UPDATE, 6:35 P.M.: DCPS says this is a false alarm. The recruiter, says spokesperson Jennifer Calloway, was incorrect to say that the system "will resume the selection process next week."
Rather, the intent was to keep its recruitment database up to date in order to "address normal resignations and retirements."
The school system, Calloway says, "will [...]

Forget that picture of Michelle Rhee on the cover of Time magazine with that broom; that was child's play. Click here to see her in her newest incarnation, care of Education Next journal.

The Washington Teacher blog has posted a link to a 17-page memo sent recently from Jesus Aguirre, the D.C Public Schools' director of school operations, to all DCPS principals, laying out Chancellor Michelle Rhee's guidelines for the impending "reduction in force" she says is necessary because of budget constraints (in the real world, "RIF" means [...]

The D.C. Education Compact, founded five years ago to organize outside support for the city's public schools, will close up shop next week.
DCEC executive director Donna Power Stowe announced in an e-mail to its supporters yesterday that the group "will cease operations as an independent organization." In an interview today, Stowe explained the circumstances of [...]

Here are a few words used in yesterday's press release from the D.C. Public School system about the coming teacher layoffs: "equalization," "right-size," "reduction-in-force," "align staffing," and "required separations."
One word not used: "layoffs."

Some folks might be satisfied with the "innocent explanation" presented in this morning's Washington Post editorial on the enrollment of Mayor Adrian Fenty's twin sons at Lafayette Elementary:
Mr. Fenty's neighborhood school, West Elementary, has only one fourth-grade class. Most studies show that twins, particularly if they are of the same gender, should be in separate [...]

This morning, Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee went on WTOP radio and said more than Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has about the process by which Hizzoner's twin sons ended up enrolled at out-of-boundary Lafayette Elementary.
"I can assure you that no rules were broken," Rhee said. "We have a number of provisions that allow kids to go [...]

Courtesy of WRC-TV, here is video of LL, WTOP's Mark Segraves, and WRC's Tom Sherwood vainly trying to extract some answers from Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on his adherence to the DCPS enrollment process:

This morning, local reporters gathered at a press event at the John A. Wilson Building honoring the World Team Tennis champion Washington Kastles. We, of course, were interested in something besides the fabulous tennis team. That, of course, was to give Mayor Adrian M. Fenty one more opportunity to explain how his twin sons ended [...]

This morning, the Washington Post reported that at least one of Mayor Adrian Fenty's twin sons attended class at Lafayette Elementary School this morning—thus, it seems, making good on a vintage campaign promise from Fenty to have his kids attend D.C. Public Schools.
Yet Fenty, strangely, did not go out of his way to advertise that [...]

D.C.'s last wrestler turned out pretty damn OK.
Clint Billings wrestled for Wilson Senior High School during the 2004-2005 season. He was the only guy on the school wrestling team. And Wilson was the only DCIAA school that had even one wrestler that year.
No DCIAA school, not even Wilson, has fielded a wrestling team since.

Last week, on his way out of the door for a long weekend, LL threw up a post about how D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, faced with threats from the D.C. Council to cut $27 million from her fiscal 2010 budget over an enrollment dispute, had sent letters to her principals telling them that [...]

Kurt Schmoke—former Baltimore mayor and now dean of Howard University's law school—has been selected to mediate the monthslong dispute over a new teachers contract, according to a joint statement released this evening by the D.C. Public Schools, the Washington Teachers' Union, and the American Federation of Teachers.
"Our goal is to begin [...]

In his column for this week Education Issue, LL delved into 17 months worth of Michelle Rhee's official schedule, obtained through a public records request. The column details the DCPS chancellor's travel and explores how she's inserted herself into a web of private foundations, think tanks, civic groups, and other organizations—many of which are have [...]

The Washington Teachers' Union is airing radio ads and launching a Web site to promote their teachers contract proposal, according to press release just issued by the union.
From the release: "The first radio ad features the voices of two current DC public school teachers and highlights the need for innovative and collaborative solutions to fix [...]