Fenty Names New State Superintendent of Education

The Washington Post's Bill Turque first reported this morning that State Superintendent of Education Deborah Gist has resigned and taken a position as Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education for the state of Rhode Island. Gist's decision to leave doesn't come as a huge surprise, given how she'd been largely relegated to a background role in the restructured DCPS system under Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Gist was appointed by former mayor Anthony Williams.

Fenty didn't waste any time in announcing Gist's replacement: he's picked Kerri Briggs, former Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. According to a bio released by the mayor's office, Briggs was also part of the team that crafted the original regulations for many of the No Child Left Behind Act's provisions. Briggs's support of NCLB will certainly put her in line with Rhee. Her bio on the U.S. Department of Education site says that she came to Washington as a Bush appointee, and that she's a native of Midland, Texas, the town where former president George W. Bush spent his childhood.