In Second Year, Rhee Is Facing Major Tests
Chancellor Is National Figure

By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 21, 2008

Classroom by classroom, hallway by hallway, school by school, Michelle A. Rhee is attempting to remake a D.C. public education system that for decades has seemed impervious to change.

In her first year as D.C. schools chancellor, she generated numbers that got everybody's attention: 23 schools closed, more than 40 principals and assistant principals replaced, 98 central office staff members dismissed. The first standardized tests on her watch, the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System, showed surprising gains in proficiency. Elementary students raised their math scores by 11 points and reading by eight points. Secondary students saw math and reading rise by nine points. Ninety-nine of the system's 144 public schools raised their scores.

And yet, all of that is, as Rhee acknowledges, just the low-hanging fruit.

"We are nowhere near where we want to be," she said at a public forum last month.

In the past school year, Rhee has established herself as a national figure in school reform. Appearing on PBS and national news shows, she has spread her message that children from low-income backgrounds can become accomplished students if teachers and administrators are held to a higher level of accountability.

"I think that, at the end of the day, it all comes down to accountability," she told Charlie Rose on his PBS show July 14. "We have to be able to hold everyone accountable for the results they're producing for kids. That's the bottom line. If you operate within that mind-set or that construct, then all of your problems are solved."

As she enters her second year, Rhee faces the task of sustaining the momentum she has developed. For parents, teachers, students and others who have a stake in the schools, many of whom have seen no fewer than six school leaders come and go in the past 10 years, this will be Rhee's moment to show she's not just passing through town on her way to a high-end corporate or federal job.

"I think we'll find out whether we're on the right track or the wrong track," said Cherita Whiting, a public schools activist who has clashed with Rhee but has also forged a friendship.

The challenges are immense. The achievement gap between black and white students remains canyon-size. On last year's National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national benchmark test, D.C. public school students were still behind those in other urban school districts. The special education system is a shambles, functioning under a consent decree that has sent more than 2,000 students to private schools because the city can't meet their physical or emotional needs. Crime and truancy continue to be serious issues.

"I expect it's going to be an important and challenging year," said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which studies and advocates for urban school systems. "Schools will have been closed, people redeployed, schools restructured. The harder work of sustaining and accelerating student achievement will be at play. I think the plate is extremely full. But a good foundation was built last year."

By the end of the 2008-09 school year, those interested in the future of D.C. schools should have at least partial answers to several significant questions about Rhee's chancellorship. Among them:

· Can she deliver what she has promised? Rhee sold last year's round of unpopular school closings largely on assurances that the savings would enable all schools to have art, music and physical education teachers. Schools receiving students from shuttered buildings are also expected to operate with more social workers, psychologists and literacy coaches to help students and teachers.

But an independent analysis of this year's preliminary budget by D.C. schools watchdog Mary Levy shows that Rhee's changes might have created teacher shortages in some schools. Officials say the problems will be corrected by the time classes begin.

· Can she get the labor deal she wants? This is at the heart of Rhee's vision for D.C. schools: attracting and retaining high-quality teachers while purging those who can't cut it. She is pressing the Washington Teachers Union for an agreement that would offer big salary increases and bonuses in exchange for concessions on tenure and linkage of pay to student performance. Teachers who opt for the voluntary pay plan could make more than $120,000 a year. Negotiations are continuing.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the plan is that teachers new to the District would be required to enter under the big-risk-big-reward "green" tier. Rhee aims to fill the ranks with products of programs such as the highly selective Teach for America, which recruits top college graduates and puts them in a five-week boot camp before placing them in some of the nation's toughest school systems. Rhee is a Teach for America alumna.

· Can she sustain such an expensive system? Rhee is trying to raise $200 million in private foundation grants to underwrite the first five years of her salary program. After that, she plans to sustain it by generating an estimated $300 million in savings. She wants to do that through such measures as returning special education students to the public schools, instead of paying tens of millions of dollars each year in private school tuition.

· Can she fix the city's worst schools? Twenty-six schools -- five elementary, 11 middle and 10 high -- have failed for five consecutive years to reach reading and math test benchmarks established by the federal No Child Left Behind law. The statute requires Rhee to make major changes in their leadership, staffing and programs. Seventeen of the schools will begin the new year with new principals. Five of the high schools will eventually be run by outside nonprofit operators who specialize in school reforms. They have yet to be publicly named, but many have mixed track records in other cities.

· Can she stop the enrollment bleeding? It depends largely on the answers to the questions above. Like General Motors, D.C. public schools are a giant enterprise steadily losing market share to competitors. Since 1997, the number of public school students has dropped by a third, to about 50,000. Public charter school enrollment is at 22,000 and rising.

Much of the exodus takes place at the end of the elementary school years, when parents leery of the city's middle schools seek private or charter options. Rhee will attempt to stop the outflow by expanding five elementary and middle schools to a pre-K-to-8 model, receiving students from the schools she has closed. An additional 13 elementary schools will hang on to rising seventh-graders who would otherwise move on to middle school. Officials are hoping that parents who like their elementary schools will stick around. Research suggests that children benefit academically and socially from the continuity.