The idea of principal empowerment is straightforward: Principals
and teachers—not distant bureaucrats—are best equipped to decide
how to serve the children with whom they work in their schools
each day. Accountability is a simple notion, too: If principals
have the freedom to make decisions, they also have the
responsibility to demonstrate that their students are making
progress. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has used these concepts
successfully to dismantle the dysfunctional bureaucracy that ran
New York City schools for decades. The difficulty comes in
translating these simple ideas into practice. Are all
principals, even brand new ones with little teaching or
administrative experience, able to make sound decisions without
significant guidance and supervision? And how do you measure
progress, anyway? Much like charter schools, data-driven
accountability has become hotly politicized in American public
education. In a speech late last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg
said accountability data will be used to just