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More than eight years ago, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his new pick for schools chancellor -- a choice that stunned New Yorkers. Instead of a career educator, the new mayor was entrusting the city's school system to a hard-charging, trust-busting lawyer who used to work for the Justice Department.

"He has the feeling and compassion for people. He is uncorruptible. He is a visionary and I believe that he will deliver to this city what we promised," Bloomberg told reporters in 2002.

There was a lot riding on the pick because, for the first time, the mayor of New York City was actually in control of the public schools.

"I'm going to be out in the schools, in the district. If schools were open today, I'd be in schools, because that is going to be a big part of my mission," Klein told reporters in 2002.

Klein was an outsider, to be sure, but he did have some insider credentials. He attended the city's public schools as a student and taught in them briefly as well.

Together with the mayor, the duo embarked on an ambitious effort to overhaul and reform the sprawling public school system; social promotion ended, the city's graduation rate inched up, 474 new schools were created and, for the first time, schools were given a letter grade -- A through F -- meant to reflect student achievement and progress.

"I think the first thing we need to do is implement our reforms. I think the system, in many ways, is failing our students," Klein said during a 2003 interview on NY1.

Improving student test scores also figured prominently in the chancellor's plans. He and the data-driven mayor trumpeted any gains as a sign that the reforms were working. But a new set of state standards deflated some of Klein's accomplishments earlier this year. Critics, who protested the focus on test taking from the beginning, also renewed their calls for changes to the system.

Like many chancellors, Klein clashed with the teachers union over contracts and school reforms. But his critics weren't just found in the union's leadership. Parents complained they felt shut out. And City Council members clamored for more oversight.

When the law allowing the mayor to run the schools was up for renewal in 2009, some speculated that Klein's time might be up. But the mayor, Klein's strongest defender, kept him on and in the end he was New York City's longest serving Schools Chancellor.