About Eric Nadelstern

Eric Nadelstern is New York City’s Chief School Officer. In 1985 Mr. Nadelstern's opened his own school called International High School, a school for recent immigrants, which now has a graduation rate of more than 90% and has spawned nine replicas since it opened. Mr. Nadelstern also leads the school group called the "empowerment" network, as a long-awaited chance to enact a long-held belief: that, in order to succeed, schools must be freed from the restrictions of the school bureaucracy. At empowerment schools, principals receive greater flexibility over their schools in exchange for a promise to give up their job if they do not meet certain performance standards. When Mr. Klein offered him a job - to transform the autonomy zone into an empowerment network open to every school in the city Nadelstern did not hesitate. He stated, "At that point, there was just no question for me that this was the most important work going on in public education in the country." Nadelstern is a graduate of Dewitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and of City College.