Laura Perille, the newly appointed interim superintendent of the Boston Public Schools, has what many educators consider to be a highly unorthodox resume for the leader of a major urban system: She has never worked as a teacher, a principal, or a high-ranking school official, and she doesn’t hold a state license to run a school system.
Perille also doesn’t have an advanced degree, infuriating some educators who have earned masters or doctorates in a quest to better serve their students or gain a leadership position.
But educators who have worked with Perille at EdVestors, a small Boston education nonprofit where she was chief executive, say her nearly two-decade quest to help improve the school system has provided her with insight into what works and doesn’t work and a strong understanding of how competing interests across the city can aid or undermine policy initiatives.