raacluse
06-12-2007, 09:43 AM
excerpts from a Wash. Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/12/AR2007061200609.html?hpid=topnews
Head of Nonprofit to Replace Janey as D.C. Schools Chief
By David Nakamura (+ contribution by staff writer Debbi Wilgoren) / Tuesday, June 12, 2007; 10:50 AM
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has fired D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey and wants to replace him with the founder of a New York-based teacher-training organization, a dramatic step that signals the mayor's desire to bring "radical change" to the failing 55,000-student system.
On the day he assumed control of the schools, Fenty (D) announced at a morning news conference that he has tapped Michelle A. Rhee for the new job of schools chancellor.
Fenty called his nominee "extraordinary" and said he and others in his organization were impressed by her deep conviction that all students--regardless of background or burdens--can achieve at the highest levels.
"She not only believes it. She has seen it happen and she knows what it takes," Fenty said of the 37-year-old former teacher. "She moved us to action, as I believe she will move this school system and this city to action."
Rhee operates the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group created in 1997 that recruits and trains teachers to serve in urban districts. Fenty said Rhee would be a strong manager who would bring new ideas from the outside and remain in the position a long time...
...Rhee is well-known in education circles but could prove to be a tough sell with school employees, parents and D.C. Council members, who must confirm the appointment.
She would be the first schools chief in the District who didn't have superintendent experience since retired Army Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton Jr. left in frustration nearly a decade ago. She has spent just three years working within a school system, as an elementary teacher in Baltimore in the mid-1990s. And, as a Korean American, Rhee would be the system's first non-black chief in nearly four decades.
"This system needs radical change; it really needs a shake-up," Fenty said in an interview. "We did not want to pick someone to tinker around the edges. . . . I was impressed on every level with Michelle: her intellect, sense of urgency and management acumen."
The D.C. school system is among the worst-performing in the nation. Although D.C. public schools are third in per-pupil spending among the nation's 100 largest districts, students rank at or near the bottom in reading and math among 11 major urban school districts. Rhee would become the city's seventh schools chief in a decade, replacing Janey, a career educator who would leave after less than three years at the helm...
...Rhee, who lives in Denver, has a bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University and a master's in public policy, with a concentration in education policy, from Harvard University.
After spending three years in the Teach for America program, assigned to a Baltimore elementary school, Rhee founded the New Teacher Project in 1997, during the peak of a national teacher shortage.
The organization, which recruits and trains teachers to serve low-performing urban systems, has a contract with D.C. public schools. Rhee's company has grown to 120 employees, but that is tiny compared with the size of her new job.
The D.C. public schools have 11,500 employees, a $1 billion operating budget and a $2.3 billion school modernization program. Many school buildings have leaky roofs, broken plumbing and cracked windows.
"It will be a challenge . . . but I see the potential," Rhee said. "I have seen how the system is run and how it has the potential to run better. That can be done by changing the path."
Rhee said her experience in Baltimore led her to believe that good teachers are the key to improving schools.
During her first year in the classroom, teaching second- and third-graders, Rhee said the students "ran over me."
"I was not a successful teacher," she said. "I was determined from then not to let 8-year-olds run my life."
The next two years, Rhee said, she and another teacher co-taught a group of 70 students, of which only 13 percent were reading on grade level when they entered the class.
"We had extraordinarily high expectations of our students . . . it was a lot of sweat," she said today. "We came in before school, we stayed after school, we had two hours of very rigorous homework a night."
By the end of two years, Rhee said, 90 percent of her youngsters were reading on grade level. According to the New Teacher Project Web site, Rhee's work in Baltimore was featured on ABC's "Good Morning America" program...
=- =- =- =- =-
(BTW, I think that the reporter is a hapa.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/12/AR2007061200609.html?hpid=topnews
Head of Nonprofit to Replace Janey as D.C. Schools Chief
By David Nakamura (+ contribution by staff writer Debbi Wilgoren) / Tuesday, June 12, 2007; 10:50 AM
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has fired D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey and wants to replace him with the founder of a New York-based teacher-training organization, a dramatic step that signals the mayor's desire to bring "radical change" to the failing 55,000-student system.
On the day he assumed control of the schools, Fenty (D) announced at a morning news conference that he has tapped Michelle A. Rhee for the new job of schools chancellor.
Fenty called his nominee "extraordinary" and said he and others in his organization were impressed by her deep conviction that all students--regardless of background or burdens--can achieve at the highest levels.
"She not only believes it. She has seen it happen and she knows what it takes," Fenty said of the 37-year-old former teacher. "She moved us to action, as I believe she will move this school system and this city to action."
Rhee operates the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group created in 1997 that recruits and trains teachers to serve in urban districts. Fenty said Rhee would be a strong manager who would bring new ideas from the outside and remain in the position a long time...
...Rhee is well-known in education circles but could prove to be a tough sell with school employees, parents and D.C. Council members, who must confirm the appointment.
She would be the first schools chief in the District who didn't have superintendent experience since retired Army Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton Jr. left in frustration nearly a decade ago. She has spent just three years working within a school system, as an elementary teacher in Baltimore in the mid-1990s. And, as a Korean American, Rhee would be the system's first non-black chief in nearly four decades.
"This system needs radical change; it really needs a shake-up," Fenty said in an interview. "We did not want to pick someone to tinker around the edges. . . . I was impressed on every level with Michelle: her intellect, sense of urgency and management acumen."
The D.C. school system is among the worst-performing in the nation. Although D.C. public schools are third in per-pupil spending among the nation's 100 largest districts, students rank at or near the bottom in reading and math among 11 major urban school districts. Rhee would become the city's seventh schools chief in a decade, replacing Janey, a career educator who would leave after less than three years at the helm...
...Rhee, who lives in Denver, has a bachelor's degree in government from Cornell University and a master's in public policy, with a concentration in education policy, from Harvard University.
After spending three years in the Teach for America program, assigned to a Baltimore elementary school, Rhee founded the New Teacher Project in 1997, during the peak of a national teacher shortage.
The organization, which recruits and trains teachers to serve low-performing urban systems, has a contract with D.C. public schools. Rhee's company has grown to 120 employees, but that is tiny compared with the size of her new job.
The D.C. public schools have 11,500 employees, a $1 billion operating budget and a $2.3 billion school modernization program. Many school buildings have leaky roofs, broken plumbing and cracked windows.
"It will be a challenge . . . but I see the potential," Rhee said. "I have seen how the system is run and how it has the potential to run better. That can be done by changing the path."
Rhee said her experience in Baltimore led her to believe that good teachers are the key to improving schools.
During her first year in the classroom, teaching second- and third-graders, Rhee said the students "ran over me."
"I was not a successful teacher," she said. "I was determined from then not to let 8-year-olds run my life."
The next two years, Rhee said, she and another teacher co-taught a group of 70 students, of which only 13 percent were reading on grade level when they entered the class.
"We had extraordinarily high expectations of our students . . . it was a lot of sweat," she said today. "We came in before school, we stayed after school, we had two hours of very rigorous homework a night."
By the end of two years, Rhee said, 90 percent of her youngsters were reading on grade level. According to the New Teacher Project Web site, Rhee's work in Baltimore was featured on ABC's "Good Morning America" program...
=- =- =- =- =-
(BTW, I think that the reporter is a hapa.)