Dallas ISD under Hinojosa: academic progress, fiscal crisis
11:42 PM CDT on Saturday, May 15, 2010
Dallas school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa uses a spreadsheet to track his tenure on the job, just as a statistician follows trends.
The self-professed lover of data boasted one recent afternoon that he's outlasted all but two other big-city school chiefs, in Atlanta and New York City.
"I sort of beat the odds," he said incredulously. "I've been here five years."
Resiliency and tenacity are key ingredients for survival for an urban school superintendent – among the toughest jobs in public education. And Hinojosa has held on during a roller coaster ride of triumphs and scandals in the Dallas Independent School District.
Since he took the helm of the second-largest school district in Texas five years ago this month, his supporters and critics alike say that he has jump-started academic improvements that have garnered national