Five years of Chancellor Klein

Posted by Philissa at 3:45 PM

Today marks Joel Klein's fifth anniversary as schools chancellor. He's now the longest-serving chancellor ever (the position has existed only since 1970). Earlier this week, he told the New York Observer that he's pleased with his performance so far but intends to do much more before he and the mayor leave office in 2009. The New York Sun predictably praised Klein in an editorial for "bringing meaningful positive change to a system rife with entrenched educrats and other special interests," while the NYC Public School Parents blog strikes a different tone, noting that class size hasn't decreased during Klein's tenure.

Over at NY1, you can grade Klein's performance according to the same scale he's using to evaluate schools. Edwize, the UFT's blog, has a similar poll, but with slightly different results so far. No matter what you think of Klein, no one can say he hasn't been busy these last five years — he's devised three different reorganizations for the system.