Wither DCPS?
Fenty isn't going to run in the general election, so any hopes of him pulling a Lieberman are out. If Rhee leaves, there is some VERY interesting speculation about who might replace her:
It doesn't get more definitive than this. After calling Vincent Gray's DC mayoral win on Tuesday "devastating for the schoolchildren of Washington, DC," DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has all but announced she will resign as head of our nation's capital's public schools (and likely be gone well before the end of the this academic year).
So what comes next for a school district that seems to change superintendents as frequently as some kids change their underwear? Yet another schools chief is likely to roll into town (and it could be a retread of someone who has already been in DC), offering yet another approach to school improvement, spending the next few years rearranging the deck chairs.
In a front page story in today's Washington Post, Bill Turque offers up four possible successors to Rhee. Two would offer us our Back to the Future moment, with the possibility of either current Detroit education czar Robert Bobb or outgoing Newark (NJ) superintendent Cliff Janey returning to DC. Also on Turque's short list, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the current academic chief in Detroit, or Deborah Gist, current Rhode Island education commissioner and former DC state supe.
For the record, Eduflack loves Gist. What she has done in Rhode Island this past year is nothing short of remarkable. She's completely overhauled the way the state approaches public education — from instruction to teacher quality to data and all points in between. Gist guided the state to a big Race to the Top win a few weeks ago. Yes, she is facing a new governor come January (and possibly one who has not endorsed the RttT plan), but if she decides to leave Providence, I'm hoping it is to bring her vision to another state in need of forward movement and real improvement.
So what comes next for a school district that seems to change superintendents as frequently as some kids change their underwear? Yet another schools chief is likely to roll into town (and it could be a retread of someone who has already been in DC), offering yet another approach to school improvement, spending the next few years rearranging the deck chairs.
In a front page story in today's Washington Post, Bill Turque offers up four possible successors to Rhee. Two would offer us our Back to the Future moment, with the possibility of either current Detroit education czar Robert Bobb or outgoing Newark (NJ) superintendent Cliff Janey returning to DC. Also on Turque's short list, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the current academic chief in Detroit, or Deborah Gist, current Rhode Island education commissioner and former DC state supe.
For the record, Eduflack loves Gist. What she has done in Rhode Island this past year is nothing short of remarkable. She's completely overhauled the way the state approaches public education — from instruction to teacher quality to data and all points in between. Gist guided the state to a big Race to the Top win a few weeks ago. Yes, she is facing a new governor come January (and possibly one who has not endorsed the RttT plan), but if she decides to leave Providence, I'm hoping it is to bring her vision to another state in need of forward movement and real improvement.
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Wither DCPS?
posted by Whitney Tilson at 4:26 PM
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