Fenty To Oust Janey Today

"The lesson I took from that was that teachers are everything," she said.

Rhee estimated that the New Teacher Project has provided 10 to 30 percent of the teachers to the urban systems it works with. The organization also publishes reports aimed at sparking change among school bureaucracies.

In 2005, for example, the company produced a study titled "Unintended Consequences: The Case for Reforming the Staffing Rules in Urban Teachers Union Contracts."

The report examined five urban school systems and concluded that union staffing contracts often make it difficult for systems to get rid of poor teachers, thereby blocking enthusiastic new teachers from being hired. Rhee's organization has sought to broker deals between school districts and teachers unions to solve that problem, she said.

Although he met with Crew, the Miami schools chief, several times, Fenty said he was seeking someone who had not already been a superintendent with a long history inside a district. Too many "career superintendents" move from job to job, staying only a few years at each stop, Fenty said.

"I wanted a real difference-maker, someone who would stay with the mayor the entire time the mayor is there, instead of moving constantly," he said.

Rhee said Reinoso initially approached her at an education conference in New Orleans last month, asking whether she had any suggestions about candidates to lead the District's schools.

Ultimately, however, Fenty said other education experts suggested that he consider Rhee, whose work with the New Teacher Project had scored her an invitation to sit with first lady Laura Bush during the president's 2004 State of the Union address.

Klein was among those who recommended Rhee. Reached by phone yesterday, Klein said he worked on several projects with Rhee related to the transfer rules for teachers in New York.

Klein, a former Justice Department lawyer who had no direct experience managing schools before New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) tapped him in 2002, defended Fenty's selection of someone with a nontraditional background.

"That's the choice D.C. needs, given that, year in and year out, they have not gotten results," said Klein, who is scheduled to attend today's news conference.

Rhee, who is separated from her husband, has two daughters, ages 5 and 8, whom she said she would enroll in the District's public schools after the family moves to the area this summer.

"I'm not a career superintendent," Rhee said. "We see the harm that comes when people come in and in 2 1/2 years they're off to the next job after making 4 percent gains. I only took this job because I believe I can do it over the long haul."