District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s decision to appoint the 37-year-old founder of a nonprofit teacher recruitment and training organization to lead the city’s troubled public schools is making headlines.
Fenty’s appointment of Michelle Rhee as the new chancellor came just hours after the mayor’s takeover of the 55,000-student system. Rhee, who is Asian and would be the first non-black schools chief in the district in decades, founded the New Teacher Project in 1997. The group consults with school districts around the country, including New York, Washington and Chicago.
Some have criticized the selection process for being very secretive right up to the announcement. Why the need for such secrecy? And is Rhee’s background the right fit for D.C.?
