DOCSLIB.ORG

Human Capital Leaders in DC Public Schools Reflect and Look Ahead

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Human Capital Leaders in DC Public Schools Reflect and Look Ahead Moving from Fair to Good to Great: Human Capital Leaders in DC Public Schools Reflect and Look Ahead Case Study September 2015 In March 2015, President Obama – during a conversation with urban school district leaders from across the United States – held up Washington, D.C.’s school system as an example of what was most promising in public education.1 It was a shining moment for a district with a longstanding reputation as one of the nation’s worst. For years, Washington D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) had spent more money per student than the vast majority of other districts but had little to show for it. In 2006, for example, only 12 percent of DCPS eighth graders were proficient readers, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and less than half of its students completed high school. Even so, more than 95 percent of DCPS teachers received positive evaluations. Beginning in mid-2007, however, a series of major changes were launched in DCPS by new leaders who were determined to provide a high-quality education to the district’s 46,000 students, three-quarters of whom were economically disadvantaged. (See Attachment A.) And they were willing to challenge vested interests and uproot entrenched policies and practices in order to do so. Over the following years, their efforts – in particular, initiatives aimed at instilling accountability and improving principal and teacher quality – reaped results. From 2007 to 2014, math proficiency scores in DCPS rose 23 percentage points, and reading scores rose 13. (See Attachment B.) In fact, the district’s students made larger performance gains than peers in any other state in the NAEP assessments. Yet despite the progress, DCPS leaders like Kaya Henderson (Chancellor), Jason Kamras (Chief of the Office of Human Capital), Scott Thompson (Deputy Chief for Teacher Effectiveness), and Hilary Darilek (Deputy Chief for Principal Effectiveness) were keenly aware in the spring of 2015 that there was still much work to be done. Student proficiency in the district still lagged far behind other urban school systems, and large achievement gaps persisted. Moreover, DCPS’s lowest performing schools were still struggling to attract and retain great teachers. And so, even as they basked in the president’s praise, the district’s human capital leaders were taking stock and considering what their next steps should be. Part I: 2007-2010 Creating a Culture of Accountability DCPS’s reform journey began in 2006 when Washington, D.C. residents elected a new mayor named Adrian Fenty who was determined to fix the city’s woefully underperforming school system. Soon after his election victory, Fenty crafted a reform plan that stripped the elected board of education of its decision making authority and gave unprecedented control over DCPS to the mayor and his newly appointed chancellor, Michelle Rhee. Known for being a tenacious leader, Rhee had founded – and, for the past decade, led – The New Teacher Project (TNTP), where her work had focused on strengthening the teacher 1 Michael Alison Chandler, “Meeting with Obama highlights D.C. Public Schools as Leader in Reforms,” Washington Post, March 18, 2015. This case study was written by Lynn Jenkins for the Urban Schools Human Capital Academy. Copyright 2015. Please do not quote or distribute without permission from Urban Schools Human Capital Academy. workforce in urban districts. Rhee chose TNTP vice president Kaya Henderson as her deputy, whose role would include human capital leadership. Rhee and Henderson were keen to tackle their top priority: improving student achievement. But before they could make much headway in strategic work such as improving teacher and principal effectiveness, they knew they had to do something about central office. During her initial weeks in DCPS, Rhee met with principals, teachers, and parents across the district who provided countless examples of unresponsiveness and ineptness among central office staff. Repair work orders were frequently ignored, many schools lacked textbooks and supplies, teachers’ paychecks were delivered late, and more. When Rhee tried to fire central office employees who were performing poorly, though, she found that this was almost impossible because they had never been evaluated. Determined to end this untenable situation, she drafted new legislation giving her the authority to terminate central office staff for performance reasons, and the city council passed it despite union opposition.2 With her newly granted authority, Rhee fired 10 percent of the central office employees in her first year, but she emphasized that this was not going to solve the district’s problems. “What’s going to solve the problems,” she said, “is creating a culture of accountability in central office first and then everywhere in the district.”3 To that end, Rhee and her senior team moved promptly to establish a new accountability and performance management system. From now on, every department in central office would have specific goals, and progress toward them would be closely monitored. Expectations for central office employees were also defined, and a system for evaluating their performance was created. Other early central office initiatives, such as establishing a robust information management system, would take longer – but observers were encouraged to see that severe problems, which had festered for years were finally being addressed.4 Seizing a Window of Opportunity Rhee and Henderson knew from the outset that human capital reforms would be vital to their efforts to dramatically improve student achievement and eradicate achievement gaps throughout the school system. As Deputy Chancellor Henderson noted at a city council hearing in January 2009: This administration believes, in no uncertain terms, that the key lever to change in any organization is the quality of its people. With that in mind, we are working diligently to ensure that we attract and select high-caliber candidates to DCPS, create the conditions in which great people can be successful, reward those who excel, and fairly transition-out those who are ineffective or unqualified. [Our] goal is to have the highest-performing, highest-paid, best supported, most satisfied, and most honored educator force in America. Our students deserve nothing less.5 Efforts to make good on these promises began during Rhee’s first year, when she and Henderson started to shake up the existing school leadership based on evidence that many campuses lacked strong leaders. At the end of the 2007-08 school year, 39 percent of DCPS’s 131 principals left the district. The next year, 22 percent left. (Years later, a Mathematica study would validate these changes, finding that the principals who replaced those who left generated significant gains in reading and math.)6 Keenly aware of the research evidence that high-quality teachers are the most important school-based factor for improving student achievement, Rhee and Henderson were also intent on improving teacher 2 Non-union staff could choose between being reclassified as “at-will” or resigning and getting a severance payment. Union employees were not affected. 3 PBS, Interview with John Merrow, Air Date November 19, 2007, p. 4. 4 Mike DeBonis, “The Office,” Washington City Paper, November 15, 2007. 5 District of Columbia Public Schools, Testimony of Kaya Henderson, Deputy Chancellor, Oversight Hearing of the Council of the District of Columbia, Human Resources and Human Capital Initiatives, January 16, 2009. 6 Mathematica Policy Research, The Impact of Replacing Principals on Student Achievement in DC Public Schools, December 2014. DCPS Case Study 2 quality in DCPS. A recent study conducted by The Parthenon Group documented the severe challenges they faced, describing “a lack of systemic emphasis on basic teaching and learning” in DCPS. “Quality of teaching is the leading pain point,” the report stated, “and adult job-saving is prioritized over student achievement.”7 To provide the backbone for DCPS’s teacher quality efforts, Rhee and Henderson believed that a robust evaluation system was urgently needed in order to accurately assess performance among the district’s teachers. At the time, principals rated teachers based on infrequent classroom observations that were largely seen as meaningless. Teachers complained that principals lacked the time and subject matter expertise needed to assess their practice. Moreover, implementation was inconsistent, so the results lacked credibility – especially since nearly all teachers were rated as meeting expectations, even as student achievement remained very low. To lead the development of a new evaluation system, Rhee tapped Jason Kamras, a seasoned DCPS teacher who had been named the 2005 National Teacher of the Year. (See Attachment C.) Kamras became the Director of Human Capital for Teachers, a new role within the newly formed human capital department. As Kamras later reflected, the convergence of various forces provided a window of opportunity to make major changes: We had strong mayoral support and the district’s contract with the teachers union had recently expired, so we began by negotiating with the union to shift from a seniority- based system to a performance-based one. But when you stop using years of service as your primary indicator of who gets hired, who loses their position during tight budget times,8 and who gets paid more – and instead use performance – you need an evaluation system. These things go together. That’s why tackling the evaluation system was so important.9 Eventually, the new IMPACT evaluation system would cover all 7,000 school-based staff, from custodians and aides to teachers and principals.10 A new era of accountability in Washington, D.C.’s public schools had begun. Developing IMPACT From 2007 through 2009, Kamras led an intensive research and design process to develop a new teacher evaluation system for DCPS informed by input from educators. To ensure that IMPACT focused on what mattered most, Kamras and his team spearheaded the creation of a new Teaching and Learning Framework for DCPS, consisting of nine instructional practice standards.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Tale of Two Systems: Education Reform in Washington D.C
    A TALE OF TWO SYSTEMS: EDUCATION REFORM IN WASHINGTON D.C. BY DAVID OSBORNE A TALE OF TWO SYSTEMS: EDUCATION REFORM IN WASHINGTON D.C. 2 PROGRESSIVE POLICY INSTITUTE A TALE OF TWO SYSTEMS: EDUCATION REFORM IN WASHINGTON D.C. A TALE OF TWO SYSTEMS: EDUCATION REFORM IN WASHINGTON D.C. BY DAVID OSBORNE PROGRESSIVE POLICY INSTITUTE 3 A TALE OF TWO SYSTEMS: EDUCATION REFORM IN WASHINGTON D.C. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS David Osborne would like to thank the Walton Family Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation for their support of this work. He would also like to thank the dozens of people within D.C. Public Schools, D.C.’s charter schools, and the broader education reform community who shared their experience and wisdom with him. Thanks go also to those who generously took the time to read drafts and provide feedback. Finally, David is grateful to those at the Progressive Policy Institute who contributed to this report, including President Will Marshall, who provided editorial guidance, intern George Beatty, who assisted with research, and Steven K. Chlapecka, who shepherded the manuscript through to publication. 4 PROGRESSIVE POLICY INSTITUTE A TALE OF TWO SYSTEMS: EDUCATION REFORM IN WASHINGTON D.C. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................. ii A TALE OF TWO SYSTEMS: EDUCATION REFORM IN WASHINGTON D.C. HISTORY AND CONTEXT.............................................................. 1 MICHELLE RHEE BRINGS IN HER BROOM .................................................. 4 THE POLITICAL
    [Show full text]
  • Bipartisan, but Unfounded the Assault on Teachers’ Unions
    Bipartisan, But Unfounded The Assault on Teachers’ Unions By Richard D. Kahlenberg central impediment to educational progress in the United States. Part of the assault is unsurprising given its partisan origins. eachers’ unions are under unprecedented bipartisan Republicans have long been critical, going back to at least 1996, attack. The drumbeat is relentless, from governors in when presidential candidate Bob Dole scolded teachers’ unions: Wisconsin and Ohio to the film directors of Waiting for “If education were a war, you would be losing it. If it were a busi- “Superman” and The Lottery; from new lobbying groups ness, you would be driving it into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, Tlike Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and Wall Street’s Democrats for it would be dying.” If you’re a Republican who wants to win elec- Education Reform to political columnists such as Jonathan Alter tions, going after teachers’ unions makes parochial sense. Accord- and George Will; from new books like political scientist Terry ing to Terry Moe, the National Education Association (NEA) and Moe’s Special Interest and entrepreneurial writer Steven Brill’s the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) gave 95 percent of Class Warfare to even, at times, members of the Obama adminis- their contributions to Democrats in federal elections between tration. The consistent message is that teachers’ unions are the 1989 and 2010.1 The nakedly partisan nature of Wisconsin Gover- nor Scott Walker’s attack on public sector collective bargaining Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, is the was exposed when he exempted from his legislation two unions author or editor of several books, including Rewarding Strivers: Helping that supported him politically: one representing police officers Low-Income Students Succeed in College; Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the other representing firefighters.
    [Show full text]
  • 5/10/11 NATIONAL NEWS Digital Learning Now: Online Education's
    From: Clare Crowson ([email protected]) <[email protected]> To: CC: Date: Tue, 5/10/2011 10:46:15 AM Subject: Foundation for Florida’s Future, Key Reads: 5/10/11 Foundation for Florida’s Future, Key Reads: 5/10/11 For more education news, visit The Ed Fly at www.TheEdFly.com. NATIONAL NEWS 1) Digital Learning Now: Online Education's Impact Player; Staff – Liberating Learning 2) Opinion: Scenes From the New York Education Wars; Klein – Wall Street Journal FLORIDA NEWS 3) Michelle Rhee’s group praises new FL school laws (on merit pay, charters, vouchers, transfers); Postal – Orlando Sentinel 4) Flagler's charter schools behind in FCAT; Martin – Dayton Beach News-Journal STATE NEWS 5) Wisconsin Governor Walker touts school choice as economic growth tool; Staff – Associated Press 6) 2 sides want a say in Nevada teacher firing bill; Staff – Associated Press 7) Ohio Governor Kasich outlines his view on how to judge teachers; Vardon – Columbus Dispatch 8) Pennsylvania Governor links teachers' unions to failing schools; Levy – Associated Press NATIONAL NEWS Digital Learning Now: Online Education's Impact Player Liberating Learning By: Staff May 4, 2011 http://www.liberatinglearning.org/spotlight.php In less than a year, Digital Learning Now has become an important catalyst in the virtual education policy arena. The goal of Digital Learning Now, found in August 2010 as the Digital Learning Council, is to provide a road map for lawmakers and policy shapers to follow when developing legislation and polices that encourage the growth of online learning. The group's narrow focused has worked.
    [Show full text]
  • Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress and Reform © 2014 American Legislative Exchange Council
    Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress and Reform © 2014 American Legislative Exchange Council All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by: American Legislative Exchange Council 2900 Crystal City Drive Suite 600 Arlington, VA 22202 Phone: (202) 725-7764 Fax: (703) 373-0927 www.alec.org For more information, contact the ALEC Public Affairs office. Dr. Matthew Ladner and David J. Myslinski Lindsay Russell, director, Task Force on Education ISBN: 978-0-9853779-5-3 Report Card on American Education: K-12 Performance, Progress and Reform is published by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as part of its mission to promote limited government, free markets and federalism. ALEC is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators, industry representatives, research analysts and policy think tanks. ALEC is governed by a board of directors of state lawmakers, which is advised by the Private Enterprise Advisory Council representing business leaders and entrepreneurs. The American Legislative Exchange Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public policy organization. Contributions are tax-deductible. Table of Contents About the Authors v Acknowledgements vi Foreword: Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana vii CHAPTER 1 : Education Reform:
    [Show full text]
  • Roundtable Special Report - February 25, 2016
    Roundtable Special Report - February 25, 2016 Greetings!, The Roundtable was fortunate to have the opportunity late last year to hear from long-time, award-winning PBS broadcaster John Merrow as he reflected on 41 years covering public schools. The Q & A from that session below was published in Valerie Strauss's "Answer Sheet" in the Washington Post on February 15. As noted below, during his session with the Roundtable, Merrow reflected on struggles John Merrow with Michelle Rhee in Washington, DC and with Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of Success Academies, a chain of charters in New York City. Suspension rates in Success Academies grade schools were three times the rates in New York City's K-12 schools, he noted in his final PBS report, while five-year-olds could be tossed out of school. Moskowitz minimized these issues, although Merrow reported that critics worried the suspensions were part of an effort to drive low-achieving students out of school to maintain high test scores. He predicted a scandal lay in the offing involving charter schools generally. On cue, two scandals involving Success Academies erupted. In late October, Kate Taylor reported in the New York Times that one of Moskowitz's schools in Fort Green, Brooklyn maintained a "got to go list" of 16 students, nine of whom subsequently were gone. Next, on February 12, Taylor produced a follow-up story, replete with video footage (above), about a teacher bullying and humiliating a first-grade student while classmates looked on rigid with fear. Moscowitz dismissed the incident as little more than a bad hair day.
    [Show full text]
  • Governance and Urban School Improvement: Lessons for New
    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 ............................................
    [Show full text]
  • What Conservatives Could Learn from Betsy Devos
    What Conservatives Could Learn from Betsy DeVos By Jim Blew May 2021 Key Points • Conservative education reformers have not had much success shaping federal education policy, largely because our opposition is playing to win the long game—and we are not. • We can win the contest over federal education policy if we prepare for inevitable attacks, persuasively communicate, and effectively manage our assets, especially human talent. • We can learn from our experiences and succeed in our efforts to empower families, unfet- ter teachers, and keep education decisions local. But, we must stay in the game and start playing to win. As Betsy DeVos’ assistant secretary for policy, I improve education. The people closest to problems— witnessed the messy business of making and imple- namely, educators, families, and students—will have menting federal education policy during the cha- even less power to fix those problems. That, in turn, otic Donald Trump administration. From that could easily accelerate the declines in student out- front-row seat, I learned more than I expected comes, especially for our most vulnerable children. about what conservatives and education reformers All this should cause concerns about our growing do right and what we do that’s self-defeating and educational inequities and their implications for counterproductive. our national prosperity. Conservative education reformers have not had Given the stakes, conservatives should raise our much success shaping federal education policy, game. Someday, perhaps as early as 2025, conserva- largely because our opposition is playing to win the tives will return to the US Department of Education long game—and we are not.
    [Show full text]
  • Betty De Vos, Trumps New Education Secretary
    AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS PRESS RELEASE 682# BETSY De VOS; TRUMP’S EDUCATION SECRETARY: PRO-VOUCHER, PRO-CHARTER ANTI-PUBLIC EDUCATION On Wednesday 23 November 2016, President-elect Donald Trump of the USA announced the appointment of Betsy DeVos, as his Education secretary. This lady has a very public record of her advocacy in the K-12 education space. The former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, DeVos, has worked through her advocacy group to advance an agenda promoting so-called school choice: Programs that provide free alternatives to public elementary and high school education either through public charter schools — which are typically privately managed, but publicly funded — or by providing families with public funds to pay for private schools. Who is she? Here are five things to know about Besty DeVos, whom President-elect Donald Trump picked for education secretary on Wednesday: She is 1. A top Michigan GOP fundraiser As a member of the DeVos clan of west Michigan, she is one of the top Republican fundraisers in the state. The family has given millions over the years – including about $10 million in the most recent political cycle – to elect Republicans, including to the campaign efforts of two other presidential candidates, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. During the presidential campaign, Betsy and Dick DeVos never publicly supported Trump, although other members of DeVos clan donated $245,000 to a fund to help elect Trump and other Republican candidates. She has 2. A husband who ran (unsuccessfully) for governor..
    [Show full text]
  • Education Reform: What Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee Got Wrong Page 1 of 3
    Education Reform: What Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee Got Wrong Page 1 of 3 Published on The Root (http://www.theroot.com) Home > Education Reform: What Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee Got Wrong Education Reform: What Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee Got Wrong By: Michael Lomax Posted: September 21, 2010 at 4:00 PM D.C.'s outgoing mayor and his schools chancellor treated education reform as something to do to black people instead of with them. Reform advocates around the country should be taking notes on this local story with national implications. For three years, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee promoted the notion that education reform could happen only if she was totally in charge and everything was done her way. It was her way -- or her way. She justified every policy, every action, by saying that it was all about the kids, not about adults. Nothing in her tenure so typified her approach as the ending of it. The day after the defeat of her patron, Mayor Adrian Fenty, when DCPS students could have benefited from an example of civility and graciousness in defeat, she called Fenty's loss -- and, by implication, her own departure -- "devastating" for D.C. children. In the end, it was not about the kids; it was about the adults, and one adult in particular: her. And that, in many ways, was the problem. Rhee came to Washington with experience only as a classroom teacher -- for three years, through Teach for America -- and as head of her own nonprofit organization. She had never really worked for anybody or been institutionally accountable to anyone.
    [Show full text]
  • Opportunity Gap Participant Directory DRAFT3
    Closing the Education Opportunity Gap: Strategies and Challenges September 11, 2020 Part 1 – The Opportunity Gap Ludger Woessmann, University of Munich – Chair Ludger Woessmann is Professor of Economics at the University of Munich and Director of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education at the ifo Institute. He is also Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His main research interests are the determinants of long-run prosperity and of student achievement. He uses microeconometric methods to answer applied, policy-relevant questions of the empirical economics of education, often using international student achievement tests. Special focuses address the importance of education for economic prosperity – individual and societal, historical and modern – and the importance of institutions of the school systems for efficiency and equity. Further research topics cover aspects of economic history, economics of religion, and the Internet. Eric Hanushek, Stanford University – Presenter Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He has been a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues. His most recent book, The Knowledge Capital of Nations, describes the economic impact of higher achievement. Prior books include Endangering Prosperity, Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses, and Making Schools Work. Government service includes being Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office. He is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and completed his Ph.D. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dany Shakeel, Harvard Kennedy School – Presenter M. Danish Shakeel is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Program on Education Policy and Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    [Show full text]
  • VI. the Studentsfirst-Romney Education Agenda
    A Report by New Yorkers for Great Public Schools August 2012 New Yorkers for Great Public Schools (NY-GPS) is a coalition of dozens of community organizations, unions, civil rights groups, immigrant organizations, student organizations, parent groups, education advocates and political advocacy organizations that are committed to turning around the direction of school reform in New York City schools because our children cannot take any more of the failed Bloomberg education policies. New Yorkers for Great Public Schools (NY-GPS) pledges to support a new direction in public education – one that emphasizes collaboration instead of competition, a well-rounded, diverse curriculum instead of test prep, support for schools instead of sanctions, and one that provides parents, students and community with a meaningful voice in schools. Table of Contents I. Introduction and Overview .................................................................................................................................................. page 1 II. Details and Context on the Key Findings .......................................................................................page 2 III. The StudentsFirst-Romney Republican Connection ..........................................................................page 3 IV. What are They Hiding? ..............................................................................................................page 10 V. StudentsFirst: Out of Touch with New Yorkers ..............................................................................page
    [Show full text]
  • Mayoral Governance and Student Achievement How Mayor-Led Districts Are Improving School and Student Performance
    AP PHOTO/DAMIAN DOVARGANES PHOTO/DAMIAN AP Mayoral Governance and Student Achievement How Mayor-Led Districts Are Improving School and Student Performance Kenneth K. Wong and Francis X. Shen March 2013 WWW.AMERICANPROGRESS.ORG Mayoral Governance and Student Achievement How Mayor-Led Districts Are Improving School and Student Performance Kenneth K. Wong and Francis X. Shen March 2013 Contents 1 Introduction and summary 5 Mayoral governance as institutional redesign 17 Mayoral accountability improves student achievement 45 Mayoral governance and school performance in three states, 1999–2010 49 Implications for the future of mayoral governance 53 Conclusion 55 About the authors and acknowledgements 57 Appendix 59 Endnotes Introduction and summary Using mayoral governance—in which a city’s mayor replaces an elected school board with a board that he or she appoints—as a strategy to raise urban school performance began about two decades ago, when then-Mayor of Boston Raymond Flynn (D) gained control over the city’s school district.1 Boston was soon followed by Chicago, where Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) appointed both the chief executive officer and the entire school board of the school system. Over the past 20 years, mayoral governance of schools has been featured prominently in nearly 20 urban school systems across the country. (see Table 1) Mayoral control and accountability is one of very few major education reforms that aim at governance coherence in our highly fragmented urban school systems. A primary feature of mayoral governance is that it holds the office of the mayor accountable for school performance. As an institutional redesign, mayoral gover- nance integrates school-district accountability and the electoral process at the sys- temwide level.
    [Show full text]