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Taking charge Quiet start, big finish mark Duncan's first year by Dan Weissmann |
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TAKING CHARGE Quiet start, big finish mark Duncan's first year Smoke on the horizon Politics strain board, union
relations CTU in Springfield
Scott's community, political ties round out mayor's school team |
Last June, shortly after Paul Vallas stepped down as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, education professor Tim Shanahan got a call from a young man named Arne Duncan. “I’d never heard of him,” says Shanahan, an expert on reading from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Duncan, then 36, said he had been Vallas’ deputy chief of staff and wanted to come right over. “He said he’d asked a bunch of people about reading, and they said talk to me,” Shanahan recalls. Hearing Shanahan talk about his work, Duncan told him, “What you’re describing makes a lot of sense. My mother would really understand that—I’d really like you to meet my mother.” (“A weird thing to say on the first date,” Shanahan thought.) At the end of their 90-minute conversation, Duncan said if he were in a position to do anything on reading in the next year, he hoped Shanahan would help. Shanahan made a vague offer to consult. As soon as Duncan had shut the door, Shanahan tossed his notes from their meeting into the trash. “Yeah, right, you’re going to be in that position,” he thought. Weeks later, Duncan got Vallas’ old job. In August, Shanahan got a call from Barbara Eason-Watkins, the new chief education officer, who gave him 48 hours to decide whether he would oversee Duncan’s first major program—the Chicago Reading Initiative. Eight months later, all of Chicago got the same awakening Shanahan had. Initially viewed by many as too nice or too understated to survive the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago school politics, Duncan surprised most everyone in early April when he recommended that three schools be closed for low performance. And he didn’t bother to try to get the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) on board, despite earlier efforts to work cooperatively with its new activist leadership. With that maneuver, Duncan, a one-time professional basketball player, proved that he’s willing to throw an elbow. CTU leadership instantly cried foul, but Duncan had the backing of his coach—Mayor Richard M. Daley—who ultimately will decide how long to keep him in the game. The move also showcased Duncan’s leadership style: Keeping focused on long-term solutions, he moves quietly behind the scenes, seeking opinions from outside experts, making deliberate decisions, then acting aggressively to implement them.
Duncan and his team are asking the right questions, says Peter Martinez, director of the Center for School Leadership at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). “What are we spending on staff development? Are external partners making a difference? Are we getting quality out of the principal and teacher pipeline?” However, a number of looming crises could keep him from realizing his own agenda. (See related story.) For the first time in more than seven years, Chicago’s public schools are facing a decrease in state funding. The new federal education law, No Child Left Behind, may force dramatic changes in the city’s school choice, testing and busing policies, leaving little time for central office to prepare. And by this fall, Duncan will begin contract negotiations with the CTU, whose leaders are furious with him about the school-closing decision. Behind the scenes at central office, Duncan faces an internal challenge that some say could sabotage his school improvement efforts: getting longtime CPS bureaucrats to buy in to his agenda. “He can’t do it alone,” says Bill Gerstein, a South Shore High School assistant principal who has known Duncan for more than 20 years. 800-pound gorilla Duncan draws praise from many quarters for his administration’s efforts to extend a sincere welcome to outside groups involved with the school system, including the reformers, academics and foundation officials with whom Vallas often sparred. But such efforts risk alienating long-time administrators, particularly those who pre-date the Vallas administration. “The doors are open, and people from the board are being pro-active about including [outsiders]—it’s great,” says Victoria Chou, dean of UIC’s College of Education, who is working with Shanahan on the Reading Initiative. Duncan began his tenure by stacking his leadership team with half a dozen outside experts, including Shanahan, Melissa Roderick of the University of Chicago and Jeanne Nowaczewski, who worked with small schools for Business and Professional People for the Public Interest. Duncan has kept experienced hands from the Vallas administration, such as Phil Hansen in the Office of Accountability, Sue Gamm in Specialized Services and Wilfredo Ortiz in High School Development; he also promoted veteran administrators Eva Nickolich and Armando Almendarez, both now deputy chief education officers. All of them report to his No. 2, Eason-Watkins, who was plucked from the principal’s job at McCosh Elementary, where she had won many admirers. High-profile outsiders have helped shape many of Duncan’s signature projects, including the following:
But by focusing so much attention on outreach, Duncan risks alienating long-time insiders, who have had little input on his initiatives, says one former CPS administrator. “The feeling within the system is that Arne has brought in a lot of people from the outside who do not understand education in CPS, and [he] has put them in jobs that pay quite a bit of money,” says an administrator, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There’s no communication with educators in the system.” |
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