Six years after former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee launched StudentsFirst to great fanfare on the Oprah Winfrey show, the controversial nonprofit is merging with 50Can, another education advocacy group with similar goals.

StudentsFirst promoted charter schools and the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers, among other education policy stances. Rhee created the organization as a counterweight to teachers unions. She took credit for changing more than 100 education laws around the country and backing pro-reform candidates through political action committees.

But the group ran into trouble early. It brought in only $7.6 million in donations in its first year, far short of its fundraising goal of $1 billion. Rhee, who took heat for not revealing the group’s donors, stepped down as CEO in 2014.

Rhee had established headquarters in Sacramento, where her husband, Kevin Johnson, is mayor. StudentsFirst has recently downsized its staff there from 60 to 20. Under the merger agreement, national support will shift to Washington, D.C.-based 50Can while StudentsFirst state groups will retain their names.

Los Angeles Times, March 29
Sacramento Bee, March 29