Just when you think things can’t get worse in Connecticut, another “reform” scandal pops up.
Civil rights attorney Wendy Lecker writes here about the clear pattern of hiring unqualified people to run impoverished districts. Their way of operating: cut services, bring in Teach for America, install unproven programs.
She writes:
“It is becoming painfully clear that in Connecticut, the refrain that education reform is “all about the children,” is a sad joke. To Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor and his allies, children are merely collateral damage.
“Recently, there was the scandal involving Hartford’s Milner school, in which the children were used as pawns in a scheme to expand the charter empire of now-disgraced Jumoke/FUSE CEO Michael Sharpe. Pryor never bothered to discover that Sharpe is a former felon and falsified his academic credentials. Instead, while Milner was floundering under Sharpe, Pryor, a longtime Sharpe supporter, handed him two additional schools. The fate of public school children was clearly the last thing on Pryor’s mind. Currently, the FBI is investigating Pryor’s, Sharpe’s and Jumoke/FUSE’s connections.”
The latest drama is playing out in impoverished New London, where the state is pushing to hire a superintendent with a phony doctorate.
Connecticut is one of the nation’s highest performing states. It didn’t get that way by turning children over to inexperienced, unqualified teachers and superintendents. The achievement gap is a direct result of the opportunity gap. It won’t be closed by experimenting on children but by reducing the poverty that creates obstacles for children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We have two articles out on a Friday night after a scandalous two weeks. Here is Sarah Darer Littman: another week, another scandal.
Another week, and another education scandal here in the Nutmeg State. The FBI served subpoenas on charter school operator FUSE last Friday morning, and shortly after their visit Hartford Courant reporters found the receptionist shredding documents. “Asked what was being shredded, she said the documents were associated with the state-subsidized Jumoke charter schools.” Obstruction of justice, anyone?
Meanwhile, after the notoriously opaque state Department of Education declined to issue reporters a copy of their own FBI-issued subpoena, the Courant received this statement Monday from Department of Education spokeswoman Kelly Donnelly: “We have been assured that the department is not a subject of this investigation.” Okay then. That’s clear.
Yet by Tuesday, it was another story. Apparently, the subpoena seeks, among other things, “All emails of Commissioner Stefan Pryor” since January 2012.
Read more:
http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/op-ed_another_week_another_scandal/
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I don’t mean to be pedantic, but I think you meant modus operandi, not modes opera. Joanne
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Joanne Barkan, my iPad refuses to print the common Latin phrase. I changed it to “way of operating”
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Another hi hum scandal. Well my friends, what will civil rights lawyers, maybe even pro bono,to put the kibosh on the proposed superintendent with a phony doctorate?
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Mr/Dr Carter brought a lawyer and a PR representative to New London last night. The use of PR representative just might be a new low for the public school demolition crowd.
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And the CEO of Push Marketing created a folksy website just for him. This is how she describes the situation. It was just a little fib.
“The central question in this media frenzy is whether Carter, ever fibbed about his Ph.D. credentials, or used the title before he completed his coursework.”
http://www.newlondonspeaks.org
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Wendy Lecker very cogently presents the travesty of state takeovers in Connecticut. From the top–Stefan Pryor–to the latest “superstar” reformer–Terrence Carter–uncredentialed, insufficiently trained corporate managers are ruining our schools.
Although Steven Adamowski received education degrees, and seems to have done the minimum number of years teaching (where, nobody knows), he has not spent enough time in a classroom nor in any one district to learn the art of education. (One look at Adamowski’s resume, and what is striking is how every 4-5 years, he is/was on the move–and that’s for his entire career!) I have to say that I am dismayed at what has become of education degrees–especially at the post-graduate level. I could not do a Ph.D. in history in 2 years (!), as Carter seems to have (finally) done a non-residential degree at Lesley–and he only had a minor as an undergrad in education! Actually, I don’t know of many Ph.D.s that take 2 years! Education departments must take some of the blame for this–highly questionable programs offering ed. doctorates are mushrooming all over the country and the internet.
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I like how Terrence Carter is now insisting that his (unsigned, unvoted-on) contract should be “honored” with fidelity! The man who invented PhDs and titles for himself; who may have defaulted on financial obligations, who bragged about “turning” around schools (which are somehow still in need of turnaround)–now claims that, having not outright lied to the NL BoE, his previous history of doing so should not count against him.
Can you imagine the legal potential of this defense? A bank robber is brought before a judge. His defense: I didn’t steal from you, your honor. I am not stealing right now! How dare someone who hasn’t been robbed by me accuse me!
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Jon Lender, Hartford Courant:
You’re in front of a Google search screen. You type in “Terrence Carter” — in quotation marks — and then add Chicago, his hometown. Hit “Enter.”
On the first page of results there’s a link for some speakers’ biographies for a 2011 education conference. One of the “Presenter Biographies” is about “Terrence Carter, Ph.D.” and it says he holds doctorate from Stanford University — which he doesn’t.
That’s the process that The Courant went through two weeks ago, finding a public document listing Carter as the holder of a doctorate — several years before his scheduled receipt next month of a Ph.D. from an accredited institute, Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass.
Expanding the search terms slightly — to combinations such as “Terrence Carter, Ph.D.” and Dr. Terrence P. Carter” — yielded a dozen such references.
Latest Column On Terrence Carter w/Copies of 2Carter Bios Making Differing Academic Credential Claims http://t.co/LU4zWqwZSj
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The problem is there’s no real defined qualification for this job. They’ve made it entirely subjective. It seems to be open to the entire universe of applicants.
They’re likely to continue to have these problems unless they set some definitions and requirements. That probably goes against the deregulatory and “disruptive” ethos, though, so we’ll continue to see hiring FOLLOWED by a debate on what the applicant should or should not have, do, etc.
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Chiara, holding a doctorate may not be necessary to be a superintendent. Having false claims on your résumé may be a disqualification.
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A comparison of Terrence Carter’s biographies with and without phd from Stanford
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-a-comparison-of-terrence-p-carters-biographies-20140725,0,3817980.photogallery
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Having had an interview with Stefan Pyor…does this mean that Mr/Dr passed the interview?
Seems he had all the qualities that Pryor values-
-Deception
-Greed
-Using children, lying to parents
They have much in common.
Should Pryor be held accountable at all?
Have you seen the CT State Dept of Ed “Suggested Protocol for Addressing Parent Requests for opting out of testing”?
The CT State Dept “suggests” that CT school districts tell parent THREE times that testing is “mandatory” and parents are violating the law. Upon the parents FOURTH written opt out, the child may forego the test without repercussion to parent or child.
The firm states that the intent is to “test as many children as possible”
-Deceit
-Greed
-Using Children, lying to parents
Again, should Pryor be held accountable?
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To answer your question with another question: Does a wild bear shit in the woods?
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Diane: I think out-and-out LYING WOULD be a disqualification! Sigh–but then, again, what do I know? I’m only a retired teacher (with only an earned M.S., & real teaching credentials).
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“Charlatan’s Web”
Oh, what a Charlatan’s Web we weave
When daily we practice to deceive:
Conjure doctorates from thinnest air;
Dance ’round truth like Fred Astaire
The Constitution State we’re named
By cons in suits of late we’re gamed
Jamokes, Jumokes and burning FUSES
Any which way, the public loses
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Does anyone know about the woman who is the new Superintendent of Gilbert, AZ schools? She came from Connecticut. I have a feeling this won’t be good.
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Not good. Google Kishimoto and Hartford public schools. They did not renew her contract.
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she was Adamowski’s reformy protege in Hartford
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The amount of negative press Governor Malloy, Commissioner Pryor, “Dr.” Sharpe, FUSE, Jumoke charter schools and “Dr.” Carter have received over the last 3-4 weeks, has severely weakened the privatization and charter school movement in CT. It will also certainly negatively impact Malloy’s re-election bid. The bottom line is these absolute frauds have done more for our cause in CT, than we could have done over the next two years. Malloy must be defeated in November.
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