A Conversation with Paul Vallas Successful Leadership in the Chicago Public Schools

Abstract

A mere seven years ago, the Chicago Public Schools were considered a national disgrace and a state and city embarrassment. Student learning was way below the national average. Costs and budgetary shortfalls were common place with the State having to provide emergency funding to keep the schools running. It was a huge government bureaucracy out of control. And huge it is. In May, 1998 the Chicago Public Schools accounted for 409,499 students consisting of 553 schools (476 elementary and 77 secondary schools). The operating budget of this school system alone is $3.4 billion dollars in the 1998-1999 school year with 44,960 employees with over 1,000 of those employees in the central service center supporting the schools. Seventy nine percent of the students come from low-income families with roughly 15 percent of the students are limited-English-proficient. The organization of the school district is a bit different as well with over 553 local school councils governing specific schools in the district. These councils are composed of 6 parent representatives, 2 community residents, 2 teachers, 1 principal, and one student representative in the high school local school councils. To say this is a complex bureaucracy would probably be an understatement. With the diffusions of power and pure size, the system was prone to all sorts of problems relating to a lack of focus on learning and effective fiscal management. The end result was that political infighting and a lack of effective financial management lead to a system in chaos. The state, tired of providing considerable resources and emergency funding worked with the city to develop a plan to bring better management into the Chicago Public Schools. Enter the reform movement of 1995 passed by the State and supported by the City of Chicago, which led to the appointment of a new oversight Reform Board of Trustees. With that change, a new management team was formed to lead the Chicago Public Schools. The CEO appointed in that new role was Paul Vallas. Prior to his appointment as CEO of the Chicago public schools, Paul Vallas served the City of Chicago for five years as Budget Director and as Director of Revenues. On June 9th, 1998, Crain's Chicago Business named Vallas of the Year. As CEO of Chicago Public Schools Vallas has assembled and led a fantastic team of committed individuals working to turn around the school system to make it into a showcase of the nation. This change from a disgrace to becoming a show case was pointed out several times by Bill Clinton, President of the United States, recently in his State of the Union address in January 1999. In addition, the President made two visits to Chicago's public schools to show case the quality work being done. Since the reform board has taken over, elementary reading scores are at there highest since the 1980s with 34.7 percent of the students at or above national norms. This is compared to a 21.8 percent rate in 1991. Elementary math scores are improving. Currently, 39.6 percent of the students are at or above national norms. This is compared to only 26.3 percent in 1992. Similar improvements have been made in high school reading and math scores as well. Attendance rates have increased markedly with one school winning the Lincoln Quality Recognition (a State quality award) for reductions in its drop out rate. After several years of declining enrollments, Chicago has seen increasing enrollment over the past 5 years and this year saw the opening of the first new high school in 40 years. I wanted to find out what lead to this incredible turnaround. So I ventured to the CEOs office of the Chicago Public Schools. Below is my interview with Paul Vallas. I think you will find it interesting. The focus is on the development of a team of highly dedicated people that are all committed to make things happen. K.T.: Paul, how long have you been in the role of Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools? …