StudentsFirst
| Founded | 2010 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Michelle Rhee |
| Type | Political lobbying |
| Focus | Teacher evaluation based on student achievement, ending teacher tenure and seniority preferences |
| Location |
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Area served
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United States |
|
Key people
|
Michelle Rhee |
| Mission | Education reform |
| Website | studentsfirst |
StudentsFirst is a political lobbying organization formed in 2010 by Michelle Rhee, former school chancellor of Washington D.C. public schools, in support of education reform. The organization worked to pass state laws on issues such as expanding charter schools and teacher tenure reform. On March 29, 2016, it announced some of its state chapters would merge with 50CAN, and its Sacramento headquarters would downsize.
StudentsFirst organizes its policy agenda into three categories: "elevate teaching," "empower parents," and "govern well."
Under what it calls "elevate teaching," StudentsFirst has sought to eliminate the "last in, first out"—or -- seniority system for laying off public school teachers, based on the premise that such a system promotes a sense of "adult entitlement" among teachers. The organization also supports teacher evaluation systems based on improvement in student test scores, and does not believe such assessment systems cause teachers to alter the test scores.
"Empower parents" refers broadly to policies that allow for increased choice in where a student attends school, such as increasing accessibility to charter schools and providing opt-out options for students whose local public school is deemed "low-performing." StudentsFirst supports parent trigger laws, such as the California law that served as the plot for the movie Won't Back Down.
"Govern well" refers to policies in regards to school spending and resource allocation.
In January 2013, StudentsFirst published a "policy report card" evaluating each of the 50 states' public educations laws and rules against its own policy agenda. The survey suggested states publicly finance charter schools, institute test-linked "performance pay packages" for teachers, repeal laws capping class sizes, and end teacher tenure. No state received an "A" and only two states, Florida and Louisiana, received "B"s.
According to the Los Angeles Times, StudentsFirst "spent nearly $2 million" in the 2012 general election cycle "to support 105 candidates across the country," 90 of whom were Republicans.
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