Massachusetts, meet your new Secretary of Education. [View all]

[madfloridian]

Broad Disciple with Checkered Past Becomes New MA Ed Chief

Teachers scoring a 2.77 out of 5.0 on the new evaluation schemes proliferating across the U.S. would face some extra "professional development" to grind out some higher scores next year. If you are MA superintendent getting that score, however, and if you have been one of Eli Broad's "chosen" rock stars for the past decade, then you could find yourself selected by the governor to become the chief ed official in your state. Such is the fate of Matt Malone (Broad Class of 2003), who recently escaped the likelihood of being canned by the Brockton School Committee just in time to be appointed Secretary of Education by Governor Patrick. Malone's brief stay in Brockton followed a rocky tenure at Swampscott, where he received a no confidence vote (136-8) by Swampscott teachers.

Florida just got the failed education commissioner from Illinois, Tony Bennett. And in 2011 Rahm appointed Jean-Claude Brizard to run Chicago schools.

He left Rochester with a huge vote of no confidence by teachers there. He already left Chicago under a shadow.

Seems not to matter about reputations of superintendents or commissioners of education. There's a national trend now to just move them from place to place, no matter if they have failed in their jobs.

How to tell if your district is infected by the Broad Virus

Be aware though it is not just the Broad-trained superintendents. Other foundations like Gates and Skillman have their share of those who are harmful to public education.

From last year:

Chicago has just learned that it will inherit Rochester, New York’s controversial and unpopular school superintendent, Jean-Claude Brizard (Broad Superintendent’s Academy Class of 2007). Those of us who have experienced the “leadership” of L.A. billionaire Eli Broad’s trained superintendents send Chicago our condolences. We have been there, done that, with scars to show for it, and nothing in the way of real academic or positive gains for our schools and kids.

In fact, the Broad brand has been seriously tarnished lately, to the point where it really should be considered a liability rather than an asset. Here are just a few examples of Broad superintendents who have been ousted or left their districts in a cloud of controversy: LaVonne Sheffield (Broad Superintendents Academy “Class of 2002? – resigned), Rockford, Ill.; Maria Goodloe-Johnson (Broad “Class of 2003? - fired), Seattle, Wa.; Matthew H. Malone (Broad “Class of 2003? – resigned) former superintendent of Swampscott, MA; Deborah Sims (Broad “Class of 2005?- resigned), Antioch, CA. From The Broad Report Blog

Meanwhile, Detroit can’t seem to shake its power-hungry Emergency Financial Manager Bob Bobb (Broad Academy “Class of 2005) whose illegal control of the Detroit School District was stopped in court, but has been recently ratified by a law signed by extremist Republican Governor Rick Snyder.

..."What’s striking is the similarity of the reigns of terror and error of these Broad ‘graduates.’ Disturbingly so, in fact. Many of the above earned No Confidence votes from their district’s teachers, and from parents too. All meted out a top-down dictatorial approach. Most alienated parents. Many closed schools. A number had questionable audits on their watch. More than one had false or questionable data to support their reforms. All commanded large salaries with perqs, while at the same time slashing services for kids and closing schools in the name of financial scarcity. A number of them avoided informing the elected school board of their plans or actively withheld information from them, effectively bypassing democracy.

Accountability appears to be only for public school teachers. Parents, students, educational leaders seem exempt from criticism. Public schools, public school teachers pay the price when there is no political party taking their side.