When Mayor Rahm Emanuel in May announced details of his plans to raise the bar for CPS principals, he talked about three strategies. The district would offer a $25,000 signing bonus to bring in out-of-town principals who agreed to take jobs in low-achieving schools. A merit pay plan would, again, offer bonuses, this time to principals who met performance goals set by the district.
The most ambitious strategy was a new umbrella initiative, the Chicago Leadership Collaborative. Over three years, at a cost of $10 million, CPS would bring together four principal training programs to share ideas and turn out highly trained cadres of new school leaders. The goal would be to triple the number of seats available for prospective principals, to 100 per year from about 30 per year now...