Sunday, October 16, 2011

A year later, Rhee’s legacy is in sharper focus - The Washington Post

A year later, Rhee’s legacy is in sharper focus - The Washington Post:

Michelle Rhee’s D.C. schools legacy is in sharper focus one year later

Ricky Carioti/WASHINGTON POST - Outgoing D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, right, and her successor, Kaya Henderson, in October 2010.

By , Published: October 15

A year ago this month, Michelle A. Rhee resigned as D.C. schools chancellor, ending a tenure as contentious and turbulent as that of any urban school leader in memory. “The best way to keep the reforms going is for this reformer to step aside,” she declared.

What footprints remain from Rhee’s 31 / 2 years in Washington? An examination of her legacy, with a year’s perspective, reveals a mixed picture of hits, misses, long-term effects and continuing question marks for the 45,000-student system.

The first chancellor in a new era of mayoral control of D.C. schools, Rhee was granted total authority by the man who hired her, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), to turn the low-achieving system on its head. Today, teachers are better paid and evaluated more
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