Governance and Urban School Improvement: Lessons for New
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Governance and Urban School Improvement: Lessons for New Jersey From Nine Cities THE INSTITUTE ON EDUCATION LAW AND POLICY RUTGERS - NEWARK Ruth Moscovitch Alan R. Sadovnik Jason M. Barr Tara Davidson Teresa L. Moore Roslyn Powell Paul L.Tractenberg Eric Wagman Peijia Zha i TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 1 I. BACKGROUND: SCHOOL GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES ............................................................................................................................................. 3 FORMS OF GOVERNACE OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS ............................................... 3 BRIEF HISTORY OF MAYORAL INVOLVEMENT IN PUBLIC EDUCATION ..... 4 CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF MAYORAL INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOL GOVERNANCE AND “CONTROL” ............................................................................ 5 ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF AND AGAINST STRONG MAYORAL INVOLVEMENT ........................................................................................................... 6 Arguments in Support of Strong Mayoral Involvement ............................................. 6 Arguments against Strong Mayoral Involvement ....................................................... 8 HOW HAVE RESEARCHERS ANALYZED THE EFFECTS OF STRONG MAYORAL INVOLVEMENT? .................................................................................... 9 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS...................................................................................... 10 RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................................................. 12 II. POLITICAL HISTORY AND LEGAL CONTEXT ................................................... 14 A. BALTIMORE ......................................................................................................... 14 After threatened takeover, shared state and city governance .................................... 14 How shared state/city governance came to Baltimore .............................................. 14 Legal framework of school district governance in Baltimore .................................. 17 B. BOSTON ................................................................................................................. 19 The mayor leads the city schools from controversy to innovation ........................... 19 How mayoral control came to Boston ...................................................................... 19 Legal framework of school district governance in Boston ....................................... 22 C. CHICAGO ............................................................................................................... 24 Thrusting responsibility onto a mayor who took up the mantle of reform ............... 24 How mayoral control came to Chicago .................................................................... 24 Legal framework of school district governance in Chicago ..................................... 27 D. CLEVELAND ......................................................................................................... 28 Facing tough challenges, Cleveland embraces mayoral control ............................... 28 How mayoral control came to Cleveland .................................................................. 28 Legal framework of school district governance in Cleveland .................................. 31 E. DETROIT ................................................................................................................ 34 After an arranged marriage, Detroit voters divorce mayoral control ........................ 34 How mayoral control came to Detroit and left again ................................................ 34 Legal framework of school district governance in Detroit ....................................... 37 ii F. HARTFORD ............................................................................................................ 40 Emerging from a state takeover, the mayor takes personal control as head of the board of education..................................................................................................... 40 How the mayor got so much power over the school system..................................... 40 Legal framework of school district governance in Hartford ..................................... 44 G. NEW YORK CITY ................................................................................................. 45 Mayoral control wins in the tug-of-war between decentralization and centralizatio 45 How mayoral control came to the largest school system in the country .................. 45 Legal framework of school district governance in New York .................................. 49 H. PHILADELPHIA .................................................................................................... 55 Moving away from local control, the state takes over and experiments with the “diverse provider” model .......................................................................................... 55 How the “diverse provider model” came into being ................................................. 55 Legal framework of public school governance in Philadelphia ................................ 58 I. WASHINGTON, D.C. .............................................................................................. 59 New powers for the mayor in 2007 and the will to use them. .................................. 59 How mayoral control came to D.C. .......................................................................... 60 Legal framework of school district governance in Washington, D.C. ...................... 63 J. NEW JERSEY .......................................................................................................... 65 Legal framework of school district governance ........................................................ 65 III. FINDINGS .................................................................................................................. 69 A. QUALITATIVE FINDINGS: STAKEHOLDER SATISFACTION WITH NEW GOVERNANCE MODELS ......................................................................................... 69 Superintendents, CEOs and board numbers .............................................................. 69 Teachers and unions .................................................................................................. 75 Parents ....................................................................................................................... 78 Business and philanthropic communities .................................................................. 80 B. QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS .............................. 82 City portraits ............................................................................................................. 82 Population characteristics ......................................................................................... 84 Income and poverty ................................................................................................... 87 Education-related ...................................................................................................... 89 Mayoral involvement and student enrollment .......................................................... 91 Student-teacher ratios................................................................................................ 93 Assessment data ........................................................................................................ 95 Broad Foundation Data ........................................................................................... 106 Statistical evaluation ............................................................................................... 112 IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................... 113 A. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................... 113 B. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NEW JERSEY CITIES ....................................... 116 APPENDIX A INTERVIEWS: PEOPLE AND DATES ............................................. 121 iii APPENDIX B SCHOOL DISTRICT GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP, 1990’s - 2010 ........................................................................................ 123 APPENDIX C TEACHER UNION CONTRACTS ...................................................... 124 APPENDIX D DATA SOURCES FOR “AT A GLANCE” CHARTS IN SECTION I ........................................................................................... 125 APPENDIX E DATA SOURCES FOR QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS IN SECTION III .......................................................................................... 126 APPENDIX F DISTRICT DATA: SELF-REPORTED PERFORMANCE SUMMARIES ........................................................................................ 127 ABOUT THE AUTHORS .............................................................................................. 133 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Averages of Changes in Cities Variables (1990-2008)* ..................................