The ascent to power of anyone connected to Teach for America continues.
Governor Cuomo just appointed De’Shawn Wright as Deputy Secretary of Education for the state of New York.
Wright spent two or four years (it’s not clear) teaching in New York City as a member of TFA. Then he quickly ascended to big jobs in the Mayor’s office and the New York City Department of Education. From there he became a senior advisor to Mayor Corey Booker in Newark, then on to an even bigger job in Washington, D.C.
Now–without any experience as a principal or a superintendent, without any direct knowledge of curriculum or school administration–he will advise the government on some of the most important issues facing the state. He joins Commissioner John King, another charter booster in Albany. Perhaps he will tell the governor how to evaluate teachers, though he has never done it himself.
Only in America could rank amateurs rise to the top of a crucial profession.
Omg
Try to imagine if they ran the military this way …
Soldier For America?
Two years I couldn’t even spell “brigadier general” and today I are one!
Edit —
Two years ago I couldn’t even spell “brigadier general” and today I are one!
Further proof we elected a Republican as our governor. Can we sue for false advertising? Almost makes me wish we had Eliot back.
Wonder if the ALEC ties are strong here? Hmmmm
The departure of DC Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright (Washington Post report by columnist Emma Brown & Comments: http://tinyurl.com/9ctpm5f )
I’m a retired DCPS high school teacher. For the past 6 months, I have been working with community groups to try to stop De’Shawn Wright’s recommendations for dismantling up to 37 DC public schools (out of 120). He “commissioned” a study by the IFF (Illinois Facilities Fund) to evaluate DCPS and DC Charter schools. It was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. The IFF itself is a major recipient of Walton funds (over $6 million in 2009 & 2011) and is brazenly pro-charter.
The IFF “study” used five years of student proficiency data (2007-2011) ranked by each school’s average percentage of students proficient. Three of the years were under investigation for suspicious rates of wrong to right erasures. The report recommended that 37 DCPS schools be closed, “turned around” or transferred to charter operators.
If you want to get an idea as to what Cuomo, King and Wright have in mind, I suggest you look at these two links:
1) The strategy his staff used to divert community meetings away from the IFF recommendations by claiming that the meetings were not about the IFF, but about their “quality schools wish list.” Next, they divided participants up into isolated, little groups to make wish lists of “quality schools” (flip charts, lots of recommendations, then everybody gets colored stickie dots to vote on their top choices, etc. – pretend community engagement).
I also explain how to oppose this process: http://tinyurl.com/9stw9dt
2) I wrote an open letter to Wright with 19 questions. It lists many of the improper procedures Wright employed.
See open letter and reply: http://tinyurl.com/9zak8jy
It is safe to say that Gov. Cuomo selected him in order to promote charter schools and to expand the influence of the Broad, Walton and other foundations in developing public school policy.
Here are the two links in a twitter-ready tweet (134 characters), ready to send:
Cuomo’sNewDepSecEd-frWashDC:AgentOfFndns&ChSchls-His strategy: http://tinyurl.com/9zak8jy ManipulatesParentshttp://tinyurl.com/9stw9dt
Erich Martel
ehmartel@starpower.net
…And more history to be made if Cuomo is elected to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…We’ll have a first First Mistress…
I tend to doubt that it would be a first …