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Feminist movement icon Gloria Steinem has weighed in on Hearst Magazines executive Cathie Black’s appointment as the new schools chancellor, backing up her former colleague from Ms. Magazine.

But if the bulk of the criticism being directed at Black centers on her scant background in education, Steinem’s statement of support might not do any good. After describing Black’s accomplishments and suggesting that critics are holding Black to a higher standard than they did Joel Klein, Steinem bungles the name of the school advisory board Black sits on.

“Now, her abilities as a publisher are being held to a different standard than Joel Klein as a prosecutor, even though she is on the board of a Harlem magnet school,” Steinem writes.

Black does sit on the national leadership advisory board for a group of schools in Harlem, but they aren’t magnet schools. Harlem Village Academies schools are charter schools, meaning they are privately run, but publicly funded. (more…)

City officials’ argument to convince State Education Commissioner David Steiner that publishing executive Cathie Black is qualified to be schools chancellor is based on the idea that her managerial skills will be necessary during the coming years’ intense financial pressures.

But in her memoir-cum-business advice guide, “Basic Black,” the chancellor appointee describes her skills as far more attuned to sales and marketing than financial analysis. While she likes the operational side of business, she writes, “too much data and too many spreadsheets make my eyes glaze over.”

In a section of the book called “Power = knowing your strengths and weaknesses,” Black explains that knowing that she prefers broader strategy to rows of numbers has helped her decide which tasks to delegate:

Over the years I’ve taken care to work on that weakness — taking financial management courses, asking for help when I need it, and not being afraid to let the numbers folks do the thing they’re best at. It wouldn’t make sense for me to pretend to be a whiz where I’m not.

Black’s analysis of her own managerial strengths and weaknesses is one of many insights that her 2007 book gives into how she might approach her new job at Tweed Courthouse. (more…)

“Huh?” This was my initial reaction when I heard that Chancellor Klein was stepping down, and would be replaced by Hearst’s Cathie Black. And I wasn’t the only one. A lot of observers, including many who have generally been much more forgiving of Bloomberg’s education policy, shared my puzzlement toward his choice. Now the question is, will Bloomberg push forward with his usual self-assuredness, or will Cathie Black end up as his Harriet Miers?

Like Miers, Black’s main qualification seems to be her personal relationship with her would-be boss. Beyond that, the question on everyone’s mind is, is she really the best person for the job? It’s not that people doubt her intelligence. Nor is her resume unimpressive. Nevertheless, just as Miers’ accolades didn’t qualify her for the highest court in America, people are wondering now if “the First Lady of American Magazines” is really cut out to run the country’s largest school system?

All of this backlash seems somewhat obvious, and Bloomberg likely saw it coming but didn’t care. Bloomberg prides himself on his maverick management style, and has made no secret of his preference for business-oriented outsiders. When you consider Bloomberg’s underlying philosophy toward the school system and city governance in general, Cathie Black seems like a natural fit. When Bloomberg tapped Klein to take over NYC schools, it may have been Klein’s experience taking on the Microsoft monopoly that Bloomberg was hoping to apply toward New York City’s public schools. What is Bloomberg looking for in a chancellor now? (more…)

• Skepticism about Cathie Black’s qualifications is even coming from the mayor’s closest allies. (Times)
• Patrick Sullivan says the city school board, on which he sits, must request Black’s waiver. (NY1)
• The state has toughened requirements for superintendent certification since Joel Klein took office. (Post)
• Arguments in the suit about releasing teachers’ value-added scores have been moved to Dec. 8. (NY1)
• Four newspapers are taking the city’s side in the value-added scores lawsuit. (GothamSchools)
• A Crown Heights charter’s strict rules mean 16 percent of students get detention every day. (Daily News)
• Paul Goldhaber, the first teacher at Manhattan’s Harvey Milk High School, has died. (Times)
• A panel is urging big changes in the way teachers are trained. (WSJ, Washington Post)
• N.J. Gov. Chris Christie has frozen superintendents’ salaries and contracts. (WSJ)
• Students protested against Martin Van Buren HS’s new no-gym-use policy. (Post)

• Cathie Black’s prep team includes Micah Lasher, Howard Wolfson, and Dennis Walcott. (NYT)
• Public advocate Bill de Blasio calls on Bloomberg to hold a public forum with Black. (State of Politics)
• A long-time critic of Klein’s policies takes a look at how much they have in common. (Education Notes)
• Black’s jump from media to the public schools is further proof that education is in. (The Atlantic)
• The city’s teachers union is holding a series of workshops on charter schools. (Edwize)
• Murdoch’s interest in online learning could make other investors less skittish. (Venture Beat)
• One way to end kindergarten overcrowding: tell parents you’ve got bed bugs. (InsideSchools)
• Rahm Emanuel says Chicago public schools should have their own Race to the Top. (Crain’s)
• Florida’s governor-elect may be interested in making Michelle Rhee commissioner. (WaPo)

Five news organizations have joined the lawsuit over whether the city can release teachers’ effectiveness scores, arguing that they have a right to see the data.

Lawyers for the New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and NY1 have decided to intervene in the case, according to a spokeswoman for the city’s law department. They will file their own papers, but are taking the same position as the city’s lawyers, arguing that the data is not protected under the Freedom of Information law.

Reporters at each of the news organizations submitted requests for the data and the city planned to release the reports until last month when the teachers union sued to stop them.

In its lawsuit, the union’s lawyers wrote that the Department of Education should have denied reporters’ FOIL requests because the teachers’ ratings are exempt from disclosure. The suit also said that making the scores public would amount to an invasion of teachers’ privacy. (more…)

A version of this column, issued on behalf of the Center for Immigrant Families, originally appeared in the Spanish-language newspaper El Diario. CIF is a social justice community organization of low-income immigrant women of color and other community members in Manhattan.

Community School District 3, which runs along the West Side of Manhattan from 59th Street to 122nd Street, is one of the most diverse school districts in New York City and is also one of the most segregated and unequal. There is careful documentation of unfair and inequitable admissions policies and programs within many of our district’s public schools, which have contributed to the continuation of de facto segregation in our district; some of our schools have a majority of white, affluent students, and others are mostly low-income children of color. There is an unspoken divide between schools in the southern and northern parts of the district.

The federal magnet grant that District 3 recently won is supposed to address this reality. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s press release, districts that get magnet grants receive $11 million intended to, among other goals, “eliminate, reduce, or prevent minority group isolation in elementary and secondary schools with substantial proportions of minority students.”

District 3 has also been the location of much controversy and public attention, as Eva Moskowitz has been on the lookout for a site in the northern part of District 3 for the expansion of her charter network, Harlem Success Academy. Moskowitz first tried to locate Harlem Success 4 at P.S. 145 (located on 105th Street), but was met with strong opposition from parents and community members. Then, apparently, she was looking at P.S. 165 (on 109th street). When Moskowitz pulled out of P.S. 145 as a possible location, the DOE already had a “proposal” in place to co-locate another District 3 public school there and move that school from their current home.

Despite all the closed-door meetings taking place, what is clear is that the DOE has been planning to co-locate, reorganize, and shuffle around particular schools in our district. At no time have these plans grown out of a community process that has responded to, and taken into account the needs and views of the schools being targeted or the community as a whole. (more…)

Justin Wedes, a former city teacher who started an online petition asking State Education Commissioner David Steiner not to grant Cathie Black the waiver she needs to become chancellor, spoke on the steps of Tweed Courthouse Sunday. On the left was Michael Meyers, director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition. To the right was civil rights attorney Normal Siegel.

Parents and civil rights advocates gathered on the steps of the Department of Education headquarters yesterday to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s appointment of publishing executive Cathie Black as the next schools chancellor.

Their objections to Black’s appointment were two-fold: firstly, that Black lacks the educational experience necessary to lead the nation’s largest public school system; and secondly, that the mayor that the mayor chose a friend and kept the selection process hidden from the public and much of his staff.

“This unlimited claim that Cathie Black is the best is unsupported and untested in any school setting, in any classroom, by any experience on her part as a teacher or a supervisor of teachers,” said Michael Meyers, the executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition. “Cronyism is not a synonym for the best.” (more…)

Changes at the top, week 2:

• Thirteen of 51 City Council members oppose Cathie Black’s appointment as chancellor. (WSJ)
• They include Robert Jackson, chair of the council’s education committee. (Times, NY1)
• Dozens of advocates demonstrated yesterday against Black’s appointment. (NY1, WNYC, Post)
• Mayor Bloomberg won’t be able to make the same arguments for Black as he did for Joel Klein. (Times)
• Little evidence has emerged that Bloomberg spoke to anyone else about the job. (Post)
• Bloomberg didn’t even tell Education Commissioner David Steiner about his pick. (Daily News)
• UFT President Michael Mulgrew says Bloomberg’s secrecy was an abuse of authority. (Daily News)
• Most districts do public superintendent searches; experts say secrecy isn’t needed. (Times)
• Non-educators lead only 5 percent of the country’s 200 largest school systems. (Crain’s NY)
• After some hesitation, Black says she will quit corporate boards if appointed. (Times)
• Friends of Black say she isn’t afraid to do what she thinks is right. (Daily News)
• Black’s school experience is limited to a Catholic, a boarding, and a charter school. (Times)
• Eva Moskowitz says Black should focus first on school choice and middle-class families. (Daily News)
• Klein will likely work on developing online education efforts at News Corp. (NY Mag)
• Joe Nocera muses on Joel Klein’s relationship with the business world. (Times)
• Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he is confident Klein’s legacy will live on. (Daily News)
• Is losing Joel Klein part of Bloomberg’s strategy for running for president in 2012? (Post)

In other news:

• The athletic director at Erasmus Hall HS had a heart attack — on the school’s PA system. (AP)
• Stuyvesant HS is cracking down on off-campus pot-smoking. (Post)
• The city is trying to fire a Harlem principal and assistant principal who had an on-the-job affair. (Post)
• More than 100 teachers and 135 safety agents were added to the city payroll since Sept. 21. (Post)
• The Daily News says the worse-than-known achievement gap merits big changes. (Daily News)
• Some are saying that Newark is already squandering its $100 million Facebook gift. (AP)
• A new plan for reviving Haiti’s schools is based on post-Katrina New Orleans. (Times)

• No really guys, the Times wasn’t kidding when it asked who else Bloomberg interviewed. (NYT)
• City Councilman Jumaane Williams on diversity: “At least her last name is Black.” (Daily Politics)
• A comprehensive round-up of the studies done on Joel Klein’s policies. (EdWeek)
• Klein says he has “zero doubt” that if he hadn’t resigned, the mayor would have kept him. (CNN)
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Cathie Black’s appointment is a ill-considered gamble. (The Atlantic)
• Black’s description of the mayor’s job offer proves he can basically do whatever he wants. (Gawker)
• Joe Nocera: Klein saw the teachers union as another monopoly that needed breaking up. (NYT)
• Peter Murphy: repeal the law requiring NYC’s chancellor to be a licensed educator. (Chalkboard)
• After school advocates and longer school day believers are fighting over federal funds. (Class Struggle)
• Louisiana panel endorsed science text books over critics of the theory of evolution. (EdWeek)
• Maryland is in danger of losing RttT money because of a change in teacher evaluations. (WBAL-TV)