New York Schools Chancellor to advise News Corp on education

Joel Klein, who presided over a radical reorganization of the New York City school system and drew praise and criticism for efforts to raise test scores and hold teachers accountable for them, resigned as chancellor after eight years in the job. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed Cathleen P. Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, as Klein's successor.

Black will be the first woman to head the nation's largest school system, with a $23 billion budget, 135,000 employees and one million students. The decision was also noteworthy for the fact that Ms. Black, 66, has no educational background, in keeping with Mr. Bloomberg's preference for executives from the business world. Because of that, she will need a waiver from the State Education Department; Klein, who had also been a media executive, was granted one when he took over, in 2002. Klein, who had long planned to serve only through two mayoral terms, mulled the decision for the last few months and in the past week landed a job as an executive vice president at News Corporation. Klein would be charged with pursuing "entrepreneurial ventures" that cater to the educational marketplace.