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Biography - Paul G. Vallas
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Paul G. Vallas is known across the education sector for his leadership and
expertise in reforming and rebuilding school districts in the wake of both natural
and man-made disasters. He recently completed his tenure as Superintendent of
the Recovery School District of Louisiana, a statewide turnaround district that has
successfully reformed the public schools in post-Katrina New Orleans. Under his
leadership, schools destroyed by the 2005 hurricane have been rebuilt or
relocated, in an unprecedented school construction program that will – for the
first time ever – put every public school child in New Orleans in a first-class
building and that includes a successful charter school component. Additionally,
during this reconstruction period, he has raised student test scores for three
straight years at a rate that exceeds that of comparable test scores in the state of
Louisiana.
In 2010, concurrent with his responsibilities in New Orleans, Mr. Vallas
was appointed to two large international projects. In the first, he was asked to
serve as the lead education consultant to the Government of Haiti (GOH) in the
wake of the January 12 earthquake, under the auspices of the Inter American
Development Bank. He is advising the GOH as its Ministry of Education seeks to
create a publicly subsidized school system, that will, as never before, make
education accessible to all of Haiti’s children, including the estimated half million
who currently are not in any school at all. This effort, anticipated to be a $4 billion, 5-year initial project will include the construction or reconstruction of 4,000
schools, the training of tens of thousands of teachers, the improvement of the
university system and the implementation of early childhood and special needs
education programs. The plan is currently in the “working group” phase, with task
forces of international experts, organized along functional lines, beginning to
implement the plan including creating an standardized national curriculum and
instructional delivery system.
The second project came at the invitation of the Government of Chile,
which has asked Mr. Vallas to assume responsibility for turning around and
improving test scores in 1,100 of Chile’s lowest performing schools. Based on
this invitation, and his work in Haiti, Mr. Vallas formed The Vallas Group, Inc. He
has recruited a world-class team of educational experts with specific expertise in
all functional areas of education including curriculum and instruction, teacher
training and re-training, student and teacher assessments and interventions, and
organizational and finance management. Mr. Vallas’ management of the project
in Chile is ongoing: After just six months, enormous institutional changes have
been achieved, and the schools are beginning to see the results of his work.
Students in the targeted schools are being provided with quality curriculum
supplements and interventions, and are being subjected to benchmark testing.
Additionally, hundreds of school leadership teams have been trained to assess
the schools themselves and develop corrective action plans.
Before his tenure in New Orleans and his work abroad, Mr. Vallas served
as the Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia and Chicago School Districts
where his accomplishments included managing and balancing operating budgets
in excess of $4 billion dollars, implementing broad operational and educational
reforms that reversed school failures and raised test scores between 14% and
20%, the highest among the 50 largest school districts in the U.S.
Mr. Vallas’ wide-ranging experience has led him to believe that any school
system, whether a domestic district or an international nationwide system, can be
reformed -- in spite of natural or manmade disaster, troubled finances, poorly
trained teachers or political and community disunity. The key to his repeated
success is an unwavering focus on what he has termed “The Five Essential
Practices.” These are: (1) ensuring that schools have superior standardized
curriculum and instruction; (2) ensuring that schools have a series of
comprehensive interventions; (3) ensuring a strategy for site-based teacher
training and mentoring; (4) ensuring that school systems are organized, or
reorganized, around the functional areas of education and that the central office
is decentralized and streamlined into a school support agency, with the cost
savings going directly into the classroom; and (5) ensuring that the system is
effectively collecting, aggregating and sharing student performance and school
data to facilitate timely provision of the appropriate interventions. Mr. Vallas
requires that districts under his control or advice implement The Five Essential
Practices with fidelity, and the results have shown the wisdom of this approach in
every district he has reformed.
In addition to his understanding of academics and the educational
process, Mr. Vallas is known for his budgetary and organizational abilities. He
teaches schools how to leverage their resources, whether private or in-house, to
finance needed reforms. He is also a firm believer in partnering with outside
entities such as not-for-profits, NGOs, public and private universities and
commercial organizations to encourage the flow of resources into the schools he
oversees. His skill at developing funding resources where none existed before is
based on his experience outside of the education sector.
Prior to Mr. Vallas’ work in the education sector, he served as the Budget
Director for the City of Chicago, where he closed a $125 billion shortfall and
increased city revenues. His work in state government included service on the
Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission and as principal advisor to the Illinois
State Senate Revenue, Elementary and Secondary Education and
Appropriations Commissions.
He is currently serving as the Superintendent of Schools in Bridgeport, CT., where he closed the district’s 12 million dollar budget deficit and has begun implementation of a comprehensive five-year budget and school improvement plan for the district.
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