Erich Martel taught in the D.C. public schools for many years and won many awards as a history teacher. He is now retired.
He was astonished to see that Governor Andrew Cuomo had hired De’Shawn Wright as his new Deputy Secretary of Education
Erich sent the following message:
Read this story on the departure of DC Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright in the Washington Post: 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 dismantling of 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
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m wondering why NYSUT and the AFT are so quiet regarding this obviously politically connected appointment by Prince Andrew
NYSUT is quiet because they have unfortunately lost their clout. The only way education will change is if there’s a education revolution brought on by all of the teachers in this country standing up and saying “enough is enough”
I agree.
Has NYSUT lost their clout? My read is that it’s better to be on Cuomo’s giving side (not just $ — sometimes power/policy) & fact of life — Cuomo’s a Democrat.
This is NY — this is how it works. At least as long as I have been following politics.
Taking Cuomo & teachers out of the picture — kids’ are going to be the losers.
Cuomo’s last education secretary, Wakelyn, (straight from the NGA) disappeared in a flash. Wakelyn was involved with CCSS policy development at NGA.
Cuomo is a user — Wakelyn came with Common Core & once kids’ feet were firmly implanted in cement he was gone.
Isn’t the strategy #1 he mentions that insidious technique known as the Delphi Method, in which you lead groups to a predetermined conclusion in such a way that they think it is coming from themselves?
We call it a “staff meeting”.
A member of the CEC in District 6 in NYC is also trying to push this agenda. See Savedistrict6.com and fb page District6 Parents Against De-Zoning. Parents need to speak up. The so called “choice” proposals are simply a lottery and do nothing to improve schools.
Alan, It is called that sometimes.
I think it’s best to describe it. Sometimes it’s used to get to consensus around pre-determined goals.
A variant of that in DC was to deflect concerns away from the IFF recommendations (close, turnaround, transfer to charter operators) and into “wishlist” talk about “quality schools.”
I wouldn’t be surprised, if De’Shawn Wright’s appointment was lined up before he came to DC in early 2011: To get some practice “outsourcing” the process of dismantling public schools. If I am anywhere close to right, that means that Gov. Cuomo has big time plans for charterizing schools in NY.
– Erich