An interview with Cleveland schools' new CEO

CLEVELAND - On Friday, his title changes to CEO.  But around the administrative offices of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, he's known as Eric.

After four years as the district's Chief Academic Officer, Eric Gordon will move into the top job, an appointment he says is less about him and more about a vote of confidence in the system. "The people of this district have shown we can make improvements here," he said, "and that it's worth investing at least one more year."

Gordon was one of the architects of the district's Academic Transformation Plan, which is aimed at improving student achievement. "If I had to give it a grade, I'd say we were probably a C," he said of the program's first year.

Gordon said they didn't get as much done as he had hoped. "But in the meantime," he said, "we did some really physically obvious changes."

Among those changes are more opportunities for choice by breaking high schools into academies. 

And Gordon is committed to continued progress. "Within the next year we should see improved graduation rates," he said. "We should tell that things are changing.  We should see a continued rise in our test scores." 

Gordon said the community wants to see visible changes brought about by the Transformation Plan.

"We now have a better vision in the Transformation Plan," he said. "But the Transformation Plan is only useful if it turns into, I can see it, things look different, things feel different, I'm more satisfied with my school, those kinds of things."

He begins his tenure on a positive note from the state of Ohio, which awarded Cleveland schools two innovation grants Wednesday for a K-8 STEM program and the International Academy at Lincoln West.