StudentsFirst, an advocacy group formed by Michelle Rhee, former schools chancellor in Washington, released a report yesterday ranking states based on how closely they follow the group’s platform.
As the move toward education reform has ensued, state legislatures and education agencies have passed a series of laws and policies that overhaul teacher tenure, use standardized test scores in the teacher evaluation process, and expand charter schools. StudentsFirst supports and pushes these policies, in addition to things like pensions and the governance of schools.
In the State Policy Report Card, StudentsFirst awarded no states an A; two states received a B-, and 11 states received an F rating. New York received a D rating.
Click here for a video of Michelle Rhee introducing the report on the Morning Joe program on MSNBC.
Some of the policies supported by StudentsFirst have been adopted by very few states, such as basing teacher pay on performance rather than experience and education, or making individual teacher ratings available to parents. In states that have adopted some of the StudentsFirst policies, some have met with public opposition. For example, in 2010 Idaho passed measures that eliminated tenure, introduced performance pay, and based teacher evaluations on test scores; voters overturned the measures.
State officials have reacted to the report in a variety of ways, seemingly dependent on their ranking.
Click here for staff testimonials of the State Policy Report Card.
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