What Philadelphia District Needs? Mayoral Control

September 6, 2011 - In commentary appearing in the The Philadelphia Inquirer [Mayoral Control, Other Steps, Need for Schools],Penn GSE Professor James "Torch" Lytle offers his prescription for the School District of Philadelphia in the wake of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's recent resignation.

Lytle, the former superintendent of the Trenton, NJ, schools, writes that the city "should follow the example of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and move to full mayoral control, with the mayor and City Council directly responsible for selecting and evaluating the superintendent and overseeing the district."

Recently, there have been calls for an elected board to replace the School Reform Commission, which currently has oversight over the district. Arguing against that path, Lytle cites decades of research that has found that "elected boards are no more effective than appointed boards" and, moreover, superintendents answering to elected boards spend far too much time managing those relationships.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jill DiSanto-Haines / jdisanto@upenn.edu / 215-898-4820