I have an absolutely unshakable faith in kids, grounded in the fact that I worked for three years in one of the worst public schools in Baltimore, with kids most people would write off because of their backgrounds. But, when I set high expectations, at the end of the day, these kids went from scoring at the bottom on standardized tests, to scoring at the top, despite their unfortunate circumstances.
Michelle RheeI think for what success looks like for me, it is a world in which you can look at the achievement scores, the academic scores, of any school anywhere in this country [the USA], and you wouldn't be able to look at the score and determine what the racial makeup or the socioeconomic makeup of that school is simply because of the academic achievement levels.
Michelle RheeI think people don't talk enough about education and what we need to do in our public education system.
Michelle RheeThe notion about education has changed and that now itโs sort of much more aligned with, โWell, schools canโt combat poverty. We canโt possibly expect schools to do the work to overcome poverty.โ I think that notion which has changed over the last few decades is part, not all, but part of what is maybe leading to people feeling less of a sense of possibility.
Michelle Rhee