(From The Wall Street Journal, October 12th, 2010)
By STEPHANIE BANCHERO
WASHINGTON–Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee will announce her resignation Wednesday, a person close to her said, ending a stormy tenure that brought Ms. Rhee national attention as a tough-minded superintendent willing to take on the teacher’s union.
Ms. Rhee will step down at the end of the month and Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson will take over on an interim basis, the person said. Ms. Rhee couldn’t be reached for comment.
Her departure was not a surprise, coming a month after the defeat of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty in the city’s Democratic primary. Mr. Fenty, who lost to city council Chairman Vincent Gray, hired Ms. Rhee and she had strongly suggested during the campaign that she could not work with Mr. Gray.
Mr. Gray had not said publicly whether he would keep Ms. Rhee. The two met this month, but did not reach a decision on the matter. Mr. Gray could not be reached for comment. In the nation’s capital, the mayor selects the city’s schools chief.
Under Ms. Rhee’s leadership, the troubled D.C. school district was at the forefront of a national effort to rid classrooms of low-performing teachers. She negotiated a labor contract that tied teacher evaluations to student growth on test scores and developed a comprehensive teacher evaluation system.
Since she took over in 2007, Ms. Rhee has closed dozens of schools and fired hundreds of teachers–actions that angered the teacher’s union.
“Anyone who thinks this is the last they will hear from Michelle Rhee obviously hasn’t been watching very closely,” said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, an advocacy group. “She has the potential to be even more of a menace to the status quo from the outside of the system.”
Ms. Rhee has been a White House favorite as she pushed the changes embraced by Race to the Top, President Barack Obama’s signature education initiative that rewarded states that overhaul teacher evaluation systems and open more charter schools.
Under her tenure, test scores generally improved. But the most recent state test results showed a dip in elementary school scores. Ms. Rhee was seen as firebrand. Her brusque style and take-no-prisoners approach made it difficult to work with the teacher’s union and some community members. Some national experts have worried Mr. Fenty’s loss and Ms. Rhee’s departure could send a discouraging signal to other big-city mayors considering major education overhauls.
Union leaders were incensed when she fired teachers and they actively campaigned against Mayor Fenty. Ms. Rhee has said that she blamed herself for his loss.