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D.C. Schools Chief Stepping Down, Leaving Legacy of Progress

D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who built a national reputation for shepherding a troubled school district through rapid improvements, announced Wednesday that she will step down from her post in the fall.

D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, who built a national reputation for shepherding a troubled school district through rapid improvements, announced Wednesday that she will step down from her post in the fall.

 

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who said she did not ask Henderson to resign, immediately tapped John Davis, the school system’s chief of schools, to serve as interim chancellor beginning Oct. 1. A national search for a permanent chancellor will begin later this year, but a replacement likely won’t start until the 2016-2017 school year concludes.

 

Henderson was preceded by Michelle Rhee, who drew attention — and scrutiny — for her combative approach to improving the city’s schools. In a combined 10 years leading the city’s schools between them, Rhee and Henderson’s experiment in school reform became a national bellwether for urban schools.

 

Bowser said that the city’s school-reform efforts will not slow under the next chancellor.

 

“While we have made progress, no one should think that we are stopping,” Bowser said. “We want to send a strong signal that we’re putting a foot even further down on the gas when it comes to public school reform.”

 

Henderson had long said she planned to stay at the helm of the city school system until at least 2017. But in an interview Wednesday, she said that leaving in September — a “slow time” for the school system, after the new school year begins — feels right.

 

She has led the school system for more than five years, far longer than the average three-year tenure of school superintendents in big cities. And she said leading the nearly 50,000-student system has been strenuous; she plans to relax and spend time with her family for at least six months before considering other offers in the education field.

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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