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April 5, 2011

Wanted: Big-city superintendents with Joel Klein’s imprimatur

by Elizabeth Green, at 4:38 pm

At least half a dozen major city school districts are combing the country for new superintendents — and they’re frequently looking to administrators who cut their teeth working under former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

Boston, Newark, Chicago, New Orleans, and Atlanta are all looking for new superintendents, and Providence, R.I., just lost its leader. Deputy Chancellor John White was floated as a candidate in Chicago and is under consideration in other districts, including New Orleans, according to sources familiar with the searches. Districts have also eyed Jean-Claude Brizard, the Rochester, N.Y., superintendent who once worked for Klein, and Andres Alonso, another Klein deputy who now runs the Baltimore public schools.

“As far as I know, they’re all being recruited in multiple venues right now,” Klein said today in a phone interview. “Who knows where the music will all stop.”

The hunts for talent have high stakes for the community of education entrepreneurs that we’ve called “idealocrats.” On one hand, these reformers argue that the next frontier in their battle is to transform not just a school or a set of schools but an entire school district. Yet the same people regularly point out that there is a limited pool of people who are both ready and willing to take on this challenge.

“People are looking for people who have the credibility to speak to the classroom question but also have the leadership capacity that too often isn’t really sought in the education space,” said one person familiar with the searches. “Cities are not willing to compromise on a kind of institutional person. And yet you’re talking about paying people … to go out and take a beating every night.”

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  • Anonymous

    Wanted: Superintendents with Klein’s record of dismal failure, managerial incompetence & ability to infuriate parents & teachers alike. Good luck to them!

  • Sick of Bloomberg

    Ditto.

  • Anonymous

    Two Quick Points.

    1) Here we have Klein virtually breaking his own arm to pat himself on the back for his former subordinates being highly sought after superintendents.

    Setting aside the point that Klein could have an inflated sense of self-worth, if we accept the premise that these guys are highly sought after superintendents, then I ask “why?”

    What have Klein and his cronies done to significantly change the trajectory of the lives of our most vulnerable kids in New York City? If any of the most vulnerable kids have any hope today, then it is despite Klein and his cronies failed efforts not because of them.

    2) Boston, New Orleans, Chicago, Newark and Atlanta residents, please use NYC’s experience with Klein et al. as an abject lesson for you.

    We’ve had almost a decade with Klein and his policies as the law of the land. We have little to show for it. Imagine what could have been done in that time if we had a leader with a modicum of humility.

    If you choose to hire these guys, it is your own fault. In NYC we can at least cling to the excuse that when we first hired Klein he had no record or experience in education. So we did not know what we were going to get.

    You do not have that excuse.

  • Vote NO

    With a 65% disapproval rating for control of NYC schools..Why would any other district around the country want to replicate what has occurred in NYC over the past 9 years?

  • Anonymous

    Maybe these cities are vying to be the next miracle location. The Texas miracle, the New York miracle, the (fill-in-the-city) miracle.

  • Mustafa

    After witnessing Klein in NYC, maybe other cities also want to have a Nosferatu-looking Chancellor?

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Brizard just received an overwhelming vote of no-confidence from the teachers of Rochester. Now, there’s an “idealocrat” for you.

    Gotham Schools, you’re kidding, right?

  • chemtchr

    Klein broke conflict-of-interest laws when he went to work for Murdoch’s venture education arm, at the same time Murdoch bought eduprofit cash-cow Wireless Generation, to which Klein had just awarded millions in no-bid contracts during his career as a “public servant”.

    Clearly, that’s why these districts have no better way of knowing whether administrators will be willing to sell out education to corporate hucksters, like Klein did. They have been put under the control of eduventure-picked Chief Execuative Officers, and they aren’t interested in education at all.
    their corporate backers, not their schools.

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