How to Overhaul the U.S. Education System - WSJ.com

How to Overhaul the U.S. Education System - WSJ.com

The Education Manifesto

Michelle Rhee and Adrian Fenty on what they learned while pushing to reform D.C.'s failing public schools.

By MICHELLE RHEE and ADRIAN FENTY

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Michelle Rhee and Adrian Fenty tour an elementary school in June 2007.

Our time in office and in charge of the school system of Washington, D.C., is quickly drawing to an end. Monday is Michelle's last day as schools chancellor, and Mayor Fenty failed to win the Democratic primary last month. A new mayor will be elected next week.

During our nearly four years in office we pressed forward an aggressive educational reform agenda. We were determined to turn around D.C.'s public schools and to put children above the political fray, no matter what the ramifications might be for ourselves or other public officials. As both of us embark on the next stages of our careers, we believe it is important to explain what we did in Washington, to share the lessons of our experience, and to offer some thoughts on what the rest of the country might learn from our successes and our mistakes.

The D.C. Timeline

• JUNE 2007: Mayor Adrian Fenty appoints Michelle Rhee schools chancellor. Over the next year, she closes a number of schools, fires principals and central office employees, and offers buyouts to low-performing teachers.
• JULY 2008: D.C. test scores on reading and math rise across the board.
• JUNE 2010: After nearly three years of negotiation, the D.C. teachers union accepts a groundbreaking contract that institutes pay for performance and ends tenure.
• JULY 2010: Ms. Rhee fires 241 teachers and puts 737 on notice for being rated "minimally effective."
• SEPT. 2010: Mr. Fenty, who campaigned on a record of education reform, loses the Democratic primary.
• OCT. 2010: Ms. Rhee resigns.

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Susana Raab

Students at AIM Academy, a Washington, D.C., charter school.

Public education in America, particularly in our most troubled urban neighborhoods, has been broken for a long time, and nowhere more so than in our nation's capital. When we took control of the public schools in 2007, the D.C. system was widely considered the lowest-performing and most dysfunctional in the country. Schools regularly failed to open on time for the new school year, due to leaking roofs and broken plumbing. Textbooks and supplies arrived months after