I could begin this entry in much the same way as my last one, about superintendent types in large cities, because Education Week (sorry, I think a subscription is required) is reporting that the winds of?reform have not?been been kind to Chicago's public schools:
?15 years after a historic shake-up put the city's mayor in charge of public education, the litany of reforms has not produced widespread success.
Some 80 percent of the city's schools didn't meet federal testing targets this year, leaving Mayor Richard Daley's successor with a massive organization still plagued by academic failure as well as budget woes, high poverty and debilitating social conditions that make teaching and learning difficult..
So much for mayoral control, not to mention what is unmentioned in the Ed Week story:?Arne Duncan, who ran Chicago schools before becoming Secretary of Education, and Rahm Emmanuel, Obama's former chief of staff, now frontrunner candidate for Windy City mayor.
Ironies can get a bit complex, but this could be a case of, As Chicago goes, so goes the country.
?Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
