The impending resignation of Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee is a great loss for that troubled school district and a stark illustration of the rough and tumble nature of school reform.

Rhee had the subtlety of a bulldozer in how she took on an entrenched bureaucracy, making no small number of enemies along the way.

Despite rising student test scores, she became the lightning rod in a contentious mayoral election, which concluded with her patron losing.

Rhee fought the good fight, and absorbed the sort of shock and anger that is to be expected when you upend a recalcitrant organization.

We hope her three-year tenure provides both inspiration and lessons for those who see what is wrong in