingness to take advantage of the existing human capital through coaching and development placed significant limitations on the long-term success of her intentions. Firings. One of Michelle Rhee’s most lasting positive impacts on the D. C. school system was the creation and implementation of IMPACT, an overall evaluation system for teacher performance. IMPACT provided valuable information to teachers about their teaching style and student performance (Winig, 2012). Although some teachers appreciated the comprehensive feedback, many disagreed, stating that “[IMPACT] is very punitive. It takes the art of teaching and turns it into bean counting” (Winig, 2012, pg. 14). One of the most controversial aspects of IMPACT was Rhee’s insistence on firing, rather than coaching, teachers who did not perform to her standards. The high-stakes performance evaluations caused panic among educators (Winig, 2012). Teachers with solid foundation and experience were dismissed rather than coached into better teachers, which was a major misuse of resources. Rhee’s haphazard firings showcased that the desire to enact change quickly can overshadow the need for quality, long lasting improvement. Recommendations: Michelle Rhee can improve her effectiveness as a public leader in the following three ways: ● Hold public forums in which community members are educated about controversial decisions and have a platform to express concerns and doubts. ● Invest in professional development programs that train teachers and administrators rather than firing them to create a trust-based, rather than fear-based, system. ● Build an effective support system through communication and compromise with influential political leaders, such as the union groups, that will help implement drastic policy changes.

Michelle Rhee Case Study 

References Joseloff, M. (Producer) & Mangini, T. (Director). (2013). The Education of Michelle Rhee. [Motion Picture]. United States: Frontline. Lemann, M. (May 19, 2013). How Michelle Rhee misled education reform. The New Republic. Retrieved from https://newrepublic.com/article/113096/how-michelle-rhee-misled-education-reform Moore, Mark and Sanjeev Khagram. 2004. “On Creating Public Value: What Business Might Learn From Government About Strategic Management.” Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative Working Paper No. 3. Cambridge, MA: John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Winig, L. (2012). Michelle Rhee and the Washington D. C. Public Schools. Case Number 1957.0. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.   ...