In 2002 the No Child Left Behind Act rocked America's schools with new initiatives for results-based accountability. But years before NCLB was signed, a new movement was already under way by mayors to take control of city schools from school boards and integrate the management of public education with the overall governing of the city. The Education Mayor is a critical look at mayoral control of urban school districts, beginning with Boston's schools in 1992 and examining more than 100 school districts in 40 states.

The authors seek to answer four central questions: • What does school governance look like under mayoral leadership? • How does mayoral control affect school and student performance? • What are the key factors for success or failure of integrated governance? • How does mayoral control effect practical changes in schools and classrooms?

The results of their examination indicate that, although mayoral control of schools may not be appropriate for every district, it can successfully emphasize accountability across the education system, providing more leverage for each school district to strengthen its educational infrastructure and improve student performance. Based on extensive quantitative data as well as case studies, this analytical study provides a balanced look at America's education reform.

As the first multidistrict empirical examination and most comprehensive overall evaluation of mayoral school reform, The Education Mayor is a must-read for academics, policymakers, educational administrators, and civic and political leaders concerned about public education.

Kenneth K. Wong is Walter and Leonore Annenberg Professor in Education Policy and director of the Urban Education Policy Program at Brown University. He is the author of Funding Public Schools: Politics and Policy and coauthor of Successful Schools and Educational Accountability.

Francis X. Shen is a licensed attorney and a doctoral fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Dorothea Anagnostopoulos is an assistant professor of teacher education at Michigan State University.

Stacey A. Rutledge is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State University.

Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Historical and Political Context of Integrated Governance
Chapter 2 The New Style Education Mayors
Chapter 3 Evaluating the Effects of Mayoral Control
Chapter 4 Integrated Governance as a Strategy to Improve School Performance
Chapter 5 Considering the gap between high and low performing schools
Chapter 6 Accountability and Urban High Schools: The challenge of improving instructional practices
Chapter 7 Toward Strategic Deployment of Resources
Chapter 8 The Political Dynamics in Building Public Support for Education
Chapter 9 Mayoral Governance of Schools as Laboratories of Democracy
Appendix A Achievement Analysis Methodology & Additional Findings for Chapter 4
Notes
References
List of Tables
1.1 A Typology of the Politics of Urban School Reform
1.2 Institutional Characteristics of School Governance Models
2.1 Characteristics of School Districts with Mayor-Led Integrated Governance
3.1 Identifying districts for analysis
3.2 Measurement of contributing factors to student achievement in big city school districts
4.1 Summary of Control Variables used in Achievement Regressions
4.2 Results from Linear Regression Models for Standardized Elementary Reading Achievement, 1999-2003
4.3 Results from Linear Regression Models for Standardized Elementary Math Achievement, 1999-2003
4.4 Z-scores in 1999 for Mayoral Control Districts
4.5 Results from Linear Regression Models for Standardized High School Reading Achievement, 1999-2003
4.6 Results from Linear Regression Models for Standardized High School Math Achievement, 1999-2003
5.1 Tracking the lowest 10th Percentile of Elementary Schools, Selected Districts, 1999-2003; Percent of students proficient on annual state exams reported for each district
5.2 Tracking the lowest 25th Percentile of Elementary Schools, Selected Districts, 1999-2003; Percent of students proficient on annual state exams reported for each district
5.3 Inequality Ratios of Mayoral Control Districts (75th Pctile / 25th Pctile), Selected Elementary Grades, 1999-2003
5.4 Results from Linear Regression Models for Elementary Reading and Math Achievement Inequality (75/25 Ratio), 1999-2003; with Year and State Fixed Effects
6.1 District Policy Tools under Mayoral Control
6.2 Activity Analysis by School
6.3 Question Analysis by Assessment and School
7.1 Results from Linear Regression Models for Total Revenue Per Pupil, 1993-2003
7.2 Marginal Effect of Mayoral Power to Appoint a Majority of the School Board on Financial and Staffing Outcomes
7.3 Results from Linear Regression Models for Per-Pupil Expenditures on General Administration, 1993-2003
7.4 Results from Linear Regression Models for Percent of Dist. Expenditures on General Administration, 1993-2003
8.1 Potential Trade-offs Given Mayoral Control and the Saliency of Education for City Voters
8.2 Results of Ordered Logit Regression Analysis of Education Content of State of City Speeches, City Governance and Demographic Characteristics
9.1 Questions of Timing and Partnership in Building Political Support for Mayoral Control
9.2 Range of Mayoral Involvement in Urban Education
A.1 Results from Change in Z-Score Regression Models for Standardized Elementary Reading & Math Achievement, 1999-2003