The man who will decide whether Cathleen P. Black, a publisher with no educational leadership experience, is qualified to lead the nation’s largest school system is himself a career educator known for his efforts to better prepare teachers for the classroom.
But David M. Steiner, the New York State education commissioner, is also a well-regarded figure among the school reform movement, whose guiding principle is that American students are best served by a results-driven, businesslike approach to education management.
In the debate over Ms. Black’s qualifications — or lack of them — Dr. Steiner has quickly emerged as a focal point in what is widely expected to be a contentious process. State law requires all school chiefs to hold a professional certificate in educational leadership and to have at least three years’ experience in schools, two qualifications she lacks. The law allows for the education commissioner to grant a waiver to “exceptionally qualified persons.”
At least one elected official — Tony Avella, a former city councilman from Queens elected last week to the State Senate — has already urged the commissioner to deny the waiver, and Merryl H. Tisch, the chancellor of the State Board of Regents, said Thursday that her office had been flooded with phone calls and e-mails from parents, teachers and community leaders both for and against the waiver. She has no formal role in the waiver process but said she would be facilitating it.
Dr. Steiner, who took office in October 2009, has so far given no indication of where he stands, and declined to be interviewed.
Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the commissioner, said the Education Department had not yet received New York City’s request for a waiver for Ms. Black.
Mr. Dunn said that once it does, Dr. Steiner will convene a screening panel consisting of representatives of the State Education Department and educational organizations to make a recommendation to Dr. Steiner. Mr. Dunn would not speculate on how long that would take.
Dr. Steiner has not previously received a waiver request, though his predecessor, Richard P. Mills, approved a waiver for the current schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, in 2002. But in 2004, the Education Department told the city not to bother applying for a waiver for one candidate for a deputy chancellor position, which also required a certificate.
Dr. Steiner, 52, was born in Princeton, N.J., where his father was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study. He grew up mainly in Cambridge, England, though he briefly attended Public School 41 in Greenwich Village.
He graduated from Balliol College at Oxford University with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics, and later earned a doctorate in political science from Harvard University.
During a long career in education, Dr. Steiner has been director of arts education at theNational Endowment for the Arts, and a professor at the school of education at Boston University. He also taught at Vanderbilt University.
He is known among reformers for his efforts to get education schools to spend more time imbuing teachers with practical classroom skills and less time on abstract notions like the “role of school in democracy,” he said in an interview this year.
As dean of the school of education at Hunter College, he developed a system of filming student teachers to evaluate their mastery of skills like making eye contact, calling students by name and waiting for more complete answers.
“He very clearly thinks out of the box,” said Charlotte K. Frank, a longtime New York City educator and a member of the New York State Board of Regents from 2000 to 2002.
This year, he was instrumental in getting the state teachers’ union to agree to a system of evaluating teachers based partly on test scores, which has been a major goal of the new generation of education leaders, including Mr. Klein and the federal education secretary,Arne Duncan. That agreement helped the state win nearly $700 million in federal Race to the Top money.
Henry L. Grishman, superintendent of the Jericho district on Long Island, said Dr. Steiner has also been a forceful advocate for professional development for teachers, encouraging districts to revise and update their programs to make them more effective. “He has brought a lot of creative and substantive ideas to the table, and I’m eagerly waiting to see them come to fruition,” he said
wonder if the geniuses from Harvard looked at the "lack of motivation" and effects of new technology on our beloved middle and upper class kids.
let's face it, the work ethic amongst many Americans is at an all time low. Mom and Dad have made things way too easy for junior leading to a mindset of "the world revolves around their little darlings wants"!
throw in all the electronic gadgets they have to play with to keep them amused and who needs math and science? that takes way too much effort and work.
They'd rather play with their little gadgets. Yeah, that will get them a high paying job down the road!
I've actually witnessed high school kids with the ipod on, ear phone wires dangling, texting on a cell phone with one hand while playing a video game on the other!
If you don't believe me to to any school and watch em come into school.
Wait a minute, not too long ago we had the article about how we do not really need advanced math. the responses at that time said it all- educators who agreed that we do not need math, "average joes" who said we did not need math. Now to find out we are behind again. BTW rolltide, one of my kids would be thrilled if the math teacher would do more than post one example on the board and then give the assignment. Maybe you should go observe that class.
I wonder if they looked at the fact that we don't demand our students even learn basic facts anymore. Far too many kids don't even know how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide without a calculator. If you don't know the basics how can you know the advanced stuff?
Four letters explain it all, NCLB. So much of our effort has gone into the "lowest 25%" that there is little left for the top 25%. Every week I am required to devote one full afterschool session to "discussing and planning" what to do with the lowest 25%. A calculus student needs help that day? Sorry, I have PLT for 1/2 hour after school and can't meet with you then. Tomorrow? Sorry, I have a parent conference with one of those lowest 25% to wring our hands and explain to mommy why things like attending class and doing homework is important, even though we all know that nothing is likely to change.
Sorry if I sound a little bitter, but I guess I am. And now I can see that my pay is going to depend on how I do with those lowest 25%. So where is America heading?
Sorry for the noun-verb disagreement. It should be "are important" not "is important."