Fenty To Oust Janey Today

"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.