After a divisive two years as superintendent of schools in Sumter, South Carolina, Randolph Bynum resigned.
The community expressed relief. At a meeting Monday night, more than 800 people showed up to express opposition to Bynum.
More than 150 teachers left the district during his brief tenure.
What do they teach at the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy? How to run a top-down organization that alienates teachers and parents? Apparently teamwork and collaboration are not part of the curriculum.
The story says:
“Luther Barnett, president of the Sumter Schools Education Association and a former English teacher at Sumter High School, said he’s relieved Bynum turned in his resignation letter.
“No, I’ve never seen anything like this in 17 years,” Barnett said. “I’ve been in Sumter for 17 years.”
He’s said it has been difficult to watch many teachers walk out the door.
“It’s been heartbreaking,” Barnett said.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Eli, your program is a failure. Your “leaders” are a disaster and you are ruining our country.
Please collect more art and leave us all alone.
Actually, I think Broad’s program has been far too successful. How many school districts have been pulverized, as planned, by Broad superintendents? Anybody keeping track?
Too many of the largest, and the poison is still there. Eli isn’t giving up by a long shot.
Linda, perhaps he’ll busy himself picking off the art museum treasures of Detroit, acquiring new possessions.
ALEC–er, Eli–leave our kids and our schools ALONE!
They are not your possessions.
We need a “mole” to tell us what actually happens in the Broad Superintendent Training Programs.
They discuss and memorize these steps:
School Closure Guide
Closing Schools as a Means for Addressing Budgetary Challenges
Click to access school-closure-guide1.pdf
I looked that up on the Internet one day and found it very disturbing.
I voiced my worries and concerns to my spouse (as I often do) and was assured no school in NC would ever be threatened in that way.
I don’t know. This is a little close to home now.
We don’t need a mole we need a turncoat. Someone who “believed” but no longer does-preferably a national figure.
It will happen eventually. There has to be at least one who actually supports public schools.
Yes.
And celebrities.
Like the Marsalis family.
We need reasonable public school supporters who are not obsessed with global economy.
Ask Randi Weingarten.
Is she descended from Benedict Arnold?
Good idea, sfagos! Todd Farley, are you or a friend available?
Some of the rest of this will sound familiar:
“He’s been under school board and community scrutiny this year after complaints about low morale and the school’s teacher evaluation system and standardized report cards, among other issues, according to The Item.
The state Department of Education also asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate the school district after auditors found several major violations in the administration of standardized tests.”
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/07/23/2876186/superintendent-of-sumter-schools.html#storylink=cpy
Are you smiling Eli, Arne?
Can we start a list of Broadie failures?
Just list everyone who ever attended.
Atleast 3 blew through Prince George’s County Public School (Deasy, Hite, Coleman-Potter)
Linda,
Sharon Higgins keeps a list of Broadie failures. See her website, “The Broad Report.” There was also a tally on the website of Parents Across America. Broad-trained superintendents have a habit of demoralizing teachers and alienating parents. Not exactly a recipe for better education.
And, oftentimes, getting other education-damaging jobs.
Such as J.C. Brizard (late of Chicago–was SO worried about CPS shortfalls {made off w/his entire $250K salary, even though he didn’t last a year} and “being a distraction”), who is now a Senior Adviser for the College Board in D.C.
Whoa! Two bad Broadies in one day! Diane, you overachiever.
The music says it all:
http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE
I wish there were something we could do to rid our community of our Broad broad, Sharon Contreras. She’s been here in Syracuse for 2 years and our ignorant, and spineless, Board of Education is still entrapped. They just do whatever she wants. She’s importing administrators, all of them Broad or TFA connected, and none of whom have New York State certification. The she creates jobs for their spouses or significant others. Teachers, including me, are leaving in droves. Her modes operandi is to divide the community from the teachers, throwing her staff under the bus whenever there is a problem. She threatens and intimidates anyone who questions, let alone disagrees. She’s bringing a charter school into one of the schools – to show how it’s done. No one is listening and no one will question. I couldn’t take, and was fortunate enough to have the option, so I did. I was only going to get myself in trouble anyhow.
Add in Mike Rounds as as Broad failure.
Diane, you may remember me. I reached out to you last October or November regarding this superintendent. I co-founded the student organization that helped fuel this movement. Thank you for your attention to us there is a lot of work left to be done. Hang around!
Yay! Success. Write it up and tell us all how you did it.
Thanks, Blake. Good work in bringing the community together to support public schools.
We have our own Broadie here in Huntsville.
Since September 2012, he has run off 280 employees (both certified and non-certified) either through retirement or resignation.
In December 2012, after a mere 17 months on the job, Wardynski was bragging that 246 teachers, just teachers, had retired or resigned since his arrival. That number of just teachers has climbed by about another 100 to 346 in two years.
In other words, he’s been nearly twice as effective as Bynum was over the same period in the Broad mission of running off teachers.
Eli should give him a raise.
That is like a teacher boasting that students are dropping his class. Absurd!
Russ, you have a master of destruction in your community. How are parents and the community reacting to the Scythe?
There are pockets of resistance, but for the most part, parents and the community are looking the other way.
The business community here loves him, as does the Army.
Honestly, the only real hope that I see right now is that the 3/5ths of the school board is up for election next year and none of the three current members are planning to run again.
I think that Wardynski will leave before he has to train a new board majority, and I’m convinced that either Pearson or ACT has a nice job waiting for him. He’s certainly funnelled enough money to them in just over 2 years.
It took the parents, students, and tax payers of Sumter County forming a grassroots movement. They finally got the attention of the school board after two full school years! Teachers who questioned were run off, transferred to other schools, put on suspension, ridiculed, and generally made miserable. We finally felt that we actually had their attention at last month’s board meeting. The teachers knew from the first inservice day before school started in 2011 that something was off. It just got worse. The parents and public must get involved. They must want to save their schools!
It happened in Rockford, IL, as well, Sumter Teacher. A sharp, small group–WEE (Watchdogs for Ethics in Education) made up of a small group of concerned citizens (many retired teachers)–attended Board Meetings, took notes, wrote factual reports, filed FOIAs & distributed fact sheets to the community and got rid of their Broad superintendent!
What is that saying from Margaret Mead? “A small group of people can change things. It always has.” (Someone out there please correct me if I’ve misquoted here.)
Anyway, the gist of it is true. Go for it, Sumter, and everyone else do the same in your part of the U.S. Yes, WE can…and WE WILL!
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
Thank you, Anne! Wrote it down to reference next time I use it.
(Can’t write a comment and Google information at the same time, but something written serves the purpose!)
Lord help us in Huntsville!
I agree with Alan’s comment. I wonder where he’ll go next. Tony Bennet got booted from Indianna yet went on to get the same post in Florida. What can we do as a nation to stop all this absurdity? I think that every state has pockets of people working on it, but I think that these pockets are going to have to unite and become too big and loud to ignore.
Hello from Sumter, South Carolina. I am a veteran teacher here. Dr. Ravitch’s books and blog have been important sources of information as the Sumter parents, teachers, and students educated themselves, each other, and the larger community. We were able to quickly articulate the threat Bynum posed to our community. We kept speaking and writing, often in the face of blatant intimidation and slanderous accusations. The community was abetted by the actions of Mr. Bynum himself, who revealed his intentions more every day as he became increasingly emboldened. As major business seemed ready to leave the town and the schools imploded, the local paper joined the fray. It has been a long battle, and the war remains to be fought. However, the community has become aware of the “reform” agenda and has organized to resist it.
In my old district, Washoe County School District, the last two superintendents have been Broad Academy “graduates.” The previous superintendent bought himself the AASA Superintendent of the Year award, and promptly decamped to Charlotte, North Carolina. His replacement had already been fired or whatever from WCSD previously and went to Clark County, Nevada, to take a job for which he was NOT qualified to do, and got the WCSD sup job. He has NEVER taught one day in his life; he is not a certified teacher at all but a CPA by trade. He worked with Arne Duncan in Chicago before coming to Nevada.
WCSD is going through tremendous upheaval with some 30 principals having been shuffled around or forced out or having quit (30 school will have new principals next year), and I don’t see it getting better anytime soon.
The superintendents’ names are Heath Morrison and Pedro Martinez.
Interesting, Susan, and now Clark County has been advertising (even held a job fair) to recruit Chicago Public School teachers!
Wouldn’t be surprised if they (Clark County) were informed before the firing bloodbath–perfect revenge on the CTU–send all their “laid off” masses to a right-to-work state!
And–TFA is invading like a pack of vultures–CPS hiring them in droves.
TFA has invaded Clark County, by the way.
There was supposed to be 2 million earmarked for it, but during the last legislative session in Nevada, Governor Sandoval decided to earmark the money for the Millenium Scholarships.
Seems even he didn’t want the blowback, and he is on record for hating public ed.
In Dallas, we believe that we have lost 3000 TEACHERS. Almost 2000 quit after less than 1 full year of Mike Miles’ presence. We can’t be sure because the ex-TFA guy Miles hired to run our HR left after less than a year–along with 6 or 7 more of Miles’ own “cabinet” hires. His own hires quit on him!
Currently, 5 weeks before the start of school, no one has any idea who is running HR.
The suburbs around Dallas snapped up the DISD ex-pats in no time–especially all of the math and science teachers.
Parents of high schoolers dread the start of the school because they fear their children will have full-time math/science substitutes. We already had a problem with finding high school math and science teachers before Miles even started; he has made the problem so much worse.
Miles has managed to both run off teachers and scare off any new teachers. Sure, they might find people who can technically fog a mirror, but quality teachers? No way.
There should be email alerts to all local Boards of Education:
“WARNING: Please read all applicant resumes carefully. If the BROAD LEADERSHIP ACADEMY appears, that person should be immediately be considered ineligible for hire if you love and care about your community. If you wish to destroy your school system, feel free to hire these hacks. If not, look elsewhere – preferably within your own ranks.
The Broad Superintendents do not put their participation in the Broad Superintendents Academy on their resume. Many Boards of Education are in on the secret and hire them to take on their unions.
You can still do a web search on the Academy. A list of “graduates” is there.
For some history about The Broad Foundation see:
Who is Eli Broad and why is he trying to destroy public education?
http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/
(Read the links.)
The incompetence of the Broad graduates is mind boggling. The leadership is so poor because they really aren’t qualified and are not educators. My biggest beef is that we have politicians who let these fools operate. How many more districts will fall prey to this phony education reform? It is nothing but an absolute disaster.
Hello from Sumter again. All is not well, as we are hearing some disturbing rumors. I will keep you posted.
The fear is that another “deform” candidate is in the wings and little birdies are singing that the path is being made easy.
Hmmmmmmm. How does one expose possible corruption? This is a rhetorical question. Oops! Did I say anything to offend anyone. Why, bless my heart. It would not enter my head to do something like that.