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REGION: North America

TOPIC: Education

Online NewsHour

Posted: July 29, 2008

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?


	Tiffany Noelle of Colorado Springs, Colo. asks:

	It is evident from your reports that teacher morale is low in D.C. schools. Is the student morale in as low as the teacher morale? How do the older students in the schools feel about the changes being made? Was student morale higher in New Orleans?

John Merrow responds:

You have asked the questions that my colleagues and I intend to try to answer in the second year of our coverage.

We spent little time in D.C. classrooms because we were covering Ms Rhee's "big strokes." In New Orleans we met a few students but also focused on the big picture for the most part.

Please stay tuned because we're on the same wavelength.




		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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