If closing failing schools is like closing failing magazines, then Cathie Black, New York City's next schools chancellor, may have some relevant experience.
Almost as soon Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his pick on Tuesday, critics seized upon Ms. Black's lack of experience in education as making her unsuitable to run the nation's biggest public-school system.
But the 66-year-old magazine executive's best-selling book, "Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life)," offers some clues on Ms. Black's management style and how she might apply it to the Department of Education bureaucracy.
One of Ms. Black's biggest challenges will be to shut down schools that the department has determined are failing—an effort that was stymied earlier this year by the United Federation of Teachers in a successful lawsuit against the city.
In 2002, as head of Hearst Magazines, Ms. Black dealt with the poor financial results of Tina Brown's Talk magazine. In her book, Ms. Black describes knowing that Talk wasn't working out six months after launch. But she waited two and a half years to shutter it in the hope that the magazine could be turned around. After the experience, "there is one rule I've come to count on," she wrote. "Make hard decisions sooner rather than later."
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At the time of the Talk shutdown, the staff was halfway through the next issue, and "weeping staff members" asked if they could finish it. "It was very tough, but I had to say no," Ms. Black wrote. "Two more weeks of work meant two more weeks of costs." She asked: "Did the staff hate me that day? …Probably….But, unfortunately, life as an executive is about making tough decisions, not about being popular."
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Ms. Black faces a Department of Education that is accustomed to frequent changes and reorganizations.
Her book suggests that she is likely to try to make more changes.
When she first arrived at Hearst Magazines 15 years ago, she said she got "sick of hearing 'We tried that already' over and over again in response to ideas." So she instituted a fine of $10 for anyone who uttered those words, and soon the resistance fell away.
Ms. Black's book may offer some of the Department of Education's 135,000 employees a glimpse at her management style. When she led Ms magazine, she admitted her "direct, sometimes brusque, style grated on the staff" and within six months she faced a revolt, with the staff demanding: "Either you go or we go." The situation was somewhat diffused when she learned to back off a bit.
"I've always tended toward straightforward, unvarnished communication, which I know comes across sometimes as being uncomfortably abrupt," she wrote. "Though I don't take abruptness personally coming from others, I've learned over the years that many people do—so I've made a conscious effort to take the edge off."
An area that Ms. Black must focus on is the relationship with the city's nearly 80,000 teachers. The city and the union must hammer out a teacher-evaluation system that takes into account student progress as part of measuring teacher effectiveness, the result of a state law that was passed this year.
In her book, Ms. Black writes: "Anytime you shake up the status quo, you're going to face opposition. People don't like change, especially if that change involves undertaking new tasks without absolute certainty of success….Learn to ride out the flak you receive in the interim."
As I noted in this post on the day her hiring was announced, this will be her specialty - school closures and job cuts with a smile.
Make no mistake, the face has changed but the policies haven't.
Bloomberg, in his megalomania and avarice, may have overstepped himself this time.
ReplyDeleteRather than appointing a career educator, such as Eric Nadelstern, who had chosen to go over to the Dark Side, or better still a minority shill for PR purposes, Bloomberg has appointed someone whose lack of the most minimal qualifications has already caused allies such as the Times and News to question the appointment. There's bound to be more embarrassing details to emerge in the coming days and weeks.
Evil, arrogant people eventually destroy themselves. Maybe the pendulum is going to start swinging against His Malevolence.
I think you're right, Michael. The symbol was the Daily News cover with the headline "Huh?" When Zuckerman and his editorial shills question a Bloomberg education move, you know he must have really fucked up.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see what happens - this is kind of a Harriet Miers thing. Bloomberg will hang tough here and unlike poor Harriet, I am sure Ms. Black has got her some political skills. Perhaps she an win people over and survive.
But Bloomberg really did play right into his critics hands with this one - how much more tone deaf and autocratic could he have been? And then to lie about the search he conducted, saying it was public and what-not, when the press cannot find even one person who says he/she was asked about replacing Klein. And then the weirdness of not telling Klein's closest aides until right before the press conference.
So many red flags. I hope the pendulum does swing against him.