Who should run the nation’s largest school systems?

By James “Torch” Lytle 

Recent shakeups at the top in three cities have brought this question sharply into focus. In Washington, D.C., Chancellor Michelle Rhee resigned after the electoral defeat of her political patron, Mayor Adrian Fenty. In Chicago, schools CEO Ron Huberman is leaving, six months after his own patron, Mayor Richard M. Daley, announced that he would retire.

And in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped a bombshell when he suddenly announced that he was naming Cathie Black, a media executive with no education experience — and whose own children went to private schools — to replace Chancellor Joel Klein, a Bloomberg appointee who resigned unexpectedly. 

To serve, Black needed a waiver from State Education Commissioner David Steiner — necessary because state law says that the head of a school system must have at least three years’ experience in schools and hold a professional certificate in educational leadership. 

Opposition to Bloomberg’s choice was considerable. Thousands of people signed an online petition against a waiver for Black; lawmakers called for hearings into the selection process, which Bloomberg conducted in secret; and the head of New York City’s powerful teachers union accused the mayor of abusing his power. And the panel of experts convened by Steiner recommended against granting the waiver. 

In the end, Bloomberg struck a deal and a chief academic officer – Shael Polakow-Suransky, the current chief accountability officer at the city's DOE – was named Black’s second-in-command. Waiver in place, Black is now poised to lead a massive bureaucracy that oversees more than 1 million students and 135,000 employees. 

For me the question isn’t so much about how Black was chosen as it is about what her appointment means for leadership of the New York City schools. Whether in the public or private sector, leadership transitions are challenging times for organizations, and the evidence is clear that unless transitions are carefully managed, the organization’s performance suffers, in both the short and long term. Generally, insiders who have been groomed for succession are more likely to succeed than outsiders, and leaders with experience and knowledge in the sector also produce smoother transitions. On either count, Black does not pass the test. 

Historically, superintendents of large city school systems have been chosen by a local school board, after an extended national search. But that practice has changed in the last decade, most notably in New York, Chicago and Washington. Now, political support from the mayor trumps experience as a professional educator, as evident in the selection of Arne Duncan (the former Chicago Schools CEO who is now U.S. Secretary of Education), Rhee, Huberman, Klein, and Black. 

Given the increasing role that state and federal governments play in public school policy and finance, the political muscle of the mayor, as well as the city’s congressional delegation, is a necessary corollary to successful school system leadership. So one argument in Black’s favor is that she has the mayor’s support, 

But Bloomberg’s own political plans are a matter of heavy speculation; the scuttlebutt is that he is planning a run for the presidency in 2012. If Bloomberg bows out as mayor, Black would lose her only real power base. Like Rhee and Huberman, she would find herself without a patron. 

The most salient question, however, is whether Black can provide instructional leadership and align the policies and operations of the New York City Department of Education from her office to the classroom. The best predictor for improved school and district performance is “relational trust,” the respect between students and teachers, among teachers, parents and principals, and between the central office and the schools. Given her background and dearth of experience in urban education, Black will have a long way to go to earn the trust and respect of the people who have the greatest stake in New York’s schools. 

James “Torch” Lytle is a Practice Professor of Educational Leadership at Penn GSE and a former urban superintendent.