John Merrow Answers Questions

Forum Introduction

		Over the course of the 2007-2008 school year, John Merrow, the NewsHour's special correspondent for education, reported on the challenges faced by two new superintendents in struggling school districts: Michelle Rhee in Washington, D.C., and Paul Vallas in New Orleans.

Do you think it is realistic for anyone to walk into a school district and expect much in only one year?

How do the D.C./New Orleans school systems deal with the families of the at-risk kids to convince them to support the schools?

How many D.C. administrators live in D.C. and send their children to D.C. schools?

What yardsticks is Michele Rhee looking to use in evaluating the performance of her teachers?

Is there an educational project underway to ensure that young students are encountering the best teachers at the elementary level?

Is the student morale in D.C. as low as the teacher morale?

What are Michele Rhee's detractors specifically opposed to?

How can you convince parents who are not readers themselves that reading is important for their children?


	Georgia Saum of Marstons Mills, Mass., asks:

	How many D.C. administrators live in D.C. and send their children to D.C. schools? When we lived there (l968-l972), many of the administrators didn't call D.C. "home" and/or didn't send their children to D.C. schools!

John Merrow responds:

Michelle Rhee has her two children in a D.C. elementary school, the one my own children attended many years ago (Oyster). Paul Vallas' children are living in Illinois, and only one is still in school, I believe. I don't know about Rhee's staff, but I would be surprised if they did not share her commitment to the District.




		June 18, 2008 D.C. Teachers Struggle to Adapt to School Reforms

		June 17, 2008 New Orleans School Reforms Target Young Readers

		April 3, 2008 Leaders Struggle to Bolster New Orleans Schools

		February 8, 2008 New Orleans Schools Chief Aims to Curb Dropout Rate

		February 7, 2008 In Battle to Revamp D.C. Schools, Education Leader Faces Resistance

		November 23, 2007 Schools Chief in New Orleans Faces Tough Road to Rebuilding

		November 19, 2007 D.C. Schools Chief Rhee Faces High Expectations for Reform



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