I don’t know enough of Gidwitz’s history, but here is the first bit I have on him. Trib on January 27, 2000
Vallas called state officials “Keystone Kops” who were caught in “a comedy of errors” in the way they administered the new ISAT.
“The problem is that the state is running this (test) from a distance,” Vallas said during a morning appearance on WBEZ-FM. “They are just making arbitrary policy. First of all they get a superintendent (McGee) from the suburbs who had 3,000 kids in his district, and now of course he is in charge of overseeing all the schools in the state of Illinois.
“They appoint as the board president, Ron Gidwitz, who was an absolute failure in City Colleges–ran City Colleges into the ground. So of course he basically gets promoted to the state job. But that’s what happens when you’re worth a fortune.
“So we have basically . . . (people) setting state policy who basically are either not serious about it or being amateurish about it or maybe they have other motivations. But the bottom line is they are mismanaging the policy,” Vallas said.
I’ll be looking into this, but obviously I have a lot of respect for Vallas’ opinions.