Fixing D.C.'s Schools: Michelle Rhee Takes Charge

Fixing D.C.'s Schools: Michelle Rhee Takes Charge http://livingstories.googlelabs.com/lsps/DCSchoolReform <div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><img src="http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/10/13/PH2009101303078.jpg" border="0"> Michelle Rhee, D.C. Schools Chancellor </div> Overview: D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee was hired more than two years ago to radically reform the District's public school system. The effort has produced some improvement in student test scores but has brought Rhee into conflict with the teachers' union, some parents and, most recently, members of the D.C. Council. Rhee hired more than 900 new teachers over the summer despite a large budget cut ordered by the Council, then laid off 266 in October instead of paring summer school programming, as the Council had directed.  The union filed suit to halt the layoffs, but a judge rejected the argument that they were an attempt by Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to winnow veteran instructors from the system. Bargaining on the next teachers' contract has ground to a halt. Teachers also are skeptical about a new, rigorous evaluation system that Rhee has implemented. Many parents have fled to the District's charter school system, where 28,000 students are now enrolled. Nearly 46,000 attend traditional public schools. Some parents, meanwhile, are watching anxiously as Rhee attempts to draw more white, middle-class families into the public school system while continuing to serve its predominantly poor and minority students.