Former District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee unveiled her new advocacy group’s much-awaited policy priorities last week. They include endorsing California’s “parent trigger” law and support for private-school-choice programs.
The group, StudentsFirst, says decisions about teachers’ professional development, compensation, hiring, and assignment should be based primarily on performance, rather than on traditional factors, such as seniority. It argues that teacher evaluations must be uncoupled from collective bargaining, and it advocates ending teacher tenure.
Ms. Rhee’s policy priorities also include support for a mix of school choice options, including traditional schools, charter schools, magnets, virtual schools, and private schools. The teachers’ unions criticized the proposal, with the American Federation of Teachers saying the agenda presented “a false choice: support students or support teachers.”
