History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Why non-educator school chiefs aren't the answer
- 11-30-2010
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Guest blog by Larry Cuban/Washington Post
Many questions accompany the current reform effort for mayors and urban districts to hire non-educators. Here are a few.1. Where do non-educator superintendents serve? Lawyers Harold Levy and Joel Klein served as Chancellors in New York City. Publishing executive Cathie Black was selected to replace Klein. Paul Vallas, former budget chief for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, headed that city's schools. Colorado governor Roy Romer went to run Los Angeles schools. Generals John Stanford in Seattle and Julius Becton in Washington, D.C. confirm that nearly all non-educator superintendents serve in big cities. Few small town, suburban, or rural districts have sought non-educator superintendents. 2. Why has selecting non-educators become a strategy for improving teaching and learning in urban districts? Beginning in the mid-1970s, the decline of U.S. workplace productivity, rising unemployment, losses in market share to Japan and Germany, and swift technological changes led corporate and civic leaders to locate reasons for poor economic performance. Within a few years, these policy elites “educationalized” the problem by pointing to low SAT test scores and high school graduates unprepared for the workplace. Schools got blamed for U.S. slipping competitiveness. What glued together this alliance of public officials, corporate leaders, and foundation officials were key, but often unstated, assumptions. They assumed that: (more…)
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