Big City Superintendent as Powerful CEO: Paul Vallas in Philadelphia

Abstract

This case study of the leadership of Paul Vallas as CEO of the Philadelphia city schools from 2002–2007 demonstrates that No Child Left Behind has enhanced the formal authority of big city district chiefs even though they are constrained by its accountability mandates and by the pressures from a growing number of influential stakeholder groups. In Vallas's case, he was also able to take advantage of powers conferred on him and the district's School Reform Commission by the state's takeover of the district. District leaders such as Vallas who augment such positional power with their own persuasive brand of leadership are particularly well suited for the task of urban district improvement.

Notes

¹ This research and public awareness project, Learning from Philadelphia's School Reform, was a multiyear, multipronged research effort. RFA has published reports on governance, civic engagement, teacher quality, and the impact of private educational management organizations on student achievement. See http://www.researchforaction.org for an explanation of the project and links to the reports and tools that explain the reform.

² Urban superintendents have high turnover rates. The Council on Great City Schools reports that as of 2008, superintendents in big-city school districts had been on the job an average of 3.5 years (Council of Great City Schools, 2008/2009) An earlier study of the actual completed tenures of superintendents in 50 of the nation's largest cities showed that average tenure was 4.6 years (National School Boards Association, 2002).

³ The state had already granted a short-term waiver allowing the term CEO to apply to the interim superintendent, Philip Goldsmith, who led the district during 2001 after David Hornbeck's resignation. Goldsmith, like Vallas, did not have a background as an educator and thus did not meet state requirements for licensure as a superintendent.

⁴ The percentage of students in the class of 2005 who graduated in 4 years' time improved by several percentage points to slightly more than 50% (Neild & Balfanz, 2006).

⁵ About 15% of the district's annual budget comes from federal categorical funds from NCLB and other funding streams that are earmarked for services for particular groups of students, particularly low-income students.

⁶ Between the 2001–02 and 2006–07 school years, the percentage of new teachers who were certified jumped from 46% to more than 95%, and the number of teachers on emergency permits plummeted. Nearly one third of new teachers were hired through high-quality alternate certification routes such as Teach For America. These “intern-certified” teachers, who were required to pass licensure tests and to enroll in certification programs, were counted as certified by the state (Useem et al., 2007).

⁷ Vallas had faced this same problem when he was in Illinois.