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I met Frank Macchiarola in 1964, when I was a sophomore at Columbia and Frank was my dormitory counselor. Fifteen years later, I wrote about his tenure as chancellor of the NewYork City school system. Frank Macchiarola NewYork City’s public-school system, the largest in the country, is in a state of crisis. Sixty-two percent of its seventh graders cannot read at a seventh-grade level.Almost one-third of its high-school students read at a grade level two years or more below standard.Truancy is so widespread that twenty of the city’s schools show absentee rates of over 40 percent.And while there have always been some parents who chose not to send their children to public schools, now there are more than ever— particularly middle and upper-middle-class whites—because they just don’t think the system can do an adequate job. At last count,the NewYork City Board of Education classified its one million students as follows—black (37.9 percent); Hispanic (29.0 percent); Oriental (2.6 percent); and other (30.5 percent).“Other” includes such ethnic groups as Jews, Irish, Italians, and Poles; none of whom like to think of themselves in such anonymous terms.The exodus of these “others” from NewYork’s schools has been a significant measure of the problems, seen by some as “insoluble,” that plague the city’s educational system. On April 17, 1978, the NewYork City Board of Education set out to resolve the crisis. Its first step was the appointment of thirty-seven-yearold Frank Macchiarola to succeed Irving Anker as chancellor. In contrast to Anker, who had worked in the school system for forty-three years, Macchiarola was an outsider. A lifelong resident of Brooklyn, he had served briefly as president of Community School Board 22 (a nonsalaried position) but that was all. With Mayor Ed Koch behind him, Macchiarola squeaked past the board by a narrow four-to-three vote after days of intense political maneuvering and debate. Macchiarola took office on July 1, 1978. Almost immediately, he asked for,received,and accepted the resignation of virtually every top aide REFLECTIONS 151 who served at the chancellor’s pleasure.“At issue,” he commented afterward ,“was the ability to work as part of a collective effort in what I hoped would be a changing environment. I wanted talented people around me who weren’t too set in their ways.” Six months later, Macchiarola submitted a twenty-four-page report to the board, whose seven members bore responsibility for much of the school system’s plight.Though they also held power over his own job, the new chancellor wasn’t intimidated. “Public education in NewYork City,” Macchiarola wrote,“while better than many of its critics contend,is still in trouble.Too many of our students are being failed by the system. Our schools produce too many students who can neither read adequately, nor do basic arithmetic, nor think clearly.Too many of those who should be serving our children are only serving themselves.We have not only tolerated mediocrity, we have developed, congratulated, and promoted it.” The man who hopes to turn NewYork City’s public-school system around personifies upward mobility in America.His father was a NewYork City sanitation worker; his mother, a saleswoman. Macchiarola attended local Roman Catholic elementary and high schools, St. Francis College in Brooklyn, and law school at Columbia. Subsequently, he taught as a professor at Bernard Baruch College; then served in a variety of administrative posts such as assistant vice president for Academic Affairs at Columbia, deputy director of the NewYork City Emergency Financial Control Board, and finally, vice president for Institutional Advancement of the Graduate School of the City University of NewYork. Prior to his appointment as chancellor, Macchiarola had been sounded out about several positions in the Koch administration, including deputy mayor. At $2.7 billion, NewYork City’s annual school budget is larger than the total expenditures of any other city in the nation. Macchiarola’s appointment as chancellor was a tribute to both his qualifications as an educator and his administrative and financial expertise. A typical Macchiarola day begins with an early breakfast in the modest brick home in Brooklyn where he lives with his wife and three sons. By 8:30 a.m., he is at Board of Education headquarters in Brooklyn. Virtually all of his time is spent in meetings. Staff members vie for his attention on dozens of matters.A...

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