A great editorial in today's WSJ filled with well-deserved praise for Michelle Rhee and Mayor Fenty:

In the long war between teachers unions and education reformers, the reformers won a big victory this week that could serve as a model for school districts across the U.S. The breakthrough is a new contract between the District of Columbia and 4,000 public school teachers that shatters taboos on teacher tenure, seniority and pay-for-performance.

The contract, which was approved by the D.C. Council on Tuesday, is a triumph for hard-bargaining Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who took on American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten and has lived to tell about it. "Seniority used to drive all kinds of decisions, including who was hired or laid off," said Ms. Rhee during a recent visit to the Journal. "Now that will be determined by performance and quality."

Among other things, the new contract abolishes lock-step pay and implements a voluntary performance-based system that could add $20,000 to $30,000 to the salaries of teachers whose students show above-average improvement in test scores. Tenure rules will no longer compel principals to hire rotten instructors.

Teacher performance will be judged by student achievement and evaluations by administrators and "master educators" appointed by Ms. Rhee's office who can make surprise classroom visits. Bad teachers can be terminated more easily, while teachers rated "minimally effective" will have their pay frozen and can be fired after two years if they don't improve.

These may seem like common sense reforms to anyone outside of public education, but they have been fiercely opposed by the AFT, the National Education Association and their local affiliates. In most states, teachers receive tenure after only two or three years in the classroom, and then it's nearly impossible to fire them. Students are the victims of this system meant to serve adults with lifetime sinecures.

How has Ms. Rhee pulled this off when so many others have failed? One reason is the political support of Democratic Mayor Adrian Fenty, who appointed her in 2007. Another is the awful state of the schools she inherited, where only 8% of eighth graders were performing at grade level in math when she took over, even though D.C. was spending $14,300 per student, or $6,300 more than the national average. Even Ms. Weingarten couldn't defend those results.

--------------------