Reshaping Central Office

June 1, 2003

After two years of being relatively laid-back, the courteous Schools CEO Arne Duncan (“You doin’ OK?” is a frequent opening line) is forcefully raising his profile and reshaping central office with unexpected new hires who are poised to execute the far-reaching vision that he and Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason-Watkins have brought forth.

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Duncan puts new emphasis on 'business of education' Grant Pick Arne Duncan, the CEO of Chicago's public schools, is 6 feet 5. The conference chair he's occupying in his fifth-floor office at Board of Education headquarters seems challenged to contain him. Attired in his usual, casual-dress uniform—a tie and shirtsleeves, with the ends rolled up at the cuffs—he has gotten heated on a point about having closed a school that's done poorly. A memory returns to him from the summer when he and his sister, Sarah, were drumming up families to attend Ariel Community Academy, a small school the two were establishing. "I was going door to door in the... > Read More
Shrewd newcomers raise the bar Grant Pick To facilitate his overhaul of central office, Arne Duncan is importing an increasing number of senior staffers from outside the world of education. They tend to be canny operatives with top-tier resumes, a species typified by David Vitale, the new chief administrative officer, and Jill Wine-Banks, the chief officer of the education-to-careers (ETC) program. Here's a hint of what both bring to their new jobs: David Vitale: Chief Administrative Officer David Vitale, now 56, spent the bulk of his career at the First National Bank of Chicago, which merged with NBD Corp.... > Read More
Schools chief's job bigger than CEO's Grant Pick Running a big-city school system has never been an easy job, and in recent years factors such as increased public scrutiny, cries for improved student performance and political pressure have made it all the more arduous. The average urban schools chief now stays on the job an average of three years, according to the Council of the Great City Schools, and a handful of systems, such as Chicago, San Diego, Cleveland and New York, have turned to non-educator CEOs as administrators to better whip matters into shape. Some authorities in leadership weigh in on what it takes to perform... > Read More
Duncan strengthens CPS, U. of C. ties Grant Pick Like many leaders, Arne Duncan has looked in his own backyard for talent and for ways to increase opportunities for the kinds of children he tutored and played with as a child. Geographically, the locus is Hyde Park, the neighborhood where Duncan grew up, and specifically, the University of Chicago, where his father teaches and he attended its Laboratory Schools. Most of CPS's new brain trust have roots in that community or connections to the university. Shortly before she was named chief education officer, Barbara Eason-Watkins was recruited by the university's Center for... > Read More
Funders warm to 'softer, gentler' CEO Ed Finkel As Dave Ferrero remembers it, negotiations for the $12 million grant the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave CPS in 2001 began about 15 months before Arne Duncan was promoted from deputy chief of staff to CEO. The proposal for the grant to divide several high schools into "small schools" had moved along slowly, having a difficult time gaining support from both the mayor's office and from CPS, then led by Paul Vallas, says Ferrero, Gates' Midwest program manager and director of evaluation and policy research for the foundation's education division. "Those last two pieces... > Read More

En Español

Organizando la comunidad da resultados

By: Alexander Russo

El sábado del fin de semana del día de las Madres, miembros y amigos de la comunidad se reunieron en un solar vacío en el oeste de La Villita para celebrar un aniversario: hace dos años, 14 padres y abuelos acamparon en ese solar y empezaron una huelga de hambre para que una nueva escuela secundaria se construyera ahí.

Este mayo, examinaron el fruto de su protesta y continuaron la labor emprendida, revisando planes arquitectónicos y recordando cuan lejos han llegado.

En Español

Construyendo una escuela nueva

By: Alexander Russo

La novata Corporación para el Desarrollo Comunitario de La Villita no pensaba involucrarse con las escuelas cuando acampó en 1998. En vez de eso, como muchas otras organizaciones similares, tiene sus ojos puestos en mejorar las viviendas y apoyar los negocios locales.

Sin embargo, en el verano del 2000, sus voluntarios tenían prioridades diferentes. "A donde quiera que iban nuestros organizadores de clubes de cuadras, la gente les preguntaba, '¿qué pasó con la escuela nueva que nos prometieron?'" dice Jaime De León, el director de LVCDC.

En Español

Un manual: La Villita y Pilsen

By: Alexander Russo

En los 1950s, una creciente comunidad de inmigrantes mexicanos saltaron del Sur de Chicago a Pilsen, en el Suroeste de la ciudad. En los 1970s, la comunidad se esparció hacia el sur y el oeste en lo que se llama ahora La Villita, y después al suburbio de Cicero.

Hoy Pilsen y La Villita constituyen la comunidad mexico-americana más grande del medioeste y, nacionalmente, le sigue solo a Los Angeles. Mientras que estas comunidades son más similares que diferentes, tampoco son copias al carbón una de la otra.

Pilsen

En Español

Farragut: No es la misma escuela de antes

By: Alexander Russo

Por mucho tiempo considerada como una de las secundarias menos deseadas en la ciudad, la Academia Profesional Farragut ha dado grandes pasos en los últimos seis años. La asistencia, la puntuación en pruebas de lectura, y el promedio de graduación han mejorado mucho.

Ahora, dice el maestro de estudios sociales Matthew Katz, Farragut es "una de las historias más exitosas pero menos reconocidas en la ciudad." Sin embargo, las dudas persisten.

Sidebar

More new faces

Other new managers appointed in the recent central office reorganization include:

Marie Joelle Isidore, former legislative liaison for the Park District, is chief of intergovernmental affairs.

Lucinda Katz, director of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools who Mayor Daley retained to devise the city's early childhood plan, is chief officer of early childhood education.

Ruth Moscovitch, former general counsel for City Colleges of Chicago, assumes the same position at CPS.

Other new managers appointed in the recent central office reorganization include: Marie Joelle Isidore, former legislative liaison for the Park District, is chief of intergovernmental affairs...

Sidebar

Official Options

By: Debra Williams

CPS asked schools participating in the initiative to choose one of nine math or science instructional programs that are research-based and have a proven national track record. Sixty-one choose math, the rest, science. Here's a snapshot of the programs.

Everyday Mathematics

Grades K-6

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