The Face Of Urban School Leadership

Each year since 2011, when he was appointed CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Eric Gordon has delivered his State of the Schools Address to a growing throng of supporters eager to pack the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, the Hilton Downtown Cleveland or this year the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland ballroom to applaud the continued academic gains of the once-declining urban school district. Five years into The Cleveland Plan, CMSD has reversed that trend, with enrollment up after falling for 40 years and a strong financial outlook after years of budget deficits and deep cuts in staff and programs. Parent engagement and student attendance are also up, and on this year’s state report card CMSD reached its highest ranking in a decade on the state’s performance index. Gordon pledged this year to become the one and only big city school district in the nation that takes to scale the quality public schools that are becoming the norm rather than the exception across Cleveland. Under his leadership, CMSD’s graduation rate has increased 20 percent, and this year the district’s K-3 literacy scores outpaced 88 other Ohio districts as CMSD earns its reputation as the fastest improving urban district in the nation and the fourth fastest improving district in Ohio. “We are far from where we need to be,” he says. “But we are moving.”