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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Private contractor failed Dunbar High's students, D.C. says

Private contractor failed Dunbar High's students, D.C. says

Private contractor failed Dunbar High's students, D.C. says

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 14, 2010; 9:21 PM

More than two years after an outside contractor was hired to run one of the city's most venerable schools, D.C. officials said Tuesday that Dunbar High remains plagued by a litany of troubles: Nearly half the senior class is not on track to graduate, more than 100 students are taking courses they've already passed and the campus is growing increasingly unsafe.

Interim Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson made those findings and others public to justify her decision last week to oust Friends of Bedford, the New York-based contractor that former chancellor Michelle A. Rhee retained to turn around the 822-student school.

"In general, the building seems to be in turmoil at all times," Henderson wrote in a termination letter made