Three months ago, Mayor Bloomberg appointed Cathy Black as the Chancellor of the NYC schools. Black's previous experience was in producing magazines. Bloomberg was convinced, like many other mayors, that a business leader might be the more appropriate person to run a major school system. The same talents that enabled that a person to run a successful company that produced widgets would be able to manage a huge school administration. That person wouldn't be mired in the bureaucracy and the politics that weigh down a school system.
Well, Black is out and replaced with someone with more education background. Black offended parents. She didn't understand the budget system in New York and lacked a knowledge of education reform.
In Philadelphia and Chicago, schools leaders who came from the world of business or law were more successful than Black, because they weren't complete stranger to education policy or urban politics. They had been involved in education for years in various capacities. Black lacked any experience.
Quel disaster.
Apt. 11d 
Perhaps that myth of the supremacy of business experience can be finally put to rest. I am going to toot my husband’s horn here, so bear with me. He’s been successful in “corporateland” and is the board chair of our daughter’s private school. What he brings to the table is leadership skills and independence. What he very well knows that he lacks is education experience and has an incredible vp who is a retired teacher. She translates the education culture/profession for him and helps avoid many well-intentioned mistakes.
He knows enough to know what he doesn’t know. Something I could learn at times too…
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“She translates the education culture/profession for him and helps avoid many well-intentioned mistakes.”
well, I think part of the problem for Black was that she did not have a supportive education expert who was willing to fulfill this role. Without the buy-in, she was lost. And, the folks didn’t buy in at least partially because they didn’t feel that she was bringing anything to the table that made it worthwhile for them to support her in what she didn’t know (even if she knew what she didn’t know).
I think Black was wrong for the job, but I think that there’s an insularity to education that excludes outsiders and that the educational insiders have to think about and respond to what outsiders have to say based on what they say (and not who they are). Now mind you I think some outsiders have been saying the same gibberish about free markets and choice and efficiency and management that aren’t changing and at some point fatigue will set in (but you can still keep your arguments on the reason plane).
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To me this is less a story of business versus education experience, and more one of the value of industry-specific expertise. Certain talents like management and leadership can carry across a broad variety of job functions, but at the end of the day you need at least some familiarity with the business or organization you’re charged with running. A publishing executive like Ms. Black would likely do just as poorly running a steel company as she did the NYC school system.
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bj: “I think Black was wrong for the job, but I think that there’s an insularity to education that excludes outsiders and that the educational insiders have to think about and respond to what outsiders have to say based on what they say (and not who they are).”
I doubt that there’s many fields which *don’t* have that ‘insularity’. If somebody’s coming in at an extremely high level with zero background in that field, they are in trouble. And if they bring an attitude that they don’t need to deal with the way things are, then they’re doomed. Unless, of course, the goal is to trash the place, which is always a possibility.
And I second Peter.
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