If only I could have cloned myself, I'd have been out front on the Eli Broad story.
Last summer, in writing an application for a seminar at Columbia University, I outlined the involvement of the Broad Foundation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and discussed my interest in exploring how private philanthropy is shaping public education. When I got there, it turned out a lot of us were asking similar questions.
Now that I've finally broken off time and gotten some information on grant money from CMS, everyone's buzzing about Broad. Readers have been sending me great links. So, for those who want to delve deeper than the print article can go, here's more.
The nudge that finally got me focused on Broad was a recent article in the Raleigh News & Observer about how Broad might influence their new superintendent, who is being mentored by fellow Broad Superintendents Academy graduate Peter Gorman. There's also a WakeEd blog item that explores that issue.
Newsweek just published an investigation of whether investments by Broad, Gates and other education philanthropists have had the desired results. The conclusion: Not usually. The magazine looks at 10 school districts, none in the Southeast.
If you're trying to sort out the Broad/CMS connection, one of the biggest challenges is figuring out the "performance management" project that's gotten big bucks from Broad, Gates and Dell. CMS officials have been talking about this for years, and I've never quite gotten my head around a way to describe it in a newspaper article. When I asked CMS folks to help me with a clear, concise description, they sent me a four-page report. Here it is. The condensed version, from Chief Accountability Officer Robert Avossa: It's about providing educators with data to make decisions and creating systems to hold people accountable for results. Testing and performance pay are part of performance management, but it's a broader effort that includes CMS's school progress reports and school quality reviews.
The Broad Foundation Web site contains some details about the CMS connection, but it takes some hunting (again, thanks to readers who got me started). Here's a description of the Broad approach to investing, and here's where they list CMS as one of the foundation's investments in "redesigned, high-performing institutions." Here's information about the academy that trained Gorman and Wake's Anthony Tata, and the residency program that has placed other administrators in CMS.
An astute reader noted that Gorman is a member of the Broad Center's board of directors, and questioned whether that makes it a conflict for CMS to be a finalist for the Broad Prize for Urban Education. Foundation spokeswoman Erica Lepping said it would be if Gorman were a foundation board member. But the center is a separate nonprofit group that's funded by the foundation, she said, and is not involved in awarding the prize, which brings national prestige and hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships.
On the anti-Broad side, "How to tell if your district is infected by the Broad virus," orginally posted on a Seattle education blog, is getting a lot of circulation. And here's the Parents Across America "guide to the Broad Foundation." Those who are interested in the perspective of Diane Ravitch, a PFA founder and national education writer/researcher, can find more about the role of philanthropists in her book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System."
I cringed when I saw that the "virus" checklist includes "Local newspaper fails to report on much of this." I'll take the blame for putting Broad below the breaking news about school closings, performance pay and such. If Broad has a strategy for squelching news coverage, the only part I saw in action was that the school board's Broad-sponsored retreats were often too dull to generate stories.
Got more recommended reading? Post links in comments. The spam filter may snag them, but I'll check periodically to retrieve them. Be patient, though; it is Mothers Day.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The Broad barrage
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34 comments:
Thanks Ann,
We'll keep digging for more dirt. Just follow the money.
Hi Ann,
Happy Mothers' Day.
I just wanted to note that the critique of local reporters in the "Broad Virus" article is directed at reporters who are basically ill-informed PR folks for local districts and foundation-driven policies. I have friends around the country who are constantly having to battle misinformation in their own local papers. I often note how lucky we are in Charlotte to have education reporters who know what they are doing, and who provide independent, well-informed assessments of school policies. CMS may be infected by the Broad virus, but you are definitely not!
I have been warning for years about the Broad prize. Just ammunition for the federally inspired superintendent to get to Washington. Thanks Ann, for the links. I will do some work with those today. CMS has invested heavily into Broad initiatives, to the detriment of the entire school system. Special to note that they have not been proven effective anywhere else???
Happy Mother's Day!
Is that the same Robert Avossa who just told his new district in Georgia that CMS' new testing "very aggressive," and likely too fast-paced?"
http://www.ajc.com/news/north-fulton/superintendent-candidate-tells-northside-918953.html
Being in San Francisco, I haven't followed the Charlotte Observer's education reporting, but this is a great piece and definitely sets you apart from your too-numerous credulous and unquestioning colleagues.
FINALLY! Please continue to connect the dots and follow the money.
You might find THE BROAD REPORT to be helpful.
http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/
BTW, Gorman won't admit it, but there definitely is an agenda -- Broad's agenda.
"Does accountability actually create
improvement in student achievement, or does it only create a
sense of urgency around this work? We concluded that it was
the latter."
Looks like our Accountability Office acknowledges in their own white paper that their work DOES NOT "actually create improvement in student achievement". So what is the real objective and motive here?
HELP!!!
After reading the articles and links, it all become very clear what is going on. What is the phrase, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
PS: Ray & Associates is the superintendent search firm which recruited Gorman to CMS in 2006.
Carl Davis of Ray & Associates is also listed as one of the speakers for the Broad Superintendents Academy.
http://www.broadacademy.org/about/faculty.html
Two other firms, Jim Huge & Associates and Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, appear on the Broad Foundation's list of BSA training session guest speakers. I presume they are paid to appear.
What needs to be investigated is if these particular superintendent search firms give preferential treatment to the Broad-trained candidates, in terms of presenting them to school boards.
For instance, in the case of the Springfield (MA) search in 2008 conducted by Jim Huge, three of the four finalists were Broad fellows.
http://www.springfieldcityhall.com/COS/superintendent-search-narrowed.0.html
Kinda makes one wonder...
Dr. Gorman is an outright liar...This is absolutely a "Broad Agenda" He sits on his chair at the Board Meetings and speaks as if he is the saviour, when in fact he is the destroyer. Too many school districts have tried this and all have failed, CMS will be no different. It will take years to undo what is being done and all at our childrens expense !! Its time to bombard Rep. Samuleson with letters and phone calls for pushing this agenda, stop the legislation from going forward and for once think of the future of the children instead of the power that they crave......
Sorry, just one more thing.
This is an excerpt from an article about Durham’s superintendent search (started late 2009):
“The board has search proposals from the North Carolina School Boards Association; Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates (Glenview, Ill.), Ray and Associates (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) and Jim Huge and Associates (San Francisco). ALL BUT THE FIRST WERE RECOMMENDED BY THE BROAD FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES. The board also has a proposal from the Center for Reform of School Systems, a Houston-based organization tied to the Broad Foundation, to conduct a training session on superintendent searches.” [my bolding]
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/4581467/article-Some-ground-rules-set-for--super--search
Durham selected the non-Broad recommended option (North Carolina School Boards Association). They also didn’t end up with a Broad-trained superintendent.
Wake County used the search firm Heidrick & Struggles who turned up the Broad-trained General Anthony Tata and who knows who else. Tata had worked in D.C. under Michelle Rhee. Rhee has ongoing close ties with Broad, too.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/15/741083/superintendent-candidates-line.html
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/36893/fund-and-games
This writer in Buffalo (NY) learned about Heidrick & Struggles connection to the charter movement.
http://www.altpressonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=263
How many school boards and members of the public realize that superintendent search firms may have their own agendas?
Bill Gates' influence on public education just skyrocketed as he has joined with Pearson(a giant textbook company)to produce online video courses in reading and math supposedly to assist teachers. I say this trend will eliminate teacher jobs in the future.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/education/28gates.html
Regarding comments about Wake's new superintendent--no one there seems to be complaining about him except the NAACP and associated groups, as they will not be satisfied with anyone who does not return to former assignment policies (regardless of the failure of those policies to help poor and minority students).
So you all think the previous systems worked so well?
That is one of the amazing things about this whole uproar--does anyone (including Ann) really believe things were so much better before Dr. Gorman? Even the Observer has admitted that, overall, students of all types are doing better. I remember howls of protest over previous superintendents' policies and I also remember groups using data to "prove" how poorly CMS was serving minority students.
Rote learning and tracking students (removing those who are not ready for the test) will give the impression that the achievement gap is being closed. It is closing for that particular test. If you spend months teaching to the test and the last month going through drills and practice sessions for it, scores will increase. But has true learning taken place?
We have two forms of teaching being encouraged in CMS, For low poverty schools, it is "inquiry learning", "project learning", "Odyssey of the Mind", critical thinking and problem solving, Science Olympiad, class discussion, etc.
For high poverty schools, it is drill and practice, chanting facts, regurgitating facts, tracking scores per objective, teaching to the test, etc.
With the introduction of pay for performance, instruction at all schools will look like that at high poverty ones. What will be the result? Creation of more charter schools that can avoid state policies, pull the bright children in, and leave the rest of CMS in a mess. Who cares that our public education system will be destroyed? Who cares that the foundation of our democracy will be weakened?
If I am a charter school provider, educational literature or technology provider, or testing materials supplier, I don't care because I will be richer.
More Effects of the Broad Virus:
Back in June of 2009, BAR told the story of activist teachers who sued the Chicago Public Schools to reverse the firings of hundreds of committed, experienced, mostly black and female teachers in dozens of schools and their replacement with less experienced, younger, whiter teachers at lower salaries. This pattern of discriminatory firings and school closings has since been replicated across the country, Earlier this week, a US District Court judge ruled in their favor- Chicago
Capacity (Mis)management Plan & School Closures. In 2009 Goodloe-Johnson closed five schools to allegedly save $3.5 million a year only to announce seven months later the reopening of five schools at a cost of $48 million… Was fired by school board - Seattle, Washington
The academy( Broad) advised Boone to stonewall, cover-up and ignore the public’s demand for answers and accountability. Dr. Boone recently received a vote of no confidence from the Educational Association of Worcester. Dr. Boone’s hiring of both a chief academic officer and a testing and evaluation specialist are right out of the Broad Superintendents Academy playbook- Worchester, NY. All sounds familiar huh.
Interesting question about previous admins. There has always been a tangled network of connections and influence (and that's probably true of all fields). When I started this beat, CMS was riding high on Eric Smith's reputation. I was amazed to realize how much of that was actively promoted by McGraw-Hill, the company that published the Open Court phonics program that CMS adopted districtwide. They worked hard at making sure experts and educators across the country saw CMS as a success story fueled by Open Court -- things such as sponsoring conferences in Charlotte and sending out national unsigned press releases urging reporters to look at CMS as a No Child Left Behind success story.
As previously mentioned, it's all about the money trail.
Teachers are currently completing an online survey sent to them by The New Teacher Project. The questions ask teachers to choose between different PfP scenarios. I sure hope this does not count as the "interested parties" input Rep.Samuelson mentions regarding HR 546. Who funds The New Teacher Project anyway?
Ann,
Thank you for this article. In your section about funding, you list Harvard donations as separate from Gates. I think that Strategic Data Project that involves Harvard fellows coming in to analyze data is funded by Gates. I have looked at your results in Charlotte and results from another school district. It is amazing how those fellows discover such similar findings...things like teacher experience doesn't matter after two years and advanced degrees don't matter. Convenient findings if you want to change the way teachers are paid.
I heard about a CMS meeting earlier this year that teachers were invited to in order to give them more information on pfp. They were asked to sign in as they arrived. At the end of the meeting they were thanked for signing the form indicating that they were in support of the plan. That's what we've come to....
Public education went in the toilet over 40 years ago with busing and hasn't been fixed since.
CMS is just 10 years removed from it.
The really scary thing is, there are some people in this community who want to bring busing back.
Gates, Broad and others are just another virus infecting an already sick system.
@9:28
The New Teacher Project is the same organization that is currently recruiting for TEACH Charlotte. Michelle Rhee is the founder of TNTP. Their website says they receive money from philanthropists, but does not mention names. More investigation needed here Ann.
I think "follow the money" and perhaps "the motivations" should be applied to all who are involved in this, including those who seem to be trying to get rid of Dr. Gorman (which it appears the Observer has bought into--perhaps constant uproar over school system might sell a few more papers or provide a little national fame). I can't recall as vicious of a campaign against any other superintendent as we currently have--and folks, things were not rosy here in the past!
http://fora.tv/2011/02/08/Wendy_Kopp_and_Malcolm_Gladwell_Talk_Education_Reform
Ann, what do you think about Wendy's view that money is not the answer to building great schools? And, her view that if you don't get rid of bad teachers, you really can't improve education...
Speaking of money and education, the following is from the Wells Fargo Championship website: As in last year, the majority of the proceeds from the Wells Fargo Championship will benefit Teach For America Charlotte, the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity.
On the relationship between CMS and McGraw-Hill, remember when Arthur Griffin left the schol board as chairman and began working for McGraw-Hill?
To 8:41, you apparently were not here when the CO started the campaign against John Murphy. Murphy had started riding around at night and talking to school age children he found on the street. He came back to a school board meeting and reported his adventure. Obviously the minority populaon was not happy he was pointing the figure at absent parenting. The campaign then started. He saw the writing on the wall and took advantage of some of his perks at a high rate.
You are right, Rest of the Story. Murphy was just cashing in those perks when we arrived--missed what went before.
8:41 a.m.: Every superintendent I've seen has gotten scrutiny from the Observer and criticism from the public. It's hard to imagine our news coverage is seen as a campaign to get rid of Gorman. Editorials (which I'm not involved in) still seem far more supportive than hostile, despite an occasional biting cartoon (that's the nature of editorial cartoons). The biggest thing that has changed may be the emergence of online commentary, which tends toward the negative on everything.
8:49 a.m., I think it's a good idea for me not to editorialize about Wendy's ideas (or anyone else's).
9:43 a.m., I do remember that. To the best of my knowledge, Arthur still works for McGraw-Hill.
Thanks for all of the information, and please do not let go of this "scandal" until it reaches a conclusion. Talk about the articles and comments are making their way into the schools and "other places." Most of the talk seems to be working for the positive. Although there are friendly disagreements over the some of the fine points, the consensus remains that the system is far worse off under Gorman's new proposals and that teachers are being treated unfairly. The only real negative I know of involves rumors about the authors of some of the comments posted, which has caused friction, and in at least one instance, a visit to a local attorney to investigate a possible slander suit for allegedly falsely naming the author or authors of some comments and circulating erroneous rumors amounting to false accusations of authorship. My guess is that the same thing--rumors, not trips to attorneys--is happening on several sites within CMS.
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