Jacques of all Trades

Acting D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson asked the city’s inspector general Tuesday to investigate potential cheating in eight schools on the city’s standardized reading and math exams.

But Henderson maintained that the probe into schools — where performance jumped alongside unusual erasure patterns on the exams — is being commissioned only to underscore that no cheating took place and the results of former Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s reforms are real.

“We know our schools are improving,” Henderson said. “Our children are learning, and I want the public to share our confidence.”

I’m a big fan of KH’s moves so far, in her leadership of DCPS.  Michelle Rhee, on the other hand, could still use some PR lessons, in the aftermath of this report.  

The style of the messenger, not just the message, makes a difference, especially when you’re trying to build credibility in a public enterprise, such as education.

Gray’s first move, from Washington Post:

Presumptive mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray introduced Kaya Henderson on Wednesday as the interim chancellor of D.C. public schools and vowed that reforms launched under Michelle A. Rhee would continue when he takes office in January.

“We cannot and will not return to the days of incrementalism,” said Gray, appearing at a news conference with Rhee, Henderson and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who will formally appoint Henderson at Gray’s request.

Later in the day, Gray, the D.C. Council chairman, met privately with Henderson for more than 90 minutes in his office in the John A. Wilson Building. They were joined for part of the time by Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, perhaps signaling that Gray and Henderson are already grappling with issues related to the District’s large budget shortfall.

Gray and Henderson hugged as the meeting broke up. Gandhi declined comment as he left, and Henderson said she needed “fifteen minutes to breathe.”

“A lot has happened today,” she said, adding she will begin formal media interviews within a few days.

In Henderson, Gray inherits someone in tune with Rhee on the fundamentals of education reform, especially the belief that teacher quality is the most important determinant of student success. Rhee and Henderson worked together 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.

It seems odd that it wouldn’t come up in a 90-minute highly-anticipated meeting, but there it is:

D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee met for 90 minutes today for what Gray called a “philosophical discussion” about public education but they did not talk about her future in the administration.

Following the highly anticipated meeting, Gray and Rhee emerged to face a throng of news cameras and reporters. While Gray spoke to reporters, a grim-faced Rhee stood to the side, refusing to answer questions or join the chairman in issuing a public statement.

Now here’s a silver-bullet solution for school reform. And also a way for Stras not to have to watch the Nats lose on the days he doesn’t pitch:

By Gary Babad July 16, 2010 (GBN News Washington Bureau) — While acclaimed Washington Nationals’ rookie Stephen Strasburg was not chosen for the All Star team as many had been advocating, he will be given another high-profile role.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty announced today that as of next week, Strasburg will be replacing Michelle Rhee as chancellor of D.C. public schools. The move came as a complete shock to just about everyone involved in the educational system.

Rhee had all but endorsed D.C. Mayor Fenty for re-election, indicating that she might not remain as chancellor if his opponent, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, unseats him. But the mayor is said to have concluded that, as much as he has supported the chancellor’s educational reforms, Strasburg is far more popular than the controversial Rhee and would provide a greater boost to his campaign…

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a rabid basketball fan, is said to have favored LeBron Jamesfor the position.

If this mayoral race wasn’t already going to be a referendum on the DCPS leadership, it certainly is now!

Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee edged closer than ever Wednesday to saying explicitly that she’s out of here if Mayor Adrian M. Fenty loses his Sept. 14 primary contest against Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray. She told told WAMU’s Kavitha Cardoza that she has not seen in Gray the same commitment to education reform that Fenty has demonstrated. Rhee has been reluctant to talk about her future in the city under a new mayor. And Gray, for his part, says he would not decide whether to retain Rhee until he was elected. But Cardoza pressed Rhee, reminding her of past statements about the importance of parents being able to make informed decisions. “A lot of parents want to make their decision based on you,” Cardoza said. Rhee responded: “What I can tell you very clearly is I came to this city to take on this job specifically because I believed there was a really unique opportunity with this mayor and how focused he was on education. And he has not disappointed me one time in the last three years. I would not work under a mayor who was not focused on education in the same way and as dedicated to making some of the really difficult decisions.”

This is a pretty big victory for both Michelle Rhee and Washington Teacher’s Union president George Parker, who stuck his neck out on getting this finalized, after what seems like many years of negotiation.  

A new contract for D.C. public school teachers has been approved by an overwhelming margin, with 1,412 teachers voting in favor and 425 against. The votes, which were submitted by mail, phone and email, were tallied starting at 10 a.m. today. The new contract will give teachers raises of over 20 percent by 2012 and has been seen as one of the defining initiatives School Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s rocky tenure. The D.C. Council will vote on the contract next.

It will now be interesting to see if Council Chairman Vincent Gray uses this vote as another opportunity to try and thwart the Fenty administration.  It’s clear that Gray and Fenty do not share much commonality when it comes to the Rhee-led DCPS, but I don’t know whether the politics are right for the Chairman to block a potential $20,000 raise for teachers, regardless of its merit-pay component.

It’s not quite what Rhee and Co were looking for at the beginning of the process, but it offers the beginnings of a “voluntary” performance pay program (as well as a 21% across-the-board raise for DCPS teachers).  

The five-year contract, which would be retroactive to October 2007 and continue through September 2012, would mean an overall 21.6 percent rise in teachers’ base salary rates. But the most discussed parts of the proposal stand to be performance pay and the process for “excessed” teachers (i.e., those laid off from an overstaffed school), as well as the novel funding stream.

Not all teachers would be eligible for performance pay. Those seeking to participate would have to “qualify in” using an teaching evaluation process that is yet to be finalized. Unlike the ill-fated “green tier” proposal, teachers who participate in performance pay would not lose tenure protections; however, they would lose some rights should they be excessed by DCPS.

As for those teachers not in the performance pay program, those rated “effective” or better under the IMPACT evaluation system would have three options if excessed and unable to immediately find a new DCPS position: take a $25,000 cash buyout; retire with full benefits if a teacher has 20 years experience; or take an additional year to find a placement with DCPS assistance, after which they would be fired.

It will be interesting to see how many teachers vote with their feet by opting into the performance pay program, and whether it lines up with the predicted young/old split.  

Also, it looks like many of the usual suspects (including Eli Broad and the Waltons) are lining up to fund this investment, which may harden the battle lines further as it relates to the national ed reform conversation. 

The base salary raises and performance pay initiative are funded via nearly $65 million in private donations gathered by the D.C. Public Education Fund—-$10 million from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation; $10 million from the Broad Foundation; $19.5 million from the Robertson Foundation, and $25 million from the Walton Family Foundation. The money, according to documents, is devoted to the “recruitment, retention and rewarding of quality teachers.”

Either way, it’s nice to finally see an agreement in place, and as article author Mike DeBonis asks, it will be interesting to see how this plays out locally in the upcoming Fenty-Gray DC mayoral showdown.