The schools revolution

This time next week, we’ll hold the third Spectator School Revolution conference, and it’s our best-ever lineup. If any CoffeeHousers are in the world of education, or know anyone who is, then I’d strongly recommend coming (more for details can be found by visiting spectator.co.uk/schools). The keynote speaker is Michael Gove, the education secretary, who needs no introduction here. But I’d like to say a little more about the others.
 
Michelle Rhee is best-known for her three years time as head of schools in Washington DC, where school reform is a battleground. She fired a thousand teachers in her time there, which made her No.1 on the unions’ target list. (In Britain, only 17 teachers have been struck-off for incompetence in the last ten years). She is now one of America’s leading school reform advocates. Here Michelle is interviewed in the film Waiting for Superman.
 
Barbara Bergstrom set up one of the very first free schools in Sweden: English School North.