New York City’s Next Schools Chancellor
DECEMBER 2, 2013 PM31 4:04 PM
There’s been much discussion of who the next chancellor should be. I’m not going to name names. I don’t know that anyone would listen to me. And I don’t know that I really know enough.
Instead, I think I can describe things that would be good, and things that would be problems. And where someone who wanted to look for a candidate might find one.
Experienced educator. Some real time as a teacher. I’d like ten years, might settle for five without complaint, but five is pushing it. Would be nice if the person had some time with extra responsibility before becoming a principal, but that’s not necessary. Like being an AP, or playing some extra role(s) while still a teacher. Needs to have been a successful principal. I’d like ten years, might settle for five, but that’d be kind of weak. Might have gone on from there in any number of directions…
Experienced public school educator. And “privately-managed public school” is not a public school.
New Yorker. An out of towner is certainly not a huge problem, and there are plenty of icky New Yorkers, but all else being equal, a New Yorker is better.
TfAer? Absolutely not. Absolutely unqualified on the basis of career path alone. Let them run their anti-education think tanks, their testing companies. (quick nod to the TfAers who have turned on TfA. Like this good one. Or that brave one. Good people, not for Chancellor.)
No active “reformers.” The landscape is littered with anti-public education reformers, jumping from job to job, seeking new cities and communities to victimize. We don’t need one here.
No one who has personally done grave damage to NYC’s schools.
An experienced educator, taught ten years, principal ten, might have gone on to bigger and