Ella Flagg Young

15 January 1845 – October 26, 1918

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 wri