The Boston Globe published an analysis Sunday of the problems that will face recently departed Memphis Public Schools superintendent Carol Johnson, Boston’s next school superintendent.
From the Globe: Johnson … will confront far different obstacles here than the ones she’ll leave behind in Memphis — including a powerful teachers union that could block her reforms, standardized tests that are tougher to pass, and thousands more students who speak English as a second language.
Johnson, who is expected to start in late August, won praise for raising test scores in Memphis schools, a district more than twice the size of Boston’s 57,000-student system. But it is unclear how her achievements will help her tackle Boston’s paradox: It is one of the best urban school systems in the country, yet home to some of the worst schools in the state.