Arlene C. Ackerman (January 10, 1947 – February 2, 2013) was an American educator who served as superintendent of the District of Columbia Public Schools, San Francisco Unified School District, and Philadelphia Public Schools.
Education
Ackerman received her doctorate in Administration, Planning, & Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Urban Superintendents Program. She held a Master of Arts in education from Harvard University, a Master of Arts in Educational Administration and Policy from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Harris Stowe Teacher's College in St. Louis, Missouri. She received an honorary degree from Trinity College in May 2000.
Career
Ackerman's had experience as a classroom teacher at both the elementary and middle school levels; principal at the middle school level; Director, Upward Bound Program for first-generation college-bound students; Director, Basic Skills Academy for at-risk high school youth; Assistant Superintendent, Special Services; Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Academic Achievement; and Deputy Superintendent/Chief Academic Officer.
Washington, D.C. In August 1997, D.C. schools chief executive James W. Becton, Jr. appointed Ackerman as his deputy and chief academic officer. At the time, the federal District of Columbia Financial Control Board oversaw finances and government decisions in the District. She became superintendent of the D.C. public schools from May 1998 until July 17, 2000.
San Francisco
Ackerman was the superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District from August 1, 2000, to June 30, 2006. She was the district's first female superintendent.
During her tenure in San Francisco, the district was nominated as one of the five finalists for the 2005 Broad Prize for Urban Education, given annually to the best urban school district in the country. The city's public schools with, 62,000 students and 117 schools, attained five consecutive years of improved achievement for all groups of students while also holding the distinction as the highest performing large urban school district in the state of California during the last two years of her superintendence. However, African American students' standardized test scores still lagged behind their peers.
Ackerman's accomplishments include implementing equity measures in San Francisco's schools, including extra support for low-performing schools; the "weighted student formula," in which funding followed each student in different amounts depending on the student's needs; and "site-based budgeting," which gave schools (as opposed to district bureaucrats) far more control over their own budgets. After the implementing the program, 86% of the district's underperforming schools made continued progress, with all student groups demonstrating improved results and scoring above the state and national averages in reading and in math.
Her critics claimed that Ackerman had opposed efforts by the city's Youth Commission to address sexual assaults in the public schools and that Ackerman ordered staffers to not talk to the press. Due to her efforts to maintain fiscal discipline in an era of tight finances, Ackerman's relations with the teachers' union, United Educators of San Francisco, became strained.
The Board unanimously invoked the "compatibility clause" in Ackerman's contract in September 2005, mutually agreeing to Ackerman's resignation within the next year. Commissioner Daniel P. Kelly, an ally of Ackerman's, said that she was "being forced out" due to the "intolerable" infighting. Her opponents, Sarah Lipson and Eric Mar, expressed relief over her resignation.
In May 2007, she sued the district, asserting that they had not paid the over $170,000 of her agreed-on severance compensation. She dropped the suit the following month.
New York
Ackerman joined Teachers College, Columbia University, where she served as Director of the Urban Education Leaders Program and Chairperson of the Superintendents and Scholars Symposium. The Urban Leaders Education Program is the college's largest doctoral program for public-school leaders. She joined Teachers College's Education Leadership faculty as the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Outstanding Educational Practice in 2006.