An earlier post noted that a very extraordinary 27-year-old named Andrew Buher had been named as Chief Operations Officer of the New York City public schools, where he will have a salary of $202,000.
Then a few people noted that he is part of the Education Pioneers, young people coming up through charter schools and other corporate reform groups. That is some powerful network.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You know, you couldn’t pay me to switch places with that kid.
Not to mention that I am too old, too educated, too experienced, and too forthright.
Yep. That “forthright” piece would get me.
Yet again Diane, your info sent me on a research investigation.
Most of these young people in high paying education jobs went to excellent universities, were in Teach for America, and generally the most economically successful are graduates of the Broad Academy for Education CEOs, and many are on the West Coast and some are still at Stanford. They seem to be mainly children of privilege with attitudes of entitlement, though engrossed with showing us how to run public ed. Reading their bios they seem so altruistic, but their unusually high salaries make this suspect. Many are with KIPP. Their zeal and clean cut photos, and sterling bios, show almost a cult-like enthusiasm. Is Eli Broad now equal status with Rev. Moon who also inspired outstanding, but disaffected, youth to become moonies?
Going into each resume/bio is grueling but telling. Eli Broad and his Foundation and Academy seem to be the fulcrum for their placement in such unique situations.
To earn over $200 K in your mid 20s as CEOs of foundations and businesses, and schools, with virtually no experience, makes me wonder how many favors Eli has called in, or how much leverage he has used in their placements. Some he has hired himself. Certainly he was instrumental in LA hiring Supt. Deasy.
Boy, Dianne, wouldn’t is be fun to have these young folks available to earn teacher’s wages, having trained to educate rather than as business majors, and help develop them over the extended period of time we pros know it takes to become great, lasting, dedicated teachers and administraters?
Sadly, it would seem that they spin the language while they become rich on their plan, or Eli’s plot, to ‘reform’ all that we have worked for a lifetime to build. The famous Nobelist in Economics, Shumpeter, purported the theory of creative destruction. Maybe that is the plan, to destroy all existing public education in order to rebuild in their image. A worrisome prospect.
When I was 27 in the late ’90’s, I was a grad student and made about $9k teaching as an adjunct (if I could find summer overload courses). What a loser I was!
If I may correct your statement: “. . . show [delete almost] a cult-like enthusiasm.”
Yes, the cult of Mammon, the priviledge of possessing so much more than one needs and the “power” of being a “mover and shaker”.
May they rot in hell!
For the reality-based crowd that posts on this blog, please click on the following link on the Education Pioneers website for what is titled “Alumni Cohorts” with “Bios: 2009 New York” underneath in a slightly smaller font:
http://www.educationpioneers.org/what-we-do/alumni-cohorts?year=2009&loc=New%20York
The above link includes Andrew Buher among almost four dozen. Click on this for his bio:
http://www.educationpioneers.org/what-we-do/alumnus-bio?cid=0034000000Se5hvAAB
The overwhelming impression is of people getting into the ‘ed biz’ who might charitably be described in large part [not completely!] as ‘Rhee Lite.’ Remember that [among other things] Rhee was fervently lauded and heavily promoted by the edubullies because she had an irrepressible enthusiasm unrestrained by much training or experience in education.
Think of just one ramification of this. You never develop any respect and gratitude for those that came before you, any sense of their worth and contributions, hence in Rhee’s case she could easily publicly humiliate a principal [captured on film!] as she fired him. Even if the principal deserved to be let go, rubbing his nose in it set a terribly example for her administrative subordinates, all other school employees, parents and students. It made it impossible for her to set an good example of moral leadership; in fact, it greatly encouraged administrators to engage in bogus improvements in raising test scores. This distancing of herself from actual education and educators easily explains her laughing reference to the masking tape incident and stupendously foolish claims of taking her students from the 13th percentile to the 90th during her three-year stint as a ‘teacher’ and later—during her stewardship of DCPS—her horrifyingly casual disregard of evidence of massive test cheating.
She unconsciously serves as the poster person for this observation by Mark Twain: “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure.” [Read “$ucce$$”]
A last comment and caution: anyone who reads the above as declaring those almost four dozen people as morally depraved individuals of the caliber of Michelle Rhee are completely misreading my comments. Unless their bios are complete fiction, I get the impression that they want to do good.
If my impression is correct, I applaud their intentions. I just profoundly disagree that helping to destroy public education at the behest of the charterites/privatizers is the way to go.
KrazyMathLady: again, you handle words like you do math, not one word more nor one word less, but just the right number to make your points.
Ellen Lubic: plain truths in plain language.
Krazy props to you both.
🙂
To: Parent/Guardian Victims
From: The State
Re: The opt/out movement and “refusal code” letters that are showing up
April 2013
Dear Parent/Guardian victims of the “opt-out/refuse” virus,
First, The State would like to say that “school reform” is now being called “school improvement’. The feeling is that the pain you will feel if eased when you think it will be made better-instead of being told it happens because you were bad to begin with.
It is unfortunate that you have been put in harm’s way by uncooperative agents of The State and/or your lack of understanding of the parent/guardian role in the corporate-political mechanism and it’s “School Improvement Agenda”. The new common core learning standards, the new curriculum that no-bid contract winners will be paid state budget money to create, the inexperienced yet well-financed and protected education authorities and reformers trying to tell you that they know best how to judge what good teaching is, and the disappearing funds that once went to your schools should all have been enough to prompt your quiet compliance. The State has the best interests of your non-wealthy public school students in mind.
The objectives of The State, (The Governor, The Ed Commissioner, SED) and the framing of the agenda have been consistent: 1) public school teachers are bad, make too much money, and administrators and communities aren’t capable of getting rid of them and 2) the new common core curriculum and the tests that come with it, as well as the mining and selling of you personal data are the salvation of young learners (that don’t attend the charters and private schools education leaders send their children to). Those two rationales are really different ways of saying the exact same thing: “The State knows best”. To spend too much time investigating the truth in or strength of either way of saying it only puts The State in the position of needing to pay lawyers to help come up with more ways to say it to make you listen and comply.
That is why the recent surge in the “opt out” movement is concerning. In New York, where the state recognizes no parent/guardian authority to opt their children out of state tests, a letter is surfacing that takes advantage of a regulatory loophole-a scoring code for “refusal” and an assumed right of parents to make decisions for their non-emancipated children in the best interest of their children.
Rest assured The State is working hard to find ways to close the confusing loopholes that allow parents and guardians to make those types of decisions. Not only will public school employees face dismissal, loss of teaching licenses and possibly jail time for non-compliance with testing protocol, but school districts under advisement from The State will be tightening up student conduct codes to make sure disciplinary procedures are in place for students not complying and parents not cooperating.
“In loco parentis” will be replaced by “instead of parentis”. Schools will be tightening up their policies in order to support The State’s School Improvement Agenda, and that means The State now is “the parent” not just during the day and in the school, but instead of you when you don’t do what we want.
Teachers will likely confirm that they are duty bound to execute test administration in accordance with state guidelines. They have been told in as many ways as possible that their job, their teaching license, and possibly their freedom will be lost if they participate in activities that are contrary to mandates of the state. Your local administrators will echo the importance of multiple standardized measures and their importance relative to the future of your children.
Please don’t bother them with questions about constitutional rights as parents to make decisions for your children,
Please don’t ask them about your rights as citizens to band together with other concerned parents to make sure your local BOE knows you care.
Please don’t be influenced by others who have already organized and ask openly about the dichotomy between what is being sold as a path to success and what the successful selling it choose as a path for their own children.
Please don’t get on the internet to look up the address of your local legislators, SED Commissioner, or your governor to make your voice heard.
In the end, those actions just muddy The State’s message with the foul smell of democracy.
Submit your children, and we will do the rest.
Sincerely,
The State
If you happen to run into Andrew…. you can share your stories.
Not everyone needs to teach, earn the teachers wage (which is fair here in Quebec) and so on in order to understand education and the challenges we face as a factory driver 20th century model continues deep into the 21st century.
Poverty is a massive issue. The wealth gap that your GOP wants to grow is a massive issue.
But if you look at DSST in Denver, their kids are brought in by lottery. They have the whole spectrum of socio-economic issues. They also have 5-6 years with 100% college placement as of this year.
Kids come in years behind grade level in reading, math and more. They are targeted and developed to catch up. It works. A school CAN make a difference, beyond the socio-economics of the clientele that show up at its door.
We are not likely to solve the issues of the wealth gap in your capitalism-at-all-costs country, but solving the educational issues ARE possible. It’s happening now.
Schools can solve poverty issues up to a certain extent, but beyond a certain threshold, schools will not make any further difference without true support and wrap-around services, such as medical clinics, food banks, academic extensions before and after school at least 4 days a week, and adequate support staff and teaching space.
And, Avoteforthefuture, it would be great if we had even a modest version of your healthcare system here so that 50 million residents here in the states would have health insurance. We have about another 30 million who are underinsured.
Harper in your adminsitration is no angel, and he is caving to the Koch brothers as national health care is slowly being unraveled and decentralized in the Canadian federal government. It’s being redistributed to the provinces, no?
Please think about how you comment on American issues in light of all the progressive aspects of Canada (relatively speaking) before thinking what you conclude to be the solutions for American public education.
I am curious: do teacher evaluations in Canada inpublic schools factor in test scores on local and standardized tests? If so, to what extent, and what is the child poverty rate in Canada?
It’s unfortunate that the U.S. doesn’t understand healthcare. Yes. And Harper up here is just a slightly smarter version of Dubya.
But – my comment points to DSST in Denver. A school I have visited, and a school that I follow. The are successfully dealing with students from all socio-economic levels. So my comment is relative to a U.S. situation and not a Canadian one.
Now – teacher evaluations here are largely stymied by unions. Test scores have no influence. Success rate has no influence. Sadly, competence has very little influence. And I say this knowing that we have some wholesale amazing teachers. We have many int he middle. And we have some wholesale horrible teachers.
On child poverty, we rank a “c” here:
http://tinyurl.com/3ex7xzw
… and that is still a fair bit better than the U.S. My district includes areas that are extremely low on the scale and it includes the highest on the scale. With 36 schools, we touch the complete range. Of interest in Quebec though is that as an English school board, we do not get immigrants, so the French school boards get almost 100% of them. And our success rate tends to be at least 10% higher on the English side over the French side.
Finally, on healthcare again, in Canada it has always been a provincially managed service. The Federal Gov sends 10% of its tax dollars collected back to the provinces in support of healthcare. There are national standards, but … it really is a provincial matter.
The idea that healthcare is not considered a basic right in the richest country in the world? Well, that should be considered a national embarrassment of the highest degree. Truly shameful.
While DSST has certainly achieved successes it is not a panacea. Like other unique charter schools it is questionable if what DSST is doing (you can’t overlook its high mobility rate which makes possible the “100%” college acceptance rate) can be replicated to scale across the USA in urban areas.
You still have the issue of what to do with the families and children who are not willing to follow the mandated summer school, after school tutoring, and all the other unique programs that they are allowed to require of their students — things that traditional public schools are simply not allowed to do now.
Are there things happening in DSST that we can learn from? Absolutely! But to claim that it is “THE” answer or proof that their particular reforms will work in all situations is quite a stretch.
I am not suggesting that it is THE answer. There is no “The Answer”. But I am suggesting that it can be done.
How can someone function as a leader when they have no real experience? It’s an insult. It’s also an insult for you to make claims -as if the people in the classroom that have worked for years are clueless. I’m sure people who have worked in areas with high poverty are fully aware of the issues and areas of success that they have had educating children. Experience is very useful in education.
With your prior writings here and this one you must be one of the “chosen” elite, eh? May I bow down before you?
Wow. This response sure adds substance to the debate.
Interesting use of language by these arrogant, self-entitled know-nothings: if they are the “Pioneers,” I guess the rest of us are the “Indians.”
Michael Fiorillo: your comment is the game winner. In basketball: swish at the buzzer! In baseball: a perfectly placed punt with the score tied at the bottom of the ninth!
🙂
It highlights another aspect of the education ‘reform’ establishment: at least in public, they seem to regard everything as new and pristine and untouched, as if no one else before them had every dealt with the issues and difficulties and potentials with which they are dealing. Hence the constant reinventing not just of the education ‘wheel’ but of such basics as ‘language’ and ‘fire.’ And they don’t even do a very good job of reinvention either. But point that out, and… I forgot. You already know how they respond.
Thank you for this and many other postings.
🙂
Reminds me of a joke I heard when I was much younger: “Columbus didn’t discover America. The Indians already knew it was here.” [I repeat it as I heard it many many years ago.]
It’s Manifest Destiny! These people are ordained by God to save us from the evils of public education! Why didn’t I see this before (I hope it’s obvious that this was all sarcasm)?
Searching the Education Pioneers web site was one of the most frightening experiences I’ve had recently. Their finders and their intimate ties to charter networks, TFA, large urban school districts, et al., coupled with the vast majority of their Fellows’ near universal lack of prior teaching experience reminded me of the warning issued by Kevin McCarthy at the end of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers:”
“Look, you fools. You’re in danger. Can’t you see? They’re after you. They’re after all of us. Our wives, our children, everyone. They’re here already. YOU’RE NEXT!”
Typographical error: finders = funders; please correct. Thank you!
The whole thing is one big con.
Why not just get a college kid to run the school district. If youth and inexperience is so highly prized.
See my earlier comment elsewhere on the making of the Organization Man —
As Mr. Fiorillo implied, the pioneers went into territory about which they knew nothing, drove out the indigenous population and went on to ruin the land. An apt metaphor. Thanks, Mr. Broad.
Who is he related to or good friends of?
Two points:
First, it was to some extent similarly educated and privileged college students and graduates who went to Mississippi before and after Freedom Summer in 1964. We have thus far lost the opportunity to bring more of these type of kids into school settings that have a more progressive orientation or at least the presence of progressive practitioners. Some are nakedly ambitious, but others are naive or misguided.
Second, there are, in fact, more than a few kids from working class and/or racial minority backgrounds who graduated from progressive, non-charter high schools, went on to college and now want to teach. They have a basic grasp of progressive pedagogy as a result of their student experience and are generally more connected to the lives of public school students than the typical TFA teacher. We need an alternative to TFA that allows us to mentor and encourage these people, by providing them with financial support, lighter course loads, appropriate placements, consistent, supportive feedback, etc.
Avram Barlowe: points well taken. I agree we need to try to open lines of genuine communication with as many of these young people as possible.
However, please permit me the following…
I feel compelled to thank you for stirring up a very precious memory. I knew someone who went on Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964. She was slightly built, small, white, soft-spoken, modest, from a comfortable middle-class home [single parent: parents divorced when she was young, she was brought up by her father, a labor lawyer who set an example of taking risks—professional and physical].
I well remember her low-key explanations of the training she went through. The organizers made sure that prospective participants had realistic expectations of what they would encounter. Black or white, they would all be staying with black families that had a much lower average standard of living than any of them were used to; they weren’t to try to make up for it in any way as a measure of respect, since these families would be sharing with them everything they had as well as putting themselves at even greater risk than usual for harboring “outside agitators.” The whites in particular were made aware that many of the racists had a special hatred for them as “traitors to the white race”; their white skin could make them, in some situations, even more of a target for verbal abuse and physical violence.
The elite units of the US Armed Forces use training camps not to include but exclude. The emotional, physical and mental effort required to perform in stressful and life-threatening situations means devising ways to weed out all but the most determined, fit and capable. The organizers for Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964 [at least in the city I lived in] did this a bit too. Some training sessions replicated [albeit under obviously controlled situations] the abuse they were sure to face. Many would-be volunteers were incapable of staying calm in the face of vicious and filthy language [taken directly from the actual experiences of the organizers] or the modest amount of physical abuse [pushes, kicks, punches] that was doled out—keeping in mind that the volunteers were instructed that other people’s lives would depend on remaining firm but non-violent even in situations that could end in their own death. Some of the young men especially couldn’t take even the relatively small amount of abusive behavior they endured in training sessions; they just wouldn’t, couldn’t let anyone treat them like that.
She went. She stayed there the whole summer. She came back alive. I am still grateful, lo these many years later, that she returned in good health and spirits.
What caliber of person was this? Could I even dare to assert that she might be worthy of being compared to Education Pioneers?
I will tell you what kind of person she was. She was extremely intelligent and knew exactly what she was getting into… and she hadn’t even quite graduated from high school when she was accepted into Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964! She had her whole life in front of her and she did what so many in public schools do today: she put it all on the line. Even in the face of contempt and hate.
She didn’t have a padded resumé or a $202,000 salary, and she sure wasn’t promoted by billionaire privatizers and faux education reformers who couldn’t hack it in the classroom.
But I wouldn’t hesitate to put her up against any of the Education Pioneers.
Just my dos centavitos worth.
🙂
Who does he know? The ones that sit on top know nothing and get a big salary ….
when will this bullshit stop.
What else do you expect? You get better “True Believers” when you start them young and throw good income at them. In this greed based world this is just what they need to do whatever it takes no matter the lack of ethics. The latest studies show that from 6-10% of the population of the planet has tested signs of sociopathy. This does not mean they will kill you, only that they do not care one iota about you or what happens to you. And if they do something to you or others they could care less. It is death slowly not directly.
My friend I work with at CORE-CA, Celes King IV was on the bridge in Selma the day that came down. He told me it was real ugly and lucky for him he was not on the front lines. Also, lucky for everyone else because he went to work immediately getting bail for all he could in jail. His father Celes King III was one of the Tuskeegee Airman, an Army Air Force General, advisor to three presidents and the first person to write bail starting in 1947 for civil rights leaders nationwide. All who did this real dangerous work should be honored as without them we would not have civil rights they are now taking away. We need more brave educated people to stop the destruction of our public school systems and through that the destruction of what is left of our democracy as today we are technically a fascist country. Corporations do run this place don’t they? Look up the original definition of Fascism.
“Founded in 2003 in response to the acute shortage of leadership and management talent in the education sector, Education Pioneers attracts, prepares, and advances top leaders, managers, and analysts to accelerate excellence in education.”
Note that the Education Pioneers’ impact statement makes no mention of inspiring kids to inquire, to learn, to think, to solve problems, or to create things of beauty. In short, there’s no reference to teaching or learning. Their mission sounds so paternalistic that I’d run the other way were I a parent of students in their “sector.”