Fixing Washington D.C.'s School System

By: Jeff ChuThu Aug 7, 2008 at 7:30 PM

Aiming High: At Scott Montgomery Elementary, all the kids are black and 95% qualify for free lunch. "We have a system that does wrong by poor kids of color," Rhee says. "If we're going to live up to our promise as a country, that has got to stop." | photo by Alessandra Petlin

No one is attacking Washington, D.C.'s stagnant culture more boldly than Michelle Rhee, head of the city's failing schools. Is there a lesson here for our nation's leaders?

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Story Time: Rhee won the rapt attention of third graders at Scott Montgomery with a book about an underappreciated teacher, and a tale from her own days as a Teach for America instructor in inner-city Baltimore when she captured -- and ate -- a bee that flew into her classroom. | photo by Alessandra Petlin

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Mission Critical: After Mayor Adrian Fenty, who won election promising to reform the district's failing schools, managed to get control of the system in June 2007, he named Rhee chancellor. "Every single day, he's spending political capital and losing popularity because of what we're doing," she says. | photo by Alessandra Petlin

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"This is going to make me sound like a loser," Rhee says over lunch one day. (Despite her slight build, she eats heroically: It was a buffet, and she went back twice.) "If I had my druthers, what I'd really like to do on Saturdays is stay in bed and work." She'd write emails and read white papers on education -- for fun. Her father, Shang, takes some responsibility for her workaholism. "I told my kids, we are in the minority, so you have to do more to compensate," he says. "In Michelle's case, it's probably overcompensation."

Rhee is data-obsessed. Every aspect of her plan for the D.C. schools is rooted in data, from overhauling and streamlining DCPS's 27 uncoordinated information-management systems to creating a culture of accountability for student performance (read: test scores and, for special-needs students, individualized education plans). Each time she interviews job candidates, she asks for quantitative and qualitative evidence that they can deliver results. "To work here, you've got to be a bottom-line person," Rhee tells me. "How do I know you're successful? You say, 'We raised productivity from this to this.' "

Rhee's passion for data explains why she's a fierce backer of the Bush administration's controversial No Child Left Behind legislation. Although she's a Democrat, she declares herself "terrified" that, if elected president, Barack Obama would seek NCLB's end. "He has taken on this 'NCLB is evil, sucking the life out of teachers' angle," she says. "I have a laundry list of things I'd change," but the law has been essential "because it brings accountability to a system that sorely needs it."

Business leaders see in Rhee's talk of data and accountability evidence of a philosophical comrade and have responded generously to her call for stronger partnerships. Last November, Accenture provided a team of 10 employees for six weeks to do transcript reviews for all DCPS seniors; Rhee asked for help after discovering the system's record-keeping was so poor that the schools had no idea which students would need extra help to graduate. The CityBridge Foundation, the philanthropy of Atlantic Media's David Bradley and his wife, Katherine, has designated $1 million and a full-time staff of three to DCPS for Rhee's use. "She's keenly aware of the steps she needs to take to fix this crisis situation," says Stacey Stewart, senior vice president at Fannie Mae, which early on gave $1 million to DCPS so that Rhee could hire forensic auditors to get a handle on the district's chaotic balance sheet.

But Rhee bristles when I assert that businesspeople love her because she speaks the language of business. "I know what ROI is, but I don't know business. That's not where I live," she says. "Language of business -- that's so stupid. When you talk about kids' lives, you need results."

Rhee insists that the "vast majority" of parents back her reforms. But you wouldn't necessarily conclude that, given the opposition she has faced. Many parents don't seem to have much faith that her innovations will have a positive outcome. In the D.C. school system, "change has always gone badly," explains Mary Levy, a longtime education activist who wishes Rhee would be clearer about what she's planning. "It's unfortunate because people use their imaginations -- and imaginations tend to run to the negative."

Especially if you've said you'll close schools. D.C. has lost more than 20% of its public-school students since 2000. Charter schools are now educating 14,000 children, and 80% of the public schools are underenrolled. This excess capacity costs the district an estimated $14 million a year. "Economically, it makes no sense to have a school built for 500 kids with 100 kids in it, but emotionally, it's tough [to shut a school down]," says Rikki Hunt Taylor, a DCPS alumna tapped by Rhee to be the new principal at Takoma Educational Center, a K -- 8 school near Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "Remember, this is a small town -- everyone knows someone who's affected. Frankly, [Rhee] had a lot of proponents of change until people started losing their jobs."

The rumor mill -- which Rhee has called "my worst enemy" -- worked overtime late last year as the proposed list of school closures was being prepared. People whispered that she wanted to destroy the public schools to help charters or that she intended to sell the land to developers. Then she bungled the release of the preliminary list. Nearly everyone, including most of the city council, learned about the proposed closings in The Washington Post. "That caused a whole lot more backlash from the council and the community than she had to have," says council member Tommy Wells. "The closings had to be done, and I have no sympathy for those who are trying to slow things down. But I have to be able to answer my constituents. I can't say to them, 'I have no idea.' It's not a matter of respect -- it's realizing that council members do have a role."