Las Vegas turnaround

They did it without firing teachers, closing the school, or privatizing the management. Principal Ron Montoya of Valley High School tells the Las Vegas Sun how.

Rescue Me

After reading Chicago Mag's piece on Ron Huberman, the The Reader's Ben Joravsky counts this as the fourth time Mayor Daley has "rescued" Chicago's public schools.

This time around he's bringing in Huberman to rescue the system from Arne Duncan, who was brought in to rescue it from Paul Vallas and Gery Chico, who were brought in to rescue it from—oh hell, even I can't remember. Apparently, the schools need rescuing now more than ever. "What Huberman is walking into is a mess," reads a quote from the story. (Don't tell President Obama—he hired Duncan to rescue the Department of Education.)

Jogging Ben's memory: Vallas was brought in to rescue the system from Argie Johnson, the last of the African-American superintendents (now they're all white guys and are called CEOs).