D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee will announce Wednesday that she is resigning at the end of this month, bringing an abrupt end to a tenure that drew national acclaim but that also became a central issue in the recent mayoral primary race.
She is scheduled to announce her departure at a news conference with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and presumptive Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D), said officials close to both Gray and Rhee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
She will be replaced on an interim basis by Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson, a close associate of Rhee’s from their days at the New Teacher Project, a teacher recruiting nonprofit group that Rhee founded and ran before she was appointed by Fenty in June 2007. Henderson was a vice president for the group and is also scheduled to be at the news conference.
Rhee’s departure has been anticipated since Fenty was defeated in the Sept. 14 Democratic mayoral primary. She campaigned on his behalf and questioned whether Gray has the political will to make the unpopular decisions she thinks are necessary to sustain school improvement in the District.
So the shoe has (unsurprisingly) dropped, and we’ll know soon what Vince Gray’s education reform philosophy is going to look like.
