After an internal investigation raised questions about the actions of Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles, the school board will have a closed meeting on September 30 to decide whether to discipline him. Miles is a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy. Stay tuned.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Broad Foundation, Texas

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Mr. Chuckster says:

September 29, 2013 at 10:36 am

Could anyone provide information about Miles’ company, the consultancy group called “Focal Point”?

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- Cupcake says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 1:50 pm
  
  We call it Fecal Point.
  
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  - Mr. Chuckster says:
    
    September 30, 2013 at 6:39 pm
    
    Well, it does seem like they have some baggage.
Cupcake says:

September 29, 2013 at 10:46 am

Miles will stay because our mayor, gearing up for the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, wants him to stay.

Todd Williams, formerly of Goldman Sachs and a charter school, “advises” the mayor on education issues.

Todd Williams’ children do not attend DISD; they live with their mother in another district. Nor, I believe, do they attend the Williams Prep charter school.

This is the trainwreck Dallas citizens, business owners and parents face every day and it is killing the city.

Miles is a disaster, untold numbers of kids have permanent subs because so many teachers quit, Todd Williams’ kids are safely attending school elsewhere, Rawlings’ children graduated from private schools (no permanent subs for them!) and scandal after scandal rocks the district.

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polly says:

September 29, 2013 at 11:00 am

This situation dramatically points out the value of an ELECTED BOARD that has the power to discipline or oust an employee. Charter schools , in most states, don’t have that safety net as they are controlled by foundation or corporate entities.

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- Cupcake says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 1:41 pm
  
  We have an elected board. They are bought and paid for by the “reformers.”
  
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paula hurdle says:

September 29, 2013 at 11:10 am

I think we need to recognize that the Broad Academy is creating Stepford Superintendents. The same posture and actions that Miles took in Texas is almost the same as Deasy had taken in Los Angeles. Top down management with no input from teachers, parents or students, teacher bashing and harassment, development of more charter schools, corporate cronyism and favoritism. Someone mentioned ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS, good only if they truly believe in public education. Many members of these bodies only believe in springboard to another public office. I do think we should hold the Boards liable. You hear me L.A. Board of Education. WAKE UP!

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- susannunes says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 11:38 am
  
  A lot of the boards are on the take from Broad/Gates money. Voters tend to take school board elections for granted. They shouldn’t anymore.
  
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title1texasteacher says:

September 29, 2013 at 11:41 am

Have been following this closely and the board is not going to do anything. Our Mayor is basically running our school system here, the board has been staffed with a majority of his syncophants and we are now facing a 26 year old former TFA er ( who was Miles’ assistant) …who quit and went to work for Big Reform in order to now run for board. Miles has fired multiple competent pricipals and retained the incompetent, sold our busses to pay for TFA ers to become principals in his Leadership Academy, while paying them 60 k to learn. I have a friend with 28 years teachingexperience getting spot obs from a 2 year tfa er who was promoted to instructional coach. Miles also stated to the press that research shows that teachers peak at 3-5 years and after that they should either move to admin or move on. Our BOT headed by Eric Cowen is bought and sold by the right wing of Dallas besides a few outliers. The situation is dire. Thousands of competent teachers have quit and hundreds of subs and tfa ers are manning these abandoned classrooms. Miles has literally destroyed Dallas’ ‘ educational system with the help of cronyism, my tax dollars and his hubris. He needs to go. NOW.

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Jared Polis says:

September 29, 2013 at 12:32 pm

What a shame, I’ve been friends with Mike for many years and he did an excellent job here in Colorado and still hope that he can turn things around in Dallas.

In another life he was also a progressive Democratic insurgent candidate for US Senate and ran against Ken Salazar and gave him a real run in the Democratic primary. There are still many progressive Democrats in Colorado who sport his “Be the Change” t-shirts and the grassroots enthusiasm he inspired continues to this day.

At least the newspaper is still behind him:
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20130924-editorial-dont-fire-mike-miles.ece

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- Cupcake says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 1:48 pm
  
  He lost twice and was then not appointed to an open seat. A progressive failure is what he is in his current life. He was not elected. He was rejected. Talk about a pathetic attempt to spin repeated failure. That says alot about your character and it isn’t positive.
  
  Yes, the DMN is behind him and they are considered to be a complete joke staffed by sell-outs.
  
  On the plus side, he has “inspired” the start up of a wildly successful blog (DISDblog.com) and he has “inspired” the unification of vast numbers of citizens from all walks of life in Dallas who loathe him.
  
  The 1%ers in Dallas who own the paper and politics are the only ones who support him and even they do so while holding their nose.
  
  The 1%ers will win this battle as their greed leads our country to ruin.
  
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- Jersey Jazzman says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 1:52 pm
  
  Congressman, were you aware of Miles’s extra-curricular activities in New Jersey when he was supposedly working full-time in Colorado?
  
  http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/09/eli-broads-made-men.html
  
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- Linda says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 2:33 pm
  
  Who trusts our corporate owned media anymore? The endorsement of a newspaper means nothing nowadays.
  
  It’s the people ( students, parents and teachers) we should listen to not the edufrauds, politicians and policy wonks.
  
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- title1texasteacher says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 6:51 pm
  
  Jared it is interesting that you did not post the numerous articles in the papers calling for his dismissal. Do the names Tawnell and Haag ring a bell?
  
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GST says:

September 29, 2013 at 1:39 pm

I agree with Cong. Polis. I hope Mike can still turn things around in Dallas. Here’s how he can do it: First, stop bashing, and start listening to, teachers, actual teachers. Then, get a copy of Diane’s book and take some time to read and understand it. Third, call on the Texas legislature and right wing extremist, anti-education governor, to begin funding the schools properly and to implement Diane’s solutions.
Oh, and Cong. Polis, please lend your support to the next governor of Texas, Wendy Davis.

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Cupcake says:

September 29, 2013 at 1:49 pm

With Polis’ apparent ethics, he needs to stay away from Texas.

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Paula says:

September 29, 2013 at 4:06 pm

Forget these cloned superintendents, the power of the school boards lie in their protection and promotion of the PUBLIC district, not private charters. If these boards aren’t committed to public education, what good are they?

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Bill Betzen says:

September 30, 2013 at 12:20 am

Reasons Mike Miles must leave Dallas:

By keeping Mike Miles, Dallas ISD will be sending a very negative message to the world about both education reform and Dallas.

DISD will be keeping a leader whose behavior necessitated a $100,000 investigation exposing many unethical actions by him against DISD. He’s a leader who disrespected some of the most accomplished education professionals in DISD, pushing them out of their critical leadership positions. Mike Miles had monumental difficulty in hiring and keeping staff who worked closest to him, in spite of the highest salaries in DISD history. He also appears to have paid some staff to keep quiet. To date those staff have kept quiet.

DISD would be keeping a leader who, ignoring documented histories of achievement, imposed an untested evaluation tool prematurely, evaluating staff without timely opportunities for improvement (time he then requested and received for himself from the Board) and decimating teacher and principal numbers with questionable termination threats and actions. A record number of over 1,700 staff have left DISD. Hundreds more are waiting to leave if Mike Miles stays.

DISD would be keeping a leader who, for the first time in history, lowered the percentage of DISD students taking the ACT exam in 2013, apparently to help increase the resulting average score. He lowered the percentage of Black students by 20.9%, lowered the percentage of Hispanic students by 24%, but increased the percentage of White students by 0.7%. The goal was achieved and average ACT scores went up from 17 to 18 in 2013.

DISD would be keeping a leader who nobody is reported as having questioned about the 26% high school enrollment decrease during his years as superintendent in Harrison while families moving into the district caused over a 20% increase in elementary enrollment. Those Harrison decreases were highest in the 12th grade with a 33% loss in enrollment. It is alleged Mr Miles had low scoring students pushed out of his district, and most of those students then moved to District 11 where the average ACT scores are reported as having gone down.

DISD would be keeping a leader who has now overseen the first decrease in our 12th grade enrollment since 2006. It’s a 5% decrease at this time. Last year, due to the record setting staff turnover associated with multiple other changes, DISD had the first increase in discipline problems in over 5 years, a 26.8% increase!

Mike Miles must leave! Ethics cannot be compromised without leaving a very bad image for education reform!

Mike Miles understands. He has already sent his family back to Colorado. He sold his Dallas home. Does the DISD Board understand what it appears everyone else, including Mr. Miles, understands?

Dallas ISD must not allow more of what happened in Colorado under Miles to be repeated in Dallas. See http://schoolarchiveproject.blogspot.com/ for more links and data.

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