D.C Public Schools

D.C Public Schools

Case Introduction

This case is about the Changes in the D.C public schools in Washington. In the year 2007, the board of the D.C education was exposed of its verdicts and the decision making powers and gradually the board turned into the advisory authority. The new office of the chancellor was also created, and the major purpose of this new office was to implement the meaning full changes and differences ion the policies as well as the operations of the schools without taking the approval from the board of D.C public schools. Adrian Fenty was elected and officially announced as the new D.C mayor, and he offered the job of chancellor to the Michelle Rhee. This was the first and the foremost move of Fenty towards the change.

The job was accepted by Rhee on some conditions, and the most important condition was that she wanted zero interference and intrusion in her job. Along with this she also demanded that the mayor will also support her decisions and verdicts regarding the change. It was also observed that Rhee has no real experience of running the schools and also she had no experience of managing any educational institute because she was not even appointed as a principal of any school before the job was offered to her. On the other hand, this was also observed that she was highly recommended by the Joel Klein and from the chancellor of the New York public schools to Fenty for this job.

Case Background

When Rhee became solely responsible for the job of the chancellor, she was facing a troubled system which she got in inheritance from the former chancellors. The number of the school chiefs was six previously. This means that, in the past 10 years, six school chiefs were changed which was a large number according to the Rhee. Apart from this other problem was that the students were continuously scoring below the average scores on the standardized tests. This was a disturbing historical record. Moreover, the level of the students in the particular grades was not up to grade. This was described by the Rhee in a manner that only 8% of the students in the eighth grade were having the standard of the eight grades in the course of the mathematics. One more, very worrying situation was that despite having the third highest spending per student in the whole USA, the schools were still performing below the mark. The performance was not even up to the average standard. The resources were misused or were being wasted (Hafrey & Reavis, 2011).

Right after taking the responsibility of the office of chancellor, Rhee began to plan the implementation of the thread of the radical changes which were basically based on the vertical and two way responsibility, as well as the vertical accountability. These changes were also based on the results of the standardized tests. She did all this planning in a short span of time, and even the implementation was also ...