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Miami Superintendent Chosen to Lead New York City Schools Miami Superintendent Chosen to Lead New York City Schools
(about 2 hours later)
Mayor Bill de Blasio has chosen Alberto M. Carvalho, the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the nation’s fourth-largest district, as New York City’s next schools chancellor. Alberto M. Carvalho, who rose from undocumented immigrant and day laborer to superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, has found a bigger stage: He will become the next New York City schools chancellor, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office announced on Wednesday.
Mr. Carvalho, who came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant from Portugal at age 17, is considered to belong to the top tier of superintendents in the country. Mr. Carvalho will oversee the nation’s largest system, one made up of 1.1 million children, many of whom face similar challenges to those he has overcome. Over 70 percent of New York City students come from families that are on some form of public assistance, and one in every 10 students was homeless at some point in the 2016-17 school year.
His choice, first reported by Politico, signals a possible change of direction for the New York City school system. Mr. Carvalho has significantly expanded the number of charter and magnet schools in his district, an approach more in line with that of Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg, than of his current schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña. Mr. Carvalho has led Miami-Dade, the nation’s fourth-largest district, for nearly a decade and has a remarkably successful record. The high school graduation rate has increased to 80.7 percent in 2016-17 from 60.5 percent in 2007-8. In 2014, Mr. Carvalho was named the National Superintendent of the Year. In 2012, the district won the Broad Prize for Urban Education, which recognizes districts that have closed racial and economic achievement gaps.
“Alberto Carvalho is a world-class educator with an unmatched track record of success,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. “I am very confident that our extensive, national search has found New York City the best person to lead the nation’s largest school system into the future.” “Alberto Carvalho is a world-class educator with an unmatched track record of success,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement on Wednesday evening. “I am very confident that our extensive, national search has found New York City the best person to lead the nation’s largest school system into the future.”
Mr. Carvalho, 51, has been in his current job for close to ten years, an unusually long tenure for a superintendent, and has overseen a period of steady improvement in the district’s results. The high school graduation rate has increased to 80.4 percent in 2015-16 from 60.5 percent in 2007-8. Mr. Carvalho’s national profile is higher than that of Mr. de Blasio’s current schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, when she was appointed four years ago, and he is seen as politically savvy and ambitious. The mayor may hope that Mr. Carvalho, who last year considered running for Congress, will be a more effective salesman for his education policies than Ms. Fariña was.
Mr. Carvalho has pursued rather different plans than Ms. Fariña’s, but within a very different political context, and it is hard to know whether his appointment signals a shift in direction for New York City.
In Miami-Dade, he has expanded the number of choice schools and programs, including magnet schools and programs and charter schools and pushed the use of technology in the classroom, starting a school called iPreparatory Academy where students work at their own pace, partly led by teachers and partly using online curriculum. Mr. de Blasio is a critic of charter schools, and Ms. Fariña has not pursued opening new schools or programs.
Although test scores and graduation rates in New York City have steadily improved in recent years, the school system faces major challenges, including persistent racial and economic achievement gaps and segregation.
Shortly before Mr. de Blasio made his announcement on Wednesday, the Miami-Dade school board called an emergency meeting for Thursday morning “to discuss the stability of the executive management leadership.”
After Mr. de Blasio made his statement, a spokeswoman for Mr. Carvalho, Daisy Gonzalez-Diego, said only that he had been offered the job but had not accepted and would not comment until after he had met with the board.
In an unusual move, rather than scheduling a public announcement of the chancellor pick, the mayor’s office said that Mr. de Blasio had no scheduled events on Thursday.
Mr. de Blasio’s choice was first reported by Politico.
In 2008, while Mr. Carvalho was being considered for the superintendent job in Miami-Dade, emails surfaced between him and a then-Miami Herald education reporter that led to speculation that the two had had an affair. Mr. Carvalho initially said that the emails were doctored, then said that they might be real, but denied that there had been a romantic relationship, saying they were each merely being “playful.” The reporter, who had since moved on to the Boston Globe, resigned from her job.
Mr. Carvalho’s appointment drew praise on Wednesday from diverse segments of the education universe.
Shael Polakow-Suransky, the president of Bank Street College of Education and a deputy chancellor under Mr. Bloomberg, described him as an “inspired choice,” saying that he “combines a strong commitment to equity, savvy political instincts and a willingness to try innovative approaches that deeply engage students in their own learning.”
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said that, despite leadership at the state government level in Florida that she described as “overtly hostile to public education,” Mr. Carvalho “has had an open door towards educators and toward partnership and teamwork and has been able to move the Miami-Dade system because of that.”
Miami-Dade serves roughly 345,000 students, over 90 percent of whom are Hispanic or black and more than 70 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.Miami-Dade serves roughly 345,000 students, over 90 percent of whom are Hispanic or black and more than 70 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
In 2014, Mr. Carvalho was named the National Superintendent of the Year. In 2012, the district won the Broad Prize, which recognizes districts that have closed racial and economic achievement gaps. Mr. Carvalho earns a yearly salary of $352,874 in Miami compared to Ms. Fariña’s $234,569. Eric Phillips, Mr. de Blasio’s press secretary, said Mr. Carvalho will be paid $353,000, to match his Miami salary.
Mr. Carvalho took over the district from Rudolph Crew, himself a former New York City schools chancellor. Mr. Carvalho grew up poor in Lisbon, Portugal, and was the first in his family to graduate from high school. At the age of 17, he flew to New York on a visa that he then overstayed. In New York, he washed dishes and worked as a busboy in restaurants. He made his way to Florida, where he worked in construction and said that at one point he spent a month being homeless, sleeping in a friend’s U-Haul truck. In a restaurant where he worked as a waiter, he met Representative E. Clay Shaw, a Republican congressman from the area, who helped him gain a student visa.
Mr. Carvalho, who earns a salary of $352,874 in Miami, would likely take a pay cut if he took the job in New York. Ms. Fariña’s current salary is $234,569. Mr. Carvalho has spent his entire career in the Miami-Dade school system, starting as a teacher at Miami Jackson Senior High, where he taught physics, chemistry and calculus. He went on to become a principal, a lobbyist for the district, and an associate superintendent. He took over the district from Rudy Crew, himself a former New York City schools chancellor.
Last year Mr. Carvalho said that he had been courted to run for Congress, for the seat of retiring Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen He has been an outspoken critic of President Trump’s immigration policies and defender of undocumented immigrants.
Mr. Carvalho came to New York at age 17 on a visa that he overstayed. He eventually made his way to Florida, where he worked in construction and at one point spent a month sleeping in a friend’s U-Haul truck. “Over my dead body will anyone walk into our schools and yank any child from the sanctity and the protection that schools, as sanctuaries of the young, provide,” he said in a speech last November. (This was perhaps more political rhetoric than a practical statement of policy. As a general rule, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents do not go into schools, which are considered “sensitive locations.”)
He has been an outspoken critic of President Trump’s immigration policies. The district has a “sanctuary school” policy, which forbids Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering school property without an order from a judge. New York City’s most prominent chancellor in recent years was Joel I. Klein, whom Mr. Bloomberg appointed in 2002, shortly after he won mayoral control of the schools, and who served until 2010. Mr. Klein was considered a leader in the national education reform movement, and pioneered the practice of closing large, low-performing schools and replacing them with new, small schools. Ms. Fariña has kept a lower profile.
“Over my dead body will anyone walk into our schools and yank any child from the sanctity and the protection that schools, as sanctuaries of the young, provide,” he said in a speech last November. “Not on my watch.” The mayor’s press secretary, Mr. Phillips, said that Mr. Carvalho did not have an official start date yet, and it is not clear if there will be an interim chancellor. Mr. Phillips said that the mayor and Mr. Carvalho met twice, once in January and once in February. Both meetings were at Gracie Mansion, including one that included dinner.
Mr. de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, was also involved in the decision, Mr. Phillips said. Ms. McCray has been very involved in many of Mr. de Blasio’s important hiring choices and recently has spoken along with the mayor at the news conferences to announce important personnel moves.