Washington D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Before she was appointed by Mayor Adrian Fenty in 2007, D.C. chancellor Michelle Rhee taught elementary school in Baltimore through Teach for America, a non-profit organization founded in 1989 “to help lead an educational revolution in low-income communities across the country.”

When Rhee came to D.C., one of the worst-performing districts in the country, Rhee closed 23 schools and fired 36 principals in her first year on the job. She instituted a teacher performance assessment system in 2009, and in 2010, her administration negotiated a new teachers’ contract that weakened seniority protections, linked performance pay to test score improvement, and gave the district more power to manage teacher performance.

With this pace of change, Rhee became a lightning rod for controversy. She resigned after Fenty failed to win re-election in 2010; her successor, Kaya Henderson, continued the reform agenda.