In an October speech before the National Association of State Boards of Education, which he devoted to the proper federal role in education, Secretary Duncan said Washington should not merely provide money to educate poor children and the disabled, but should shake up schools coast to coast.
Mr. Riccobono was chosen, Board of Education officials say, because he had a history of shaking up schools.
Mr. Bloomberg said his critics fundamentally misunderstood the purpose of closing low-performing schools, a centerpiece of his efforts to shake up the school system.
But going into the annual battery of state tests this spring, some teachers and parents question whether these changes are enough to shake up a school that has grown accustomed to low grades and test scores.
But in Chicago, intervention and accountability systems were introduced earlier, in 1996, by Paul Vallas, the former schools chief executive, as a way to shake up failing schools.
"They can say the president of the United States, Barack Obama, someone the teachers voted for, supports us here to take some radical actions to shake up our schools".
A commitment to shut or radically shake up failing schools is central to President Obama's vision of education reform and explains in part the bear hug his administration has given charters, which are publicly funded but privately run.
THE day before the government published its "pivotal" plans to shake up secondary schools, a group of parents was herded into Downing Street to hear the prime minister explain his thinking.
Is this the silver bullet needed to shake up LA schools?
After that first year, the private managers can take a light hand or shake up the schools' staffs entirely.
