Boston's Success Could Be Lesson for D.C. Schools

"The jury is still out," cautioned Michael D. Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for urban schools. "The 2006 results . . . will give him a better baseline. At that point, it will be clear what the standards are, what the assessment looks like and what the results are. Then the system needs to put the hammer down."

Janey's job, most agree, is made that much harder by the District's cumbersome bureaucracy. Some cities have come to appreciate the advantages of mayor-controlled districts to enact change quickly and avoid the public politicking that can paralyze elected school boards.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa has been aggressively pushing a plan that would replace the elected school board with mayoral control of the troubled system. And in New York City -- another district on the vanguard of reform -- Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2002 prevailed in his effort to take over the schools and centralize power. One month later, he appointed a chancellor who reports to him and the mayor-appointed board. "Mayoral control is critical to school reform," said New York City's schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, who added that in New York an elected school board led to "dysfunction."

"You have to take the politics out of education," said Boston's Menino.

Janey, in contrast, finds himself accountable to wide array of elected officials -- the mayor; the City Council; the half-elected, half-appointed school board; and Congress -- guaranteeing that he can never make an expeditious decision without some political overlay. "A lot of people think of themselves in control, and a lot of people want to be. So you have wannabes and you have the people who legislatively have some piece of oversight. And that oversight can be quite overbearing in terms of the work," Janey said.

For Payzant, a career superintendent and a veteran of President Bill Clinton's Education Department, the trick was developing a tactful mix of community outreach and top-down governance. After countless community meetings when he first arrived, some decisions had to be made at the top, he said, "because there was an urgency to get it done." He offered a plan within eight months of his arrival -- speedy by most standards.

At the same time, he moved quickly to refocus and expand the grant pool to meet the system's agenda, raising nearly $100 million over the past decade from enthusiastic foundations -- such as Annenberg, Gates and Carnegie -- as well as from private donors.

He was blunt with benefactors. "I need to have your help in targeting your resources on our major initiatives that are designed to get improvement across the board," he told them.

One of the most critical uses for external money was for bringing up teacher standards. "At the heart of reform, you have to have a clear understanding of what the kids are supposed to know and good professional development to bring teachers in alignment with the plan," said Ellen Guiney, executive director of the Boston Plan for Excellence, a local education foundation that played a significant role in shaping the changes.

Payzant was able to remove school principals from collective bargaining his first year on the job, which gave him the ability to fire poor performers. Although the teachers union has resisted certain changes, Payzant has been able to negotiate some discretion in hiring teachers at low-performing schools.

A "teacher residency" program was established to offer applicants another path to certification. Today, teachers work with professional "coaches" in schools, some of whom are volunteers from local colleges, and must attend summer orientation. Three years ago, Payzant also started a "principals institute" to home-grow administrators.

"I do not know of any school district that has as comprehensive a professional development and support system," said Irwin Blumer, a professor at Boston College, which supports the system with academic expertise and hands-on work with school administrators.

With Gates Foundation grants, Boston has divided four large high schools into 13 smaller schools. Hyde Park, once an underperforming high school, was this year broken into three thematic schools decided with community input: engineering, social justice, and science and health. "The staff is more engaged, and I'm more engaged," said Linda Cabral, who was the headmaster of the larger school and now leads the smaller Community Academy of Science and Health, which resides on the top floor. "Students are less likely to slip through the cracks."

Boston administrators know they still have a ways to go as they look to hire a new superintendent. Reading proficiency must be raised, the achievement gap closed, the quality of schools evened out, and -- critically important for progress -- parents must be brought into the process. But the difference between then and now: The search committee is flooded with good applicants who see Boston's promise.

"We are looking for someone who understands the foundation that is in place and the challenges we have," said the school board chairman, Elizabeth Reilinger.

Staff writer V. Dion Haynes and research editor Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report from Washington.