Not much time in the classroom
New NYC chancellor has barely taught
Incoming New York City schools Chancellor Meisha Ross-Porter became a rising star in the city Department of Education despite spending just a year and a half as a teacher, causing some educators to debate her qualifications to run the nation’s largest school system.
Ross-Porter, a community organizer before joining the DOE, helped create the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice in 1997, the first in the Urban Assembly network of more than 20 city schools.
After working as an assistant to founding principal David Banks for about three years, Ross-Porter started teaching English there in September 2001, officials said.
But her classroom stint ended in February 2003, when she was named assistant principal, the officials said.
Six months later, she was promoted to principal after Banks left to launch a network of all-boys public schools.
“It was a quick ascension, but there was no one better to lead that school,” Banks told The Post. “Nobody was more committed, nobody knew more about the school, beside me. She was the heart and soul of the place — the two of us were.”
Ross-Porter never earned a permanent teaching license. At that time, she didn’t need one to become a school administrator, according to the state Education Department. The state now requires three years of prior teaching experience.
In New York City, educators can’t become principals without at least seven years of teaching or other instructional jobs such as a guidance counselor, under rules enacted by former Chancellor Carmen Fariña in 2014.
“Principals need to be instructional experts and I don’t know how that level, generally, can be reached in less than five years,” said David Bloomfield, an education professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Grad Center.
Ross-Porter served as principal for 10 years. In 2015, Fariña appointed her Bronx superintendent. Months after he joined the DOE in 2018, Chancellor Richard Carranza created nine new executive superintendent posts — and tapped her as one to oversee all Bronx schools.
Mayor de Blasio named Ross-Porter, 47, to replace the departing Carranza at the same salary, $363,346. She starts Monday.
“How is she qualified to be a chancellor?” a skeptical Brooklyn principal asked. “Under the current guidelines, she couldn’t even become a principal, given her lack of experience.”
In choosing a new chancellor, the mayor passed over other superintendents with teaching licenses, including several of color. Among them:
■ Clarence Ellis, superintendent in Brooklyn’s District 17, earned permanent certificates in special education, nursery school, kindergarten and grades 1-6.
■ Mauricière de Govia, Queens South executive superintendent, has a certificate in pre-K, kindergarten, and grades 1-6.
■ Karen Watts, Brooklyn North executive superintendent, earned certificates in chemistry and general science, grades 7-12.
Banks noted that former Chancellor Joel Klein, appointed by then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg, “never spent a minute in the classroom. He was a business guy.” Klein required a state waiver to serve as chancellor.
In 2007, Ross-Porter’s school received an “F” grade under Klein’s administration for low scores on state tests in math and English. She vowed to help raise the scores, — but not cut back on art, foreign language or the school’s debate team.
Bill Neidhardt and Danielle Filson, spokespersons for City Hall and the DOE, called The Post “racist” for asking questions about Ross-Porter’s credentials.
They wrote in a statement, “The NY Post’s desperate and racist attempt to undermine her qualifications is disgraceful. She is more than qualified with over 20 years of on-the-ground experience in the school system she is leading and we will not entertain these patently false claims.”