[2] The first woman to hold the position of superintendent of the School District of Lancaster in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,[3][4] Phillips observed, when asked during a 2008 interview, what the United States still needed to do to improve student and teacher performance nationwide:[5] "If you look across the country, you see lots of pockets of excellence.
It's a combination of obstacles, from how we think about standards and assessment and curriculum to the way we train and certify people to the way we support and compensate them and get them to stay in the profession.
She oversaw the delivery of educational programs for individuals with disabilities at this intermediate care facility.
[19][20][21][22] She left Pennsylvania to become the superintendent of Portland Public Schools in Portland, Oregon,[23] following an intense recruiting effort by that school system, which initially awarded her an annual salary of $203,000, a substantial increase from the $115,533 she was paid by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
[24][25] She served in that capacity until August 2007, when she was hired by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as director of its College Ready program.