Cathie Black is the Chairwoman of Hearst Magazine and has zero experience working in the public sector or on issues of education. Yet, Bloomberg thought she was a good choice, stating:
"Cathie Black is a superstar manager who has succeeded in spectacular in the private sector," Bloomberg said. "She is brilliant, she is innovative, she is driven -- and there is virtually nobody who knows more about the needs of the 21st century workforce for which we need to prepare our kids."
It seems to make sense Bloomberg would make such a move and give a statement like this given his history. As a businessman, he entered the world of politics as Mayor of New York City, and seems to be doing a relatively good job of managing this City. Often you hear that non-profits should have business plans, and why shouldn't a city or school? As a woman who has an idea of what it takes to succeed, maybe she can infiltrate this into the NYC public school system.
Personally, I think its good to by a dynamic leader surrounded by a diverse support system. It seems like the public sector can get dry and bogged down with bureaucracy. In the business sector, you must constantly be adapting and innovative to stay ahead of the curve. Maybe she can bring these ideas and use the support of her staff to fill her in on what she may be lacking in experience from the public education sector to bring some positive change to the system.
A couple of articles I read about her, seemed to mock her by commenting on how she changed her name from "Cathy" to "Cathie" to be different. Ehh, I think she deserves a chance. She did write a book on how to succeed at work and life... maybe one of us is reading it now for next week's assignment! For those of you who read her book, how do you think she would do in this position?
(Her book: "Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life)")
--Monica
Monica. Thanks for that. Maybe we should all read her book Basic Black!!! Certainly I hope someone decides to review it for next week.
ReplyDeleteJohn
Monica,
ReplyDeleteI would have to disagree with you. If everyone remembers we had a discussion about managing up. During our comments Amanda, Deanne, Shawnta, Molly and a few others pointed out that there were instances where it became necessary for them to manage up or that they had seen instances where the same was occurring. I think if Cathie Black is appointed there will be a lot of managing up going on. Cathie Black, like George Steinbrenner, to me is an example of a situational leader. Being the chancellor of the NYC public school system, the largest public school system in the U.S., is not the kind of job where on the job training is the way to learn the ropes. You have students who have learning disabilities and students whose first language may not be english. How has any of her previous jobs or training prepared her to handle that? If you look at the individuals in charge of the largest public school systems in the country you will find that they have worked for years or at least have a combination of education and work experience relating in some form or another to education. For example, I will start close to home, the Superintendent of the Newark, NJ Public School system is Dr. Clifford B. Janey. Dr. Janey has a B.A. in Sociology, a Masters Degree in Education, and a PhD in education. The Superintendent of the Buffalo, the second largest city in NY, Public School system is Dr. James A. Williams. Dr. Williams has a B.S. in business administration, a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology, and a PhD in Education. If we go across the country similar credentials are shown. The Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public School system, the third largest public school system in the country, is Ron Huberman who has a B.A. in english and psychology and a Masters in Social Service Administration. And the individual in charge of the second largest public school system in the country, the LA Unified School District, is Ramon C. Cortines. Mr. Cortines has a B.A. in speech and education and two masters degrees. One in School Administration and the other in Adult Learning. Furthermore, Mr. Cortines has advised every President or his Secretary of Education since the Carter administration.
The argument against Cathie Black is further strengthened by various job descriptions in the education field and the NYC Department of Education's own criteria. For example, the Borough of Manhattan Community College is currently seeking a President. According to the CUNY vacancy announcement the prospective individual should have among other things a doctorate, college-level teaching experience, and demonstrated leadership in developing academic programs. In addition according to the NYC Department of Education's website in order to qualify for a supervisory position in the NYC Department of Education you need at least one of the following:
>School Administrator and Supervisor (SAS) certificate
>School District Administrator (SDA) certificate
>School Building Leader (SBL) certificate
>School District Leader (SDL) certificate
If that is not enough how can someone with only a bachelors lead an organization which requires a minimum of a masters to be a part of it. You need at least a masters degree in order to be able to teach in the public schools. Frankly, I do think publishing a book is an indication of anything. I think Sean mentioned during his presentation that if your a big name or have money getting published is not difficult.
Gaurav "Mike" Bawa
I'd like to be slightly optimistic.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that it is important and beneficial to have a background in education. It is entirely different sector than the business/journalism world and while some skills may be transferable, there are many other issues that must be managed in a different way.
It is ironic she can have such a job on only a bachelor's and nothing higher or relevant to education. If she stayed in the business field, given her experience and success, I think it could balance out her lack of a higher level degree. Given that she has no experience in education, it makes it harder to cancel out the lack of relevant higher education.
Nonetheless, I will picture this job as similar to being President. You just cannot know everything. You must rely on a highly knowledgeable support team to help with important decisions. Therefore, I think playing off her business experience and resourcefulness, if paired with competent education leaders, she has a chance for success. She is just the head icon and the one seemingly responsible for everything NYC DOE, but I am sure it is a team that will really help her accomplish her job. And her who gets the blame, almost alone, for any failures.
I can't say if she will do a great job or not, but I think she deserves a fair chance.
-Monica
Monica,
ReplyDeleteI'm usually quite the optimist myself, however, I must honestly say that I'm disturbed that Mayor Bloomberg selected Cathie Black as Chancellor Klein's successor.
I agree with you that you cannot know everything and that it's important to rely on a highly knowledgeable support team, but I agree with Mike that this is not the kind of position where learning the ropes on the job is appropriate. I think that a good candidate for this position is one who--at the minimum--has experience in education, is familiar with the "old system" (the Board of Education), is familiar with the "new system" (the NYC DOE), has a history of success in education and has enough personal insight to come up with ideas on how to improve the education system. I really don't see how Ms. Black's success in publishing makes her the ideal candidate for this position.
I think it's almost negligent for Mayor Bloomberg to hire someone who lacks the appropriate experience for such an important job...then again, I guess it depends on what one considers "appropriate experience". With a school grading system that does not accurately or fairly assess schools' performance, and a performance system that does not accurately assess student performance, I think that the NYC education system is broken, and needs the appropriate leadership to fix it. Hopefully, Ms. Black will be able to do the job, but unfortunately, for once, I'm not very optimistic.
Deanne
I'd have to go with Monica's optimistic point of view here though I'm doubtful as well.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, the education system is so completely broken, as Deanne pointed out, so bringing in someone who knows nothing about education is understandably questionable. One would probably imagine that you'd have to understand the system as well as the demographics to be somewhat effective at the job. On the other hand, a Masters degree in Education doesn't really seem to be a guarantee of success either. There are plenty of superintendents, principals, teachers and bureaucrats at the DOE who have education backgrounds but still don't get the desired results. There was an article in the NY Times a couple of months ago called "Building a Better Teacher" and it talked a little bit about how teachers, despite their degrees in education, lacked classroom management skills and that that was a factor in getting students to really learn. One of the problems, the article asserts, is that many MA programs in Education are more theory-focused and don't teach classroom management skills which turn out to be one of the major determinants of effective teaching.
Obviously, this scenario is different since the position is an administrative job and it doesn't involve teaching. My point is that Ms. Black's management skills perhaps shouldn't be completely overlooked simply because she doesn't have a background in education. What she does with her skills remains to be seen but none of us really know whether or not she'll do a good job. And I think it's important to define what "success" would mean in this case too. If Ms. Black does a good job of managing the public school system's finances and ends up saving or bringing in new money (I don't really know how it works), then that could be seen as a success. Likewise, if she ends up laying-off teachers or starts warring with the unions, that may be a sign of failure.
Back in 2007, there was an equal amount of cynicism about Obama's lack of executive experience since his background was mostly legislative. Essentially, he had no experience governing. Remember the whole "experience" versus "change" argument? Well now that he's president, we can judge his effectiveness as the country's chief executive officer. I think there's a fair amount of criticism one can make about how he's managed the economy, the war, health care, the political climate, etc. But legislatively speaking, he's been quite successful. (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQhVkLU8vqE) But again, it depends on how you measure success because the massive unemployment rate can definitely be an argument for failure.
So maybe we should hold off on the topic until the new chancellor actually starts the job (and has something to show or not show for it.) But even then it might be good to think about how we would define her success or failure.
I write this with the utmost optimism but honestly, I'm still stuck on the question of why and how Mayor Bloomberg chose her for the job.
-Conchita
I'm with Mike on this one.
ReplyDeleteBefore commmenting I really took the time to research Mrs Black, and she seems like a very ambitious person but what does that equate with? There are plenty of ambitious people that messed up our financial system due to their power hunger and greed.
I, think the school system is an area of which the mayor has been lacking. This is a very complex subject that seems to take alot of stakeholders and money! I think that Bloomberg's track record in the education field (especially in comparison to his track record in other important governing aspects) speaks volumes.
I also don't beleive that school is something to be put in this market perspective. There is no quick fix. We need a combination of all. Cathie Black is an extreme, she is out of touch! She didnt even send her own child to public school and went to a catholic school herself. Does she even have any passion for education? Or is this just another title?
I wish I could be more optimisitc, but understanding many of the complexities of Education policy, funding sources, and stakeholders, I just don't think she has the technical knowledge or political connections to bring the right change.
I think Bloomberg would have done better by getting someone from the AFT Teachers Union, or someone who has better ties with them to help him negotiate!
Helga Nyanffor