The head of the nation’s largest public school system is stepping down. Joel Klein has been the Chancellor of the New York City Schools for eight years. Klein is a former Justice Department official who was appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. His replacement, Cathie Black, also comes from outside the education world. Black is the chair of Hearst Magazines.
For the past eight years, New York City has been a testing ground for urban education reform. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration has opened hundreds of small new schools while closing others that were low-performing. The city has fostered dozens of privately managed charter schools. And test scores have gone up.
As a result, Bloomberg’s Chancellor -- Joel Klein -- became one of the most influential school reformers in the country. In announcing his resignation Tuesday at City Hall, Klein told the mayor he was grateful to have had the chance. "Thank you for giving me the best job that I’ve ever had and I’ve had a lot of great ones," he said, while standing next to Bloomberg.
Klein’s next job will be at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. In a city full of media powerhouses, including its mayor, Klein’s replacement is Hearst Magazines chairman Cathie Black. She was previously publisher of USA Today. Though she has no experience running schools, Bloomberg said there are plenty of educators in the system. What it needs, he said, is a world class manager.
"Our problem is making sure that an organization with a $23 billion budget, with 135,000 employees, that has to deal with every level of government, that has to deal with all sorts of social problems, is able to function," he explained.
But it must do more than function. Bloomberg said the city schools must do a better job of preparing students for college and work. Though the city’s four-year graduation rate has improved, it’s just 60 percent.
Black pledged to continue Klein’s reforms while creating more high quality schools, including charters. Though her own children attended private boarding schools, she said she was passionate about improving public education and honored to be chosen as Chancellor.
"I have no illusion about this being an easy next three years," she stated. "Quite the opposite. But what I ask for is your patience as I get up to speed on all of the issues facing K-12 education today. What I can promise is that I will listen to your concerns, your interests, and your expectations. In turn I ask the same of you."
But her appointment was instantly attacked by parents and politicians who have criticized Bloomberg and Klein. They’ve complained about not being consulted when the city closed more than 90 schools while opening hundreds of small schools and charters -- often in the very same buildings. They also note that the pass rate on math and reading tests fell dramatically this year after the state raised the bar. Zakiyah Ansari, a parent leader with the Coalition for Educational Justice, said the city needs an experienced educator.
"We really need someone who knows what it looks like to turn around a school," she said. "Who knows what it is to work with community. Because that’s the vision that we know will work in our schools."
Critics of Bloomberg and Klein have also complained about the city’s relentless focus on testing. Klein gave principals more control over their schools. But in exchange he held them more accountable for performance – giving out annual A through F letter grades based largely on test scores. He also created a new online computer network for tracking student achievement. Those reforms have now been embraced by President Obama’s administration.
One reason Klein got a lot done is because he stayed for eight years, longer than almost any other city chancellor. Bloomberg appointed him in 2002 after persuading the state to put the mayor in charge of the schools instead of a board of education. Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of Great City Schools, says Klein made the most of his time. "I think he made an important calculation that he was going to push as hard as he could on a system that it was very hard to move because of its sheer size," Casserly explained. "And I think taught all of us a lot about how to structure and define and think about reform in urban education."
Klein’s successor has tremendous challenges. The city is planning another round of budget cuts. And the teachers union has been without a contract since last year. Cathie Black has promised to reach out to teachers, parents and administrators. She may need all of their support in the hard months ahead.
To read more and listen to an interview with Beth Fertig about Joel Klein's resignation on NPR.org, please click here.
Comments [9]
We are fighting this. Will you join? www.dearcommissionersteiner.info
I'm a high school student. I've been placed in Special Education for 13 years. Why did the Committee of Special Education put me in advanced placement with handicaps? Can you change the graduation age from 21 to 18? I'm supposed to graduate at 18 my school didn't let me do it. I should've told my teachers I don't like Special Education. If I was starting high school as a freshman, I would've started General Education. I'm like the popular high school students. Why does Special Education put high school students in District 75? District 75 is for young kids. What's the problem?
Since Reaganomics there has been an attack on Middle Class; specifically the destruction of Union jobs.
I always believed Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg's campaign to villianize public school teaches by portraying them as incompetents was to shift public opinion to favor Charter Schools. Once Public Schools become a thing of the past Charter School teachers will find their salaries decrease and their job security at the mercy of the Principal without any union protection. Once the Teacher's Union is gone all other Government Unions will easily topple over.
Our children will then be educated; of the Corporation, by the Corporation, for the Corporation. They are already re-writing the school text books in Texas. The re-education of our children will limit their thinking skills to taking tests but not to critique on what's going on around them - an uneducated population is a population that will be easily controlled; resulting in the end of the American Middle Class.
Yes, schools should be run exactly like businesses. It's worked so well for the past 25 years.
It's Nanny Bloomberg's world, we just live in it.
I am a parent of two children in the public schools and for the last 7 years the President of Community District Education Council 26. During the reign of Klein, laws requiring parental input were ignored, school districts that served parents on a local level were destroyed, and in general parents became disenfranchised. This better enabled Klein to push his version of reform that narrowed curriculum to be only test prep and defined accountability as how well students did on standard tests in two subjects. His ignorance of the education system allowed him to believe what he wrought was an improvement. His claims that he saved the system millions of dollars were never substantiated by a non-DOE agency. His use of outside consultants to evaluate schools was an insult to District Superintendants and a violation of the law. His grading of schools debased the concept of a well rounded education and only served his purpose of closing schools and replacing them with schools that he could better control through Principals who graduated from his Academy, or schools that could make money for people the Mayor needed or liked. His shaking up of the non-funcitioning education system merely replaced it with a system of non-education "experts" who were beholden to only the Mayor and in many ways more political than those they replaced. Now Klein is gone, that is good riddance. With Black, another education system ignorant, nothing will change and our only hope is that she doesn't feel compelled to do anything before Bloomberg's third, and hopefully final, term is done.
I am not a teacher and have never been one. The objections are expected, but the start by asking for patience seems to go against the rationale for the choice: Can't I magine any new CEO doing that sort of plea. In the Ed. arena, can't imagine michelle rhee doing that either. gm has hired and fired a few leaders in the past year who weren't "car guys"--but I heard no apology, even for the failures. Also--it should be noted that managing to the unique set of intangible outcomes in education, i.e. "Is our children learning?" as goes the famous quote, isn't equally supported by a history of managing balance sheet health, cash flow (less but still true given the type of spending that must happen in Ed.), ROE, ROI, etc. i fo fully expect an alchemy of Ed. ROI's though as they easily give brand credence to any effort, whether they are actual ROI measures or not. Finally--I must ask the media not to just say she's "decisive" without asking whether she was effective, too. We can't keep breeding "deciders."
This decision by Bloomberg is completely tone-deaf. It speaks of a deep disrespect of New York City school teachers, administrators, students and parents to say that the best person to be in charge of this complex system is someone who has never set foot inside its halls until this moment. Schools are not corporations, and cannot effectively be run that way. Teachers are not a sales force. Students are not customers, they are students. That is a unique status that is different from walking into McDonalds and deciding whether you want a Big Mac or a Filet o Fish. This is an insult to people who have devoted their lives to grappling with the complex issues of education. Much of what is at the heart of difficulties in schools is poverty. Until this is addressed, until kids get adequate nutrition, health care, a clean, well-lighted place and time to read and learn at home, parents who have the time and the skills to support their intellectual development, then all of the so-called reforms in schools will continue to be shallow and meaningless. We are losing the arts, we are losing any connection to intellectual curiosity as a driver of learning in schools. The corporate model does not work and will not work!
It is telling that in Jeremy Black's NY Times piece today, after Cathleen Black jokes "if you can work for Rupert Murdoch and Al Neuharth, you can work for anybody." He writes "Now she can add another media mogul to that list — Mayor Bloomberg."
The Chancellor works for us--the children, the parents, the teachers, the citizens. And the mayor should be a mayor, not a media mogul.
It's a sad acknowledgment that the mayor treats the city as a corporation. And many reporters feel the same way.
You can't fix education through ignorance. But in Mayor Mike's bureaucracy, experience, knowledge, expertise takes a back seat to management gurus.
I've worked at Hearst as a freelancer for about 7 years. What I saw was a permanantly stressed workforce, where interns filled in the gaps after staff reductions and investment in technology rather than workers was the solution. At Hearst, ad revenues determine the success of a publication. How does that apply to schools? In corporate matching grants? In test scores? Numbers numbers numbers... I was hoping for an educator, not another Joel "Xcel Sheet" Klein.
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