What Will Rhee Do?

Many thanks to Kevin, Sara, Erin, and Eduwonk on leading the discussion on the DC Public Schools mess. But for those of you who had never heard of Michelle Rhee until yesterday when she was named DCPS Chancellor, or see no hope in her and Mayor Fenty overcoming the disarray that’s been exposed, I’ve got a quick primer on what she can (and probably will) do.

As the founder and President of The New Teacher Project (TNTP), Rhee has helped major urban districts across the country, including DC, attract and certify 23,000 “highly qualified” teachers in ten years of work. In my estimation, they’re an exceptional, not-for-profit human resources contractor that happens to focus on public schools.

What will Rhee likely tackle? In a district with well-documented problems ranging from school violence, high turnover, and inadequate personnel records (they’re storing them in boxes!! And they’re five years behind!!), Rhee will likely focus on staffing. TNTP has issued two major reports to date, both of which focus on the timeline for teacher hiring. In Missed Opportunities they discovered that many districts simply hired too late to get high-quality candidates. Thirty to sixty percent of candidates withdrew their applications, but “had significantly higher GPAs and were 40% more likely to have a degree in their teaching field than new hires.” These are the teachers we most need in struggling schools.

Both reports point to several bureaucratic blockages as the reason for the late hiring. The most important of these included:

• State budget processes taking too long into the summer, leaving funding for schools up in the air.
• Senior teachers being given priority in transfer. A new job opportunity would open and existing teachers would have a first shot at it, regardless of what the principal wanted.
• Principals gaming the system. They’d ask retiring teachers to wait until summer to announce so they would have first pick of incoming teachers, and they would label a teacher as “excess” staff those who were not performing well. Those “excess” teachers would be given priority over new hires.
• The almost complete inability for a teacher to be fired. Principals claimed they would need 15% of their time to address ONE under-performing teacher. Interviews with legal counsel determined that these processes would rarely lead to termination, let alone removal from that school.
• Experienced teachers being able to “bump” novice ones. Because districts considered jobs filled in the last year as “vacant,” between 10-50% of all teachers with a full year’s experience could get bumped by more senior teachers.

In a discussion hosted by Education Sector a little over a year ago, Rhee was adamant on the importance of fixing these problems. Now appointed to lead from the inside, Rhee will likely start by checking out the transfer and seniority provisions in the Washington Teacher’s Union contract. I’m anxious to see what she can do.