Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(2003);TheBusinessmansEducator
Reference: Shipps, Dorothy. 2003. The Businessmans Educator: Mayoral Takeover and Nontraditional Leadership in Chicago, in Powerful Reforms with Shallow Roots, ed. Larry Cuban and Michael Usdan, pp. 16-3437 (NY: Teachers College Press) Six years before the article was written there was a major experiment in Chicago = The mayor took power over the public schools
Origins of mayoral control
Summer 1995 - Cost and performance were disappointing, so the Governor (R) out Major Richard M Daley (D) in total control The intention was also to find someone accountable In 1998 a law re-centralized governance in Chicago Schools and removed educators from the system's top decision-making posts The new management team was given great fiscal flexibility All obstacles to outsourcing and privatization were removed There was a lot of bargaining with the Chicago Teacher Union, and they were forbidden from striking for 18 moths It ruffled some taboo feathers: that the Government uses schools to pay politic favors The local business groups were more concerned on lowering costs and limiting union influence Some of those groups were: Illinois Business Education Committee (IBEC) Sent their suggestions to the Government Commercial Club of Chicago had the goal of improving schools to encourage economic growth Chicago United and Leadership for Quality Education Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Illinois Manufactures Association (IMA) Was pounding their ideas since 100 years ago Illinois Business Roundtable (IBR) established in 1991 They wanted someone to take ownership of a problematic system They were more willing to support Daley because he was a businessman and son of a businessman. Daley's competition, Harold Washington, died in 1987 and Daley was elected to fill Washington's remaining term
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NotesonShipps,D.(2003);TheBusinessmansEducator The problem is that schools didn't do anything with the power, because the school leaders were happy the way they were The Mayoral control is a backslash to that 1988 reform The business association leaders were dissatisfied with the management at the schools They started to insist on oversight by an independent group and gave control to the School Finance Authority (SFA) who was business-led Daley complained of micromanaging The net effect was to fragment governance Finally they abolished the SNBC and cut powers from the SFA
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NotesonShipps,D.(2003);TheBusinessmansEducator African-American children were doing really badly while white children were advancing easily The drop-out rate raised dramatically The schools started to be sanctioned, moved to a more serious sanction and back to a less serious sanction, depending on the number of students that passed the tests. There was no real point in all that sanctions system Vallas also started to experiment with dozens of "enrichment" projects and programs to try to improve academic results
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