Success, Baggage Follow New Schools CEO
Mayor-Elect Rahm Emanuel’s pick to guide the Chicago Public Schools is a New York superintendent who raised test scores and the union’s ire in Rochester, closed under-performing schools and opened new ones–and has quite a task ahead if he is to fulfill the education agenda outlined by his new boss.
“I’ve decided to have a fresh start and hit the reset button on education,” Emanuel said Monday in announcing Jean-Claude Brizard as his choice for chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, along with an entirely new school board and new CPS leadership team.
The appointment raised concerns among the Chicago Teachers Union about Brizard’s contentious relations with Rochester’s teachers. In Brizard, Emanuel has chosen a proponent of charter schools and merit pay who also now must deal with an $820 million budget deficit.
The Chicago Teachers Union, with whom Brizard must start negotiating a new contract, criticized the selection.
The Reset Button: Emanuel’s New Education Team
The almost complete overhaul of the Chicago Public Schools’ leadership team announced by Rahm Emanuel Monday sets a tone for the district and aligns with his education agenda to increase the number of charter schools, turn around failing schools, implement merit pay and lengthen the city’s school day.
“It’s a really comprehensive set of appointments,” said Barbara Radner, director of the Center for Urban Education at DePaul University. While his top choices, Jean-Claude Brizard and Noemi Donoso, have no previous ties to the city’s schools, the rest of Emanuel’s pics are strategic and, as he put it, share his “thirst for
Budget, Grades, Graduation, Change: Oh, the CPS Troubles Brizard Will See
Union relations
The current teachers’ contract is set to expire at the end of the next school year, and with education reform bills in Springfield pressuring teachers to make concessions, the negotiations may become heated. “He’s going to have to, in a very short period of time, figure out what he’s going to keep and what needs to be cut back, and at the same time get off on the right foot with the teachers union,” said Robin Steans, executive director of Advance Illinois.
Budget deficit
With federal stimulus funding drying up, more than $350 million in late payments from the state, and a scheduled raise for teachers, CPS is staring at an $820 million deficit. But Brizard may have help.
Brizard Report Card: Uneven Performance in Short Rochester Tenure
When he announced that Jean-Claude Brizard was his choice to head Chicago Public Schools, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel pointed to Brizard’s record with the Rochester (N.Y.) City School District.
Here is a look at the district’s recent statistics from the New York State Education Department.
Jean-Claude Brizard’s district in Rochester has:
*Roughly 32,000 students – 64 percent African-American, 22 percent Latino, 10 percent white, and 85 percent of students on free or reduced price lunch.
*About 10 percent of the student body has limited English proficiency.
*An attendance rate of about 90 percent.
*Rising elementary test scores–until the state raised the bar. At the elementary level, the percentage of students
Rahm’s Schools Agenda | Rahmapalooza Blowback | Blago, the Sequel
NEW (LONGER) DAY AT SCHOOL?
The Chicago News Cooperative looks at the obstacles that stand between new school-reform legislation and turning Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s campaign promise of a longer school day into reality. http://bit.ly/hCTU5i
A charter school advocate summed it up for CNC columnist James Warren: “The mayor-elect just got dealt a much better hand.” http://bit.ly/eti3wy
RAHMAPALOOZA
The Tribune’s Eric Zorn contrasts the Emanuel inauguration plans with the far more modest festivities that marked the beginning of Richard M. Daley and Toni Preckwinkle’s tenures. http://bit.ly/h8ESYE
NBC5′s Mary Ann Ahern accuses Emanuel of retaliating against the station’s reporters for its coverage of the