Head of Nonprofit That Trains Teachers Would Run Schools
By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 12, 2007; A01
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has chosen to fire D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey and replace him with the founder of a New York-based teacher-training organization, a dramatic step that signals the mayor's desire to bring "radical change" to the failing 55,000-student system.
After assuming control of the schools at midnight, Fenty (D) planned to announce at a 9:30 a.m. news conference today that he has tapped Michelle A. Rhee for the new job of schools chancellor.
Rhee, 37, operates the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group created in 1997 that recruits and trains teachers to serve in urban districts. Fenty said she would fulfill his desire for a strong manager who would bring new ideas from the outside and remain in the position a long time.
Rhee is well-known in education circles but could prove to be a tough sell with school employees, parents and D.C. Council members, who must confirm the appointment.
She would be the first schools chief in the District who didn't have superintendent experience since retired Army Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton Jr. left in frustration nearly a decade ago. She has spent just three years working within a school system, as an elementary teacher in Baltimore in the mid-1990s. And, as a Korean American, Rhee would be the system's first non-black chief in nearly four decades.
"This system needs radical change; it really needs a shake-up," Fenty said in an interview. "We did not want to pick someone to tinker around the edges. . . . I was impressed on every level with Michelle: her intellect, sense of urgency and management acumen."
The D.C. school system is among the worst-performing in the nation. Although D.C. public schools are third in per-pupil spending among the nation's 100 largest districts, students rank at or near the bottom in reading and math among 11 major urban school districts. Rhee would become the city's seventh schools chief in a decade, replacing Janey, a career educator who would leave after less than three years at the helm.
Fenty selected Rhee after conducting a secret search, repeatedly saying publicly that he had made no decisions and was considering keeping Janey. In the interview, Fenty said he considered a list of about 30 names during the past two months, including Miami-Dade County Superintendent Rudolph F. Crew. Fenty consulted few, if any, local leaders and parents but sought advice from New York City School Chancellor Joel I. Klein and national education experts.
It is not clear how many other candidates Fenty interviewed for the job, if any.
Rhee was first approached by Fenty's deputy mayor for education, Victor Reinoso, at an education conference in May, and she initially rebuffed the mayor's overtures.
"I said, 'No, not me,' " Rhee said. "I always thought I could have more impact on districts from the role I'm in now."
She changed her mind after meeting with Fenty, who told her he would support whatever changes she wants to make. Although Fenty has been critical of Janey's pace of change, the mayor's education plan includes a nod to Janey, whose Master Education Plan is listed as the starting point for Fenty's reform efforts.
"I don't have an ego around this stuff," Rhee said. "I will look at what Janey did and build on that. He did a very good job on standards and curriculum. . . . I will change the expectations of parents, teachers, the central office and ensure that everyone who is engaged in the education of kids is willing to take a personal responsibility of ensuring outcomes."
Rhee has agreed to a five-year contract worth $250,000 a year, and she is eligible for an annual bonus, the amount of which is up to Fenty, administration officials said. Under the law giving Fenty control of the schools, Rhee would have the title of chancellor.
Fenty was scheduled to inform Janey, who had hoped to stay at the helm, and council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) of his decision last night. Janey, who earned $274,000 plus a $25,000 bonus this year, is eligible for a severance package of a year's salary, administration officials said.
Rhee, who lives in Denver, has a bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University and a master's in public policy, with a concentration in education policy, from Harvard University.
After spending three years in the Teach for America program, assigned to a Baltimore elementary school, Rhee founded the New Teacher Project in 1997, during the peak of a national teacher shortage.
The organization, which recruits and trains teachers to serve low-performing urban systems, has a contract with D.C. public schools. Rhee's company has grown to 120 employees, but that is tiny compared with the size of her new job.
The D.C. public schools have 11,500 employees, a $1 billion operating budget and a $2.3 billion school modernization program. Many school buildings have leaky roofs, broken plumbing and cracked windows.
"It will be a challenge . . . but I see the potential," Rhee said. "I have seen how the system is run and how it has the potential to run better. That can be done by changing the path."
Rhee said her experience in Baltimore led her to believe that good teachers are the key to improving schools.
During her first year in the classroom, teaching second- and third-graders, Rhee said the students "ran over me."
"I was not a successful teacher," she said. "I was determined from then not to let 8-year-olds run my life."
The next two years, Rhee said, she and another teacher co-taught a group of 70 students, of which only 13 percent were reading on grade level when they entered the class. By the end of two years, she said, 90 percent were reading on grade level. According to the New Teacher Project Web site, Rhee's work in Baltimore was featured on ABC's "Good Morning America" program.
"The lesson I took from that was that teachers are everything," she said.
Rhee estimated that the New Teacher Project has provided 10 to 30 percent of the teachers to the urban systems it works with. The organization also publishes reports aimed at sparking change among school bureaucracies.
In 2005, for example, the company produced a study titled "Unintended Consequences: The Case for Reforming the Staffing Rules in Urban Teachers Union Contracts."
The report examined five urban school systems and concluded that union staffing contracts often make it difficult for systems to get rid of poor teachers, thereby blocking enthusiastic new teachers from being hired. Rhee's organization has sought to broker deals between school districts and teachers unions to solve that problem, she said.
Although he met with Crew, the Miami schools chief, several times, Fenty said he was seeking someone who had not already been a superintendent with a long history inside a district. Too many "career superintendents" move from job to job, staying only a few years at each stop, Fenty said.
"I wanted a real difference-maker, someone who would stay with the mayor the entire time the mayor is there, instead of moving constantly," he said.
Rhee said Reinoso initially approached her at an education conference in New Orleans last month, asking whether she had any suggestions about candidates to lead the District's schools.
Ultimately, however, Fenty said other education experts suggested that he consider Rhee, whose work with the New Teacher Project had scored her an invitation to sit with first lady Laura Bush during the president's 2004 State of the Union address.
Klein was among those who recommended Rhee. Reached by phone yesterday, Klein said he worked on several projects with Rhee related to the transfer rules for teachers in New York.
Klein, a former Justice Department lawyer who had no direct experience managing schools before New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) tapped him in 2002, defended Fenty's selection of someone with a nontraditional background.
"That's the choice D.C. needs, given that, year in and year out, they have not gotten results," said Klein, who is scheduled to attend today's news conference.
Rhee, who is separated from her husband, has two daughters, ages 5 and 8, whom she said she would enroll in the District's public schools after the family moves to the area this summer.
"I'm not a career superintendent," Rhee said. "We see the harm that comes when people come in and in 2 1/2 years they're off to the next job after making 4 percent gains. I only took this job because I believe I can do it over the long haul."
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