Dena Levitz, The Examiner
2008-05-21 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

One of the men tapped to independently evaluate D.C.’s public school reform has publicly praised Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s progress, raising questions about his ability to perform the watchdog role, experts said.

Frederick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, was picked this month by Mayor Adrian Fenty and Rhee to serve as one of two school-reform evaluators. They also nominated Brown University professor Kenneth Wong. The D.C. Council will vote on whether to accept the nominations.

Hess wrote a newspaper opinion piece, published in September, that lauded Rhee’s reform efforts.

Rhee is quoted on Amazon.com promoting Hess’ recent education book.

“Getting Frederick Hess to evaluate how well the mayor and Rhee’s school reform effort is going is like asking the NRA to do a study on the safety of handguns,” said Gina Arlotto, a D.C. parent who co-founded the advocacy group Save Our Schools. “I can predict with 99 percent accuracy that Rick Hess will declare the mayor’s school reform effort a resounding success.”

“There’s no doubt from an academic and research background that the two experts are qualified,” said Marc Dean Millot, editor of the magazine School Improvement Industry and the blog edbizbuzz on edweek.org. “The question arises as to whether the field of potential reviewers is so devoid of people that these are the only two that can evaluate. And it’s not. There’s no reason why they can’t find a disinterested third-party reviewer.”

In the opinion piece, Hess indicates unfettered support for the chancellor’s strategy, and says her work is “not glamorous” but is part of the “gritty, thankless work of preparing the D.C. school system and its students to succeed.”

School officials have said they have $750,000 in private funds to pay Hess and Wong for annual reviews of the school reform effort for five years. The mayor included independent evaluators in the legislation that permitted his takeover of the public school system. The posts were supposed to be filled by Sept. 15, but the mayor made the nominations more than seven months after the deadline

Mary Levy, of the Washington Lawyers Committee, told The Examiner she was bothered by Hess’ selection.

Her preference would be for someone with the background to skillfully observe schools, which would complement Wong’s research expertise. Picking someone that could have a conflict of interest is “discomforting.” 

Calls to Rhee’s spokeswoman, Mafara Hobson, and Hess were not returned Tuesday.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com