Leadership Profile of Michelle Rhee - Essay Example

 Leadership Profile of Michelle Rhee MichelleRhee is a prominent education figure who spent many years advocating for education reform and forming better American schools. Her organization, Students First, focuses more on defending students’ interests in public schools and make American schools to be the best worldwide. Many public schools in America used to have policies and laws that never prioritized the interests of students. This changed when Michelle founded an organization addressing various issues affecting the academic performance of students and ne teacher hiring practices. Michelle worked hard in ensuring that every student has an access to a quality education by having a great classroom and highly qualified teachers. She also ensured that the new teachers recruited and policies implemented put the students first and prioritize the interests of students. This paper discusses leadership profile of Michelle Rhee focusing on her background, organization and philosophy. MichelleRheefounded and the CEO of StudentsFirst, an organization which aimed at improving America’s schools. Michelle graduated from Cornell Universityand joined Teach for America after which she spent three years teaching at Harlem Park Elementary in Baltimore (Falcone, 2008), and during this time, she realized how teachers work hard to ensure that students learn necessary skills and grow to be responsible individuals in the society. Michelleearned her Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government (Weber, 2010); thereafter, she developed The New Teacher Project (TNTP)which mainly focused on bringing great teachers to urban classrooms in America (Falcone, 2008).Her organization became the first to understand and create innovative solutions to the problem of recruiting new teachers in public schools. As the CEO of this organization, she partneredwith various schools, education agencies and other organizations to change the way academic institutions are selecting, recruiting and training highly qualified teachers.Michellechanged and improved teacher-hiring practices in various states including Atlanta, Baltimore, and New York among others by placing highly qualified teachers in different schools (Weber, 2010). Shewas appointed the city’s schools chancellor in 2007, and under her leadership, she managed to significantly transform the manner in which the schools in D.C were operated.More so, she facilitated the provision of more resources to classrooms. Indeed, under her leadership, students in D.C were able to experience academic successand growth as seen in the increased graduation and enrolment rates. StudentsFirst is a national non-profit organization that was launched by Michelle in 2010 to assist her address the issues affecting the country’s education system. This organization was mainly established to ensure that all children enroll to great schools and taught by highly qualified teachers (Daft, 2014). StudentsFirsthelped in promoting policies in various schools that prioritize the interests of students. Theorganization’s policy agenda are to treat educators like professional, empower parents with real choices to enroll their children to great schools, and ensuring that there is accountability for one dollar and one child (Reich, 2011). This organization is based in Sacramento and it helped in changing many education policies in different states positively influencing the education sector.StudentsFirst ensures that excellent teachers are rewarded accordingly, trained when necessary, and that ineffective teachers are removed. According to her, she developed this organization so in order to shake up the education establishment (Donovan,Smith, Osborn and Mooney,2014).She has been working hard to ensure that children acquire skills and knowledge that they need in competing effectively in the corporate world.She believes that every student, regardless of their background, is able to achieve high levels of education. Accordingly, she refutes claims that some students cannot have quality education because of disadvantaged backgrounds. Michelle argues that every child should have a chance to go to a great school and parents should have options for quality schools to ensure that they enroll their children in the best public schools. Therefore, she always urges every educator to also believe this and ensure that students from diverse background fully exploit their potential andimprove their academic achievements.Launching this organization was part of her plan for better American schools.Her main goal was to make sure that laws, educators as well as policies make students their first priority as opposed to the current practice that focuses on adults.In addition, she realized that teachers play a leading role in ensuring that students perform better and become successful academically in public schools.Michelle’s organization insists that great teachers are able to make a difference in lives of children from any background. She argues further that all children deserve great and outstanding teachers.A great teacher is a very important person in a child’s education because great teacher help students overcome all the barriers that might prevent them from learning and realizing their full potential. This organization was formed in response to an increase in demand for a better education system in America. Some individuals criticized Michelle especially after closing underperforming schools in her attempt to fix failing schools and make America’s education system better (Donovan, Smith, Osborn and Mooney, 2014). She fired ineffective principals and teachers based on quality. In addition, she been accused of being racial insensitive for dealing with black teachers, parents and students only (Perry, 2013).However, many people supported Michelle in her priority of providing students with the quality education they require to be able to compete fairly in the global marketplace. They argue that the government and academic institutions should have done Michelle and her organization aim at doing what early. Moreover, they agree that students should never be forced to stay in underperforming schools with limited unqualified teachers.Reforming the education policies to include students from all backgrounds including African American children shows that every child can succeed in classroom no matter what provided that they have qualified teachers. In all her work and operations, the guiding principle has always been putting students first before anything or anyone else. Drawing from her work particularly how she greatly influenced America’s education system, it is undeniable that Michelle is a transformative leader.Even though some people see her as a radical leader, Michelleplayed a significant role in ensuring that every American child gets quality education regardless of their background. Michelle aggressively addressed this issue leaving remarkable changes in the education system, but what is important is that she greatly contributed to creating young innovating minds and individuals who can compete fairly in this ever-changing world. She effectively used her power, skills and knowledge to create and implement policies that changed education in America. the principle of put students first made her remain focused on reforming education policies where every child have an access to great public schools and great teachers. In conclusion, Michelle Rhee is a renown educator who worked extremely hard to ensure that America’s education system becomes better and the best worldwide. She believed that every student deserves to attend a great school and have access to highly qualified and effective teachers. This motivated her to launch an organization, StudentsFirst, which aimed at ensuring that every students access quality education regardless of their background. More so, this organization helped in changing new teacher hiring practices, that is, it changed the manner in which new teachers were selected and recruited in various public schools.Under her leadership, the graduation and enrollment rates increased dramatically and students experienced academic achievement and growth.Most importantly, she ensured that schools and teachers prioritize students’ interests. She ensured that every school had new qualified teachers because according to her, great teacher play a significant role in making students learn and improve their academic performance. Michelle closed underperforming or failing schools, fired ineffective teachers so to ensure that students attend performing schools with great teachers.Many have advocated for her work, but some individuals have criticized her for radical education reform. References Daft, R. (2014).The Leadership Experience.Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. Donovan,T., Smith, D, Osborn, T, and Mooney, C. (2014). State and Local Politics.Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. Falcone, M. (2008).It's About Grades, Not Popularity: Michelle Rhee: Rhee Undertakes Austere Measures To Tackle Underperformance In D. C. Public Schools. Kennedy School Review 8. Perry, R. K. (2013). 21st century urban race politics: Representing minorities as universal interests. Bingley, U.K: Emerald. Reich, B. (2011). Shift reset: Strategies for addressing serious issues in a connected society. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. Weber, K. (2010). Waiting for Superman: A participant media guide.New York: PublicAffairs. Read More