Rhee: Why Fire Oyster Principal?
Is D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee nuts?
That’s the question I had after reading the account in yesterday’s Washington Post about her firing of Marta Guzman, the principal of Woodley Park’s Oyster-Adams Bilingual School. Rhee’s own two children attend the school.
And based on the report by the Post’s Bill Turque, Rhee had an awfully weak explanation for parents who wondered why she’d fired Guzman. Here’s Rhee’s side of the story:
Rhee said that as a parent “in the school three days a week,” and with information from her own staff, she had a broad base of opinion to draw on. She said a major concern she had, for example, was that while the “English dominant” students, such as her daughters, were learning Spanish, they were “not truly bilingual in the way we would want.” For that to happen, bilingualism needed to be more deeply embedded into all moments of the school day.
So I’m thinking–Rhee’s daughters aren’t yet running around the house using the imperfect subjunctive to perfection, and so Rhee fires their principal. Now, I am not an Oyster parent and haven’t done a lick of reporting on this matter, nor will I. But I do want to state one thing: No new principal is going to come in, snap some fingers, and make bilingualism more deeply embedded into all moments of the school day. Kids speak their dominant language, and if that language is English, they’re going to be speaking English in the hallways, English in recess, English in the lunchroom and so on. Even some Spanish-dominant kids go through a phase when they reject the language they speak in the home and go with English.
So, Rhee: Good luck getting a principal who can reverse these tendencies.
8 Responses to “Rhee: Why Fire Oyster Principal?”
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May 21st, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Rhee is not qualified for the job she now holds. Previously she was the owner of a very small employment agency that placed teachers.
hat do you expect from an incompetent?
May 21st, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I’ve heard from teachers and parents that everyone was fed up with the principal who, by all accounts, was doing a terrible job. I don’t have kids in school there and I’ve never set foot in the school–I’m just passing on what I’ve been told.
May 21st, 2008 at 4:31 pm
A simple check of the No Child Left Behind scores- pretty much the easiest fact checking a reporter can do- would show the downward slide from previous Oyster principal… ummm… Paquita Holland? It was the original principal that made the school great. All parents would tell you that Oyster was losing out to schools like Murch and progessive up and comers like Bancroft’s Bilingual Arts Program. Rhee stopped the bleeding Erik Wemple, ye journalist of no research.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Oyster used to be located in a low income area with a lot of hispanic students. Now, the student body is dominated by non-hispanic kids from the very wealthy neighborhood families in Woodley, Cleveland Park, and Kalorama. Peoplelike Rhee and her $300,000 salary. So, why not give up the bilingual farce, and reallocate some of those bilingual ed dollars to actual neighborhoods with Latino children.
May 26th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Oyster used to be located in Woodley Park, a beautiful, historic neighborhood with stately row houses and 6 figure incomes. It still is. It also borders on Adams Morgan, and always has. The combination offers a unique opportunity for residents of both neighborhoods (and others if there are lottery spaces).
It isn’t a bilingual farse, but it is a community that isn’t reaching its potential under the current leadership.
Most parents at Oyster will tell you this was a good move.
May 29th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Marta Guzman has been at Oyster for at least 4 years, maybe longer. Hardly a “new principal” with “no time to snap her fingers.”
June 11th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Commenter “DC” (#4), Oyster has always, and only, been located exactly where it is. In fact, the number of low income students has INCREASED as one can easily ascertain by the doubling of the number of children on subsidized lunch.
You are spouting the disinformation that has followed the firing of a number of non performing principals. When the 15 year principal at our local school (Ross) was let go after years of declining results.
Non performing administrators and principals like the low income parents. Why? Because they don’t complain or if they do they have no power to force change.
The parents at Oyster were fed up. Including, if not especially, the Latino parents.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
4 years is not a new principle. Guzman was not performing and was rightly fired. case closed.