Ben Smith and Byron Tau have written the definitive piece on this new phase of Michelle Rhee's career. She is attempting to build a national advocacy organization to directly confront the teachers' unions, and--though she continues to identify as a Democrat--she is now working most closely with ...

In an upcoming Nation magazine feature, I'll have more to say about the Los Angeles Times' decision to publish a searchable database of "value-added" teacher ratings. But I do want to respond here to Jack Shafer's Slate piece on the dust-up, which is dripping with malice toward teachers' unions ...