D.C. Schools: Headed in the Right Direction . . .

Last week, D.C. public school students, parents and guardians came streaming back to our schools to find new coats of paint, a new schools administration and a new attitude for the new school year. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has taken on the daunting challenge of fixing the city's public schools, and this summer he asked me to help lead the effort. Over the past two months we found many problems and managed to forge some tough solutions to ensure that schools would open strong.

Things were not perfect, but with a lot of hard work from D.C. employees and a "get it done" attitude, we successfully opened our schools. We have hired 425 new teachers. We are monitoring the payroll process to ensure that all teachers will get paid for the first pay period (unlike years past), and while there were still some classroom vacancies last week, many of those were due to last-minute teacher resignations, maternity leaves, no-shows, etc.

Although some schools were still getting their carpets installed last week, we significantly reduced the facilities work orders to get our schools back in shape for students. The community pitched in, too. Last weekend more than 1,200 volunteers at 141 schools helped with our Beautification Day efforts.

After surveying our principals in late July, we found that more than half of all principals reported that they needed additional books, so we created an inventory of books in the central warehouse and took steps to improve the way we manage textbooks across the school district. There was some confusion in the media about the severity of the textbook delivery problem, so let me clarify. This summer, we received tens of thousands of orders for textbooks from schools across the city. Though some might not consider that a "widespread problem," I thought it was critical to get these books in the hands of students. Therefore, we delivered books through the weekend before school started and continue to do so now, because I believe that every student and teacher must have the proper resources to learn and teach. I am pleased to say that nearly all of the requested books were delivered by the first day of school.

Our biggest challenge was with registration. Thousands of students were left without schedules for hours on the first day of school, and that is unacceptable. This was partly because many students had not registered for their new schools before the first day and administrators were unsure of how many new students they would have. We are brainstorming new ways to prevent that from happening next year.

With all of our successes and challenges, the verdict from parents and principals seems to be that the first week of school was the best yet. Clearly there is much more work to do, and we have many more changes to come. I am honored and humbled by the support and confidence the mayor has shown in my team as we start to change the course for our schools.

Student success is our highest priority, and with the support of parents, guardians, teachers and principals, our schools will be among the best.

-- Michelle Rhee

Washington

The writer is chancellor of the D.C. public schools.