On Aug. 25, D.C. Public Schools will kick off another school year. As has previously been reported many, many times, Chancellor Michelle Rhee fired 24 principals, and later 22 assistant principals in two distinct waves this Spring. (I must admit, I don't know the total numbers of administrators let go over the course of the [...]
Relations between the District's executive branch and the D.C. Council aren't getting any sweeter—especially when it comes to the D.C. Public Schools.
On Aug. 1, DCPS held a systemwide summer-school graduation ceremony at McKinley Tech High School, attended by schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. No member of the D.C. Council was invited, and at least one of [...]
This just in (via e-mail from the NewsHour PR dept.):
Friends,
When we decided to follow rookie superintendent Michelle Rhee one year ago, we had a feeling that we'd have a good story on our hands. After all, 37-year-old Rhee was new to Washington, a Korean-American in a predominantly African-American city who had never been a superintendent [...]
D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray is currently in the midst of slamming, hard, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and his education deputies—DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee, Deputy Mayor Victor Reinoso, and school facilities chief Allan Allen Y. Lew—for bigfooting the legislature.
Gray, in some of his strongest anti-Fenty statements to date, called Fenty et al.'s behavior "unconscionable" [...]
This is a chaotic time for D.C. Public Schools. This year, Chancellor Michelle Rhee ordered the closing of 23 public schools. Then, she fired 24 principals, and later 22 assistant principals. Others, from shuttering schools, were reassigned throughout the system. And one can only imagine how many teachers, aids, and staff-members were floating around [...]
(Photo by Darrow Montgomery)
H.D. Woodson Senior High School, a.k.a. the nine-floor "Tower of Power," is set to be demolished this summer. But when and how exactly?
Yesterday, Woodson's alumni association (and surely a multitude of other D.C. listservs) received word that the groundbreaking would occur Monday July 7 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. [...]
New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to announce today that Clifford Janey is his pick for the Newark School District "after months of meetings and at least a dozen interviews with prospective candidates," according to the Star-Ledger. The district has been under state control since '95 and Janey will have to be approved by [...]
At 9 a.m., Hart's graduating 8th grade class of 2008 gathered in the hallways leading to the school's small auditorium. Wearing their Sunday best, students snapped photos of each other, hugged their favorite teachers and generally basked in the one commodity the hallways had over the auditorium: air conditioning.
If the scene was chaotic, if the [...]
Is D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee nuts?
That's the question I had after reading the account in yesterday's Washington Post about her firing of Marta Guzman, the principal of Woodley Park's Oyster-Adams Bilingual School. Rhee's own two children attend the school.
And based on the report by the Post's Bill Turque, Rhee had an awfully [...]
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty might be a Barack Obama supporter, but his hand-picked education czar is opting for a different approach, at least when it comes to improving schools. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, in comments on Thursday night at a gathering of the Korean-American Coalition's D.C. chapter, endorsed the education plan of Arizona Republican John [...]
Nathan A. Saunders, general vice president of the Washington Teachers' Union, today filed suit in federal court against leaders of his union and city administrators, alleging that he was "systematically punished and retaliated against" for speaking out on labor issues.
The lawsuit is the most explosive manifestation to date of a feud that had simmered quietly [...]
In a recent broadcast of "This American Life" Burroughs Elementary School parent Maria Jones, interviewed by journalist Jon Jeter, calls Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's proposal to close down 23 district schools a "land grab." In making her point, Jones mentions two former school buildings sold to developers and converted into swank condos: Pierce School (now [...]
This past Sunday's New York Times Magazine featured a conversation about education philanthropy with several education and charity experts. Among them was Joel Klein, who has been chancellor of the New York City school system since 2002. Klein also figures prominently in the D.C. education world since he recommended District chancellor Michelle Rhee for her [...]
Tuesday's City Title basketball game between Gonzaga and Roosevelt drew more than 6,000 fans. Not bad for a high school game in this town, right?
Well, for these times, anyway.
But go back to the early 1960s, and nothing could pull in fans like high school sports. Not even the Redskins or the Senators.
You can [...]
Yesterday, I received responses to my questions regarding the resignation of Pamela Graham, former budget director for the D.C. public school system. To recap: Immediately after Graham's resignation, D.C. Financial Chief Natwar Gandhi named Noah Wepman, an education program director with city administrator Dan Tangherlini, as a temporary replacement. According to a mid-February [...]
