D.C. school chief gives herself an 'F'

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By Deborah Simmons

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW

Despite lower dropout rates, higher graduation rates and improved standardized test scores, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee gives herself a failing grade on her first 20 months in office.

"On an absolute scale ... I would give myself an F," Mrs. Rhee said in an interview with The Washington Times.

The chancellor said she is proud of the "tremendous amount of progress" made toward improving what has long been a deeply troubled school system.

Photo Gallery

Rhee hails schools' progress

Despite lower dropout rates, higher graduation rates and improved standardized test scores, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee gives herself a failing grade on her first 20 months in office. "My goal is that every single one of our children graduate from high school with options in life."

But, "If my goal is to provide every child that's in my care an excellent education, we're an F on that," she said. "I want to be evaluated on the quality of education that I'm providing to kids."

That doesn't mean she cannot reel off a list of achievements since stepping into the post in June 2007.

"Last year alone, our test scores grew about 10 percent across the board, which was larger than all four prior years added together," said Mrs. Rhee, 39. She also said the achievement gap between white and black students narrowed by about 11 percentage points in the same period.

Still, she said she doesn't want the statistics to give teachers and others "a false sense of where we are."

The reality is that "we have a 70 percent achievement gap between our white kids and our black kids," Mrs. Rhee said.

She has set twin goals of eliminating the achievement gap and making the nation's capital the "highest performing" urban school district in the country. Her self-imposed deadline is the end of 2014, which would mark the end of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's second term, if Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, is re-elected next year.