Incoming NYC Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter became a rising star in the city Department of Education despite spending just 1-1/2 years as a teacher, causing some educators to debate her qualifications to run the nation’s largest school system.Porter, a community organizer before joining the DOE, helped create the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice in 1997, the first in the Urban Assembly non-profit network of more than 20 city schools.