Ella Flagg Young

Ella Flagg Young, born in Buffalo, New York, was an American educator of Scottish descent who was the first female head of a large United States city school system. At the time, the school district had 290,000 enrolled students and owned property worth $50,000,000. It was said that no woman had ever held such an important public office in the United States before. She also served as superintendent of Chicago Public Schools. She gave teachers in her district a role in decision-making on matters concerning them, the first practical application of the idea of teachers' councils, which she had written about in her University of Chicago thesis. This was a brand-new practice in education. She also served as the first female president of the National Education Association.

She did not attend school until the age of ten, but by then had already taught herself how to read and write. After only a few months she dropped out because she wasn't being intellectually challenged and because of the lack of support from her parents. At age 15, she took the certification examination to become a teacher and passed, but was told she was too young to be a teacher. She decided to set up her own practicum to test her potential in the classroom. She decided the classroom was right for her. She graduated in 1862 from the Chicago Normal School. She later studied part-time at the University of Chicago under John Dewey in 1895, and received her Ph.D. in 1900. Her dissertation was published under the title Isolation in the School. Young was a significant influence on John Dewey's thinking when he authored The School and Society. Young was a prominent figure in the progressive movement, and she identified strongly with the women's suffrage movement.

The style of administration she practiced received praise, including from Mayor Carter Harrison Sr., who called the Skinner School under Young's leadership, "the most effective social institution in the city." Harrison's neighborhood lay in the area served by Skinner School. In addition, Harrison's son, Carter Harrison Jr. (who himself would serve as mayor) would also offer praise of Young during her career. She died in the 1918 flu pandemic, on October 26, 1918, in Washington, D.C., at the age of 73. On October 28, 1918, Chicago flew its flags at half-mast and draped the Chicago Board of Education's board room in black in recognition of Young's passing.

Source: Wikipedia