The Chicago Public Schools system had been declared among the nation's worst. A former city budget director resigned as the head of a 436,00-student district, the nation's third largest. All the reforms had produced only modest gains in test scores, not enough to convince Chicago's middle class to risk enrolling their children. Nor apparently enough, to immunize him from complaints that progress has stalled. The former director still drew praise for having stabilized a district that had seemed on the verge of collapse. The U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said that non-educators can be effective at running large school systems because they bring strong management and organizational skills to the job. Many say that the former director was not able to make much progress in improving the two most important activities in schools: teaching and learning.

Dorothy Shipps, Assistant Professor of Education, who is writing a history of education reform in Chicago, says, "Now we need somebody who knows something about teaching and learning. You can only jigger up those test scores so much by holding a hammer over people's heads."

The article, entitled "Leader of Chicago Public Schools Is Now Victim of His Own Reforms" appeared in the 6-10-01 edition of the Los Angeles Times.

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Published Tuesday, Sep. 18, 2001