A few months ago, we reported here about a huge corruption scandal affecting the Washington, DC school district. That district has always been in the news, mostly about failed students and the system.
But, a new School Sheriff is in town, and for the last year she has been stirring the post and fixing things. Washington DC has a "inner city" school district, which was always very political, and run by a long series of unsuccessful Chancellors. They even tried a retired military general. My mother worked in the Los Angeles City School District, which has the same "inner city" problem with discipline, thus many "yuppies" moved out of LA years ago to Orange County. The nearby San Fernando Valley residents tried to withdraw from the LA Unified School District and couldn't get the needed vote several years ago.
The new DC Super is making some big changes, as described in the article link below, but here are some that affect fiscal management and have been TURNED down by Florida teacher unions:
- merit pay - the local Lake County, FL teachers voted 2 to 1 against a recent State provided merit or bonus program for teachers who increased FCAT scores in students. In the article below, the DC Super has implemented merit pay systems, also known as pay for performance, and aims to bring teacher pay up to over $130,000 per year (vs a starting salary in Lake County of about $36,000 and a max of $60,000). One way to pay for increased merit pay is to eliminate all the helpers, coaches, mentors and consultants, and retain, pay more and hire teachers who have better skills and learn them on their own. Another way is to hire in experienced teachers or even new teachers with good outside experience (such as scientists, engineers, mathmaticians, business managers) and pay them higher for the experience, instead of forcing them to start at the bottom rung of starting teachers. The current system rewards longevity in lake County, and not outside skills or experience.
- charter schools - the unions want "local control" which would enable union supported School Board candidates to make it much harder to start a charter school, which is regarded as competition for union teacher jobs.
- accountability for student performance - the unions fight No Child left behind, and the FCAT system because they result in measuring performance of teachers. Recently, unions supported the move to water down the Florida FCAT grading system for High Schools by adding factors that have nothing to do with FCAT exam scores.
Instead, the DC Super (aka Chancellor), Michelle Rhee, a Korean-American, is making these types of changes which make sense to anyone with business background:
- The mayor obtained power to do away with the School Board (not needed for Lake County)
- So far, Rhee has streamlined Washington's central office by firing nearly 100 employees. She dismissed 36 principals she considered ineffective, including one at the elementary school her two daughters attend. She also sent termination letters this summer to 750 teachers and teacher's aides who missed a certification deadline.
- Rhee attributes the change to a culture of accountability — something she is hoping to improve by linking teacher pay to student achievement.
By soliciting donations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other groups, Rhee wants to make Washington's teachers among the nation's best-paid with salaries that could reach $131,000.
However, teachers would have to give up seniority and spend a year on probation, exposing them to the possibility of being fired.
Important Quotes:
Students also have suffered because of entrenched cronyism, which has led to incompetent bureaucracy and fiscal mismanagement.
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New chief seeks DC schools fix where others failed
WASHINGTON (AP) — She has shuttered 23 schools, fired more than 30 principals and given notice to hundreds of teachers and administrative workers.
Just a year on the job, District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is making bold changes as she tries to accomplish what six would-be reformers in the past decade could not: rescue one of the nation's most dysfunctional school districts.
The hard-charging schools chief is unwavering in her belief that she can succeed. "My goal is to make D.C. the highest performing urban school system in the country," Rhee said as she prepared for the start of classes Monday.
It is an audacious task for the founder of a teacher-training organization who had no experience running even a single school when she arrived.
Rhee is an unconventional choice in other ways. The Korean-American is the first D.C. schools chief in nearly four decades who is not black. And at 38, the Ivy-League educated Rhee is one of nation's youngest leaders of a big urban school district.
She wants to fix a great injustice: the inability of America's public schools to educate students equally — particularly in the nation's capital.
Like many urban schools, Washington's are struggling to educate students amid poverty and violence. Students also have suffered because of entrenched cronyism, which has led to incompetent bureaucracy and fiscal mismanagement.
Although the district is among the nation's highest-spending school systems, its students rank near the bottom in reading and math proficiency. Schools have leaky roofs and broken fire sprinklers. Bathrooms are decrepit, with broken toilets and missing stall doors.
Not surprisingly, enrollment in the 49,000-student system is shrinking as parents move their children to charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently operated.
"People want Michelle Rhee to succeed because no one knows what's going to happen if she doesn't," said Mary Levy, who has been involved in the schools since her children enrolled in the 1970s.
Levy is wary, though. She has seen school chiefs arrive with great fanfare only to leave in exasperation. Army Lt. Gen. Julius Becton Jr. was tapped in 1996 by a presidentially appointed board. He quit after 18 months.
"I consider it the most difficult job I ever had," said Becton, who fought in three wars and was awarded two Purple Heart medals.
Urban education experts like Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, blame the mess in part on a long-running power struggle among local politicians, Congress and community activists.
"You've had so many varying actors ... pulling on the school system with such strength that ultimately it went nowhere," he said.
This time will be different, Rhee believes, thanks to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who made school reform his top priority when he was elected in 2006.
Fenty quickly seized control of the schools, doing away with the school board. He also won the power to hire and fire the superintendent. He tapped Rhee, founder of the New Teacher Project, which trains teachers to work in urban schools.
"You don't want me for this job," Rhee initially told him. She believed fixing D.C.'s schools would be impossible without radical change, requiring unpopular choices for a politician.
Rhee is convinced a motivated teacher can help even the most disadvantaged student achieve. She said her belief is shaped by three years of teaching in Baltimore.
At first, the 8-year-old students "pretty much ran me over," Rhee said. She saw dramatic improvements in her second and third years when she combined classes with another teacher.
"The (neighborhood) violence didn't change," she said. "We drove the kids relentlessly and they achieved."
So far, Rhee has streamlined Washington's central office by firing nearly 100 employees. She dismissed 36 principals she considered ineffective, including one at the elementary school her two daughters attend. She also sent termination letters this summer to 750 teachers and teacher's aides who missed a certification deadline.
Rhee's approach has its critics. The decision to close 23 under-enrolled schools was particularly controversial; some parents accused her of rushing the process.
"Anyone who raises concern is labeled as being for the status quo," said Crystal Sylvia, a D.C. schools social worker whose son is entering kindergarten.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said the revolving door of superintendents is demoralizing. "It's the fad of the month, the flavor of the year."
Even the D.C. Council, which approved Fenty's schools takeover plan, has balked at not being consulted on decisions and has held up money for school repairs.
Still, Rhee can point to some momentum. Recent test scores show the number of schools making adequate progress in math and reading under the federal No Child Left Behind law increased from 31 to 47 — or about one-third of the school system.
Some say the credit lies with reforms by Rhee's predecessor, Clifford Janey, who now leads the schools in Newark, N.J. Rhee attributes the change to a culture of accountability — something she is hoping to improve by linking teacher pay to student achievement.
By soliciting donations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other groups, Rhee wants to make Washington's teachers among the nation's best-paid with salaries that could reach $131,000.
However, teachers would have to give up seniority and spend a year on probation, exposing them to the possibility of being fired.
Weingarten, whose national organization includes the D.C. teachers' union, said there's nothing inherently wrong with pay-for-performance plans. But she doesn't believe they should be based on standardized test scores — something Rhee has indicated she supports. Negotiations with the union are ongoing.
The plan could be a big boost for Rhee in her quest to attract top instructors. But she cautions that fixing D.C.'s schools won't happen quickly and has given herself eight years to reach that goal.
Many will be watching, including Becton, the retired general. When pressed on whether Rhee can pull it off, he wouldn't give a direct answer. Instead, he replied: "If anyone can be successful, she can."
- D.C. Public Schools: http://www.k12.dc.us/
