Chief Executive of Chicago Schools Resigns By JODI WILGOREN Paul G. Vallas, the blunt-talking, bottom-line-driven manager who led the turnaround of Chicago's troubled school system and became a national role model for urban school reform, said yesterday that he was resigning after six years as the school district's chief executive. The announcement came less than two weeks after Gery Chico quit as president of Chicago's Board of Education and amid flattening test scores that had prompted increased mayoral criticism of the school system, the nation's third largest with 435,000 students. "I'm gone," Mr. Vallas said, adding that he would stay in the job until Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed his replacement. "Six years is enough." In addition to several years of rising reading and math scores, Mr. Vallas presided over a $3 billion construction effort that built 71 schools and renovated about 500. He cut about 2,000 nonteaching positions and stabilized the district's finances. Given broad executive authority after the mayor wrested control of the school district, Mr. Vallas ended automatic promotion from grade to grade and greatly expanded summer school, policies that have been copied across the country. And, as a former legislative aide and budget director, he was among the first of a growing wave of noneducators taking the helm of large school districts. "He's put a lot of ideas on the table that have been very influential with other urban school systems across the country, and he has restored a lot of balance and common sense in urban education," said Michael D. Casserly, director of the Council of Great City Schools, a Washington group representing the nation's 60 largest urban districts. "He has had a major influence on the whole conversation about urban schools, urban school performance and accountability for it." But as test scores this year hit a plateau and even dipped, the mayor who installed Mr. Vallas and Mr. Chico began to express concern over the pace of progress. Some believe Mr. Daley feels threatened by Mr. Vallas's independent popularity, while others say the mayor is simply impatient. Already, Mr. Vallas's six- year tenure is more than twice the average for big-city superintendents and about double the usual stay of Mr. Daley's top managers. Melissa Roderick, co-director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, which follows changes in the school system, said the city was now ready for a "third wave of school reform" to improve the quality of the teacher corps after an early- 1990's push to get local community groups and businesses invested in the system and a Vallas-led physical and fiscal renaissance. "We don't stink anymore," said Ms. Roderick, a professor at the University of Chicago. "We've now got the problem of how do we really move ourselves up a notch. We know that we've got a new problem set to work on." Denounced in 1987 by Secretary of Education William J. Bennett as the nation's worst school system, Chicago was spotlighted as a success in President Bill Clinton's 1999 State of the Union address. About one in four Chicago students read at grade level when Mr. Vallas took over; now, it is more than one in three. Math scores have also improved, with about 40 percent of students at grade level, up from 30 percent. This year, high school reading and elementary math scores slipped. While such a stall may be inevitable after several years of improvement, it raised questions for some about the depth and quality of instruction. "We've picked the low-hanging fruit," said Avis LaVelle, a former Daley press secretary who now sits on the Board of Education. "And we've gotten on the step stools and gotten some of the fruit that wasn't hanging so low. But now we're going to really have to stretch." Most close to the situation expect that Mr. Daley will replace Mr. Vallas with someone from a similar mold: a Chicago insider savvy in management, not education. The top candidates appear to be the mayor's library commissioner, director of human resources and former chief of staff; a parks commissioner is a leading contender to replace Mr. Chico as board president. The board recently gave Mr. Vallas a $30,000-a- year raise, bringing his salary to $180,000. Mr. Vallas, 47, who flirted with a run for governor this winter, was hospitalized last year for high blood pressure and has recently complained of numbness in his arms. A peripatetic fast-talker who spews statistics, Mr. Vallas said he was exhausted after six years of 15-hour workdays. He has visited more than 400 of the district's 601 schools and carries a spiral pad in his shirt pocket � even on his Friday night trips to the local movie theater � to jot down suggestions. Though Mr. Vallas has previously said local blood is crucial to school leadership, he now seems on the lookout for another system to save. Officials in Philadelphia have already called. New York may be on the market after Harold S. Levy's contract expires next spring. "I enjoy running things and I enjoy public service," he said. First, he plans to use up weeks of accrued vacation days, joining his father this summer on a trip to Greece, a rare airplane jaunt for a man who hates flying and often travels to out of town meetings via overnight train. In Chicago, Mr. Vallas will leave a legacy of balanced budgets, modernized school buildings, and an upward curve on the testing charts. "This is the first time we've had a school leader who actually focuses on student achievement," said G. Alfred Hess, director of the Center for Urban School Policy at Northwestern University. "The biggest thing that Vallas and Chico did was change the culture of the school system. It is no longer acceptable to say we can't expect poor children to learn." ---------------------------------------------------- This is the CPS Mathematics Teacher Discussion List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
