Jon Lender of the Hartford Courant, who has broken story after story about sham practices in the state’s charter industry, describes the process of trying to verify the “doctorate” of Terrence Carter, the nominee for superintendent of the New London schools. The search firm hired by the school board seems to have conducted its research via Google.
Despite the damaging stories about his educational résumé, Carter is not abandoning his quest for the job:
“On Thursday, hours before the board of education’s evening meeting, the state Department of Education asked Carter to withdraw from consideration following a week of damaging disclosures. But Carter showed up at the meeting, met with the board in closed session, and emerged saying he’d done nothing wrong. “I’m not stepping down” he said, adding that he’s still “interested in the job.” He wouldn’t answer any questions about his past Ph.D. claims.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
My guess is that he knows he’s got no chance of actually taking office.. Instead, he’s angling for some sort of financial settlement, claiming that he was technically hired, but just did not sign any contract. When they failed to honor his “hiring”, he’ll claim breach of contract, then, or the basis of threatened lawsuit. To save money spent in litigation and make him go away, the New London board will pay him something.
You notice how he brings his lawyer to everything lately.
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Isn’t that similar to something Paul Vallas did in Bridgeport, CT? Didn’t Bridgeport have to pay him off to get him to leave?
As someone from ILL-Annoy, I’m sorry you’re getting the old one-two punch from Chicago, CT! In fact, it would almost appear that the whole country is suffering–educationally, that is–due to the good old boys (& girls!) from Chicago. Truly makes me ill (AND annoyed).
Oh, yeah–and it’s ALL about the kids.
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Carter also brought along someone from a PR firm to the closed door meeting. Apparently, he’s trying to rebrand himself.
If you Google Carter, you’ll discover how many other places where he applied and was considered for jobs as superintendent. From what I could tell, only New London offered him a job. Now that everyone knows he’s a pathological liar who can’t manage his own finances, I think he’s not going to be finding work anywhere in education except back here in Chicago, where they welcome crooks and liars and give the boot to people with integrity and genuine credentials.
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So Pedro Martinez worked witn Arne Duncan in Chicago as Cheif Financial Officer. Then he came to Nevada – administrator in Reno, then in Vegas, finally back to Reno. Became Superintendent of Washoe County in Northern Nevada.
He wasn’t always a nice guy and often it was questionable whether he honored due process in his dealings with staff but that is how administrators trained in Chicago with Duncan roll right?
Then one day Pedro fired a school police chief. Supposedly in an unconnected event, Pedro is questioned by a school board member – because he claims he has a CPA. There seems to be a problem as to whether he misrepesented himself at his initial hire.
At the very least this is a story of Karma – due process is for fairness – which he is questioning after being very unfair with hundreds of employees.
It could be Pedro lied – in Nevada, maybe Chicago.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/education/school-district-picks-deputy-reno
http://www.rgj.com/story/news/education/2014/07/23/reno-pedro-martinez-termination/13058329/
http://www.rgj.com/story/news/education/2014/07/23/martinez-recounts-day-leading-termination/13054143/
http://www.rgj.com/story/news/education/2014/07/25/superintendent-sue-washoe-county-school-district/13167763/
http://www.mynews4.com/mostpopular/story/Pedro-Martinez-to-sue-Washoe-County-School/nCOASz4-V0-q-GUamXE6kg.cspx
http://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/washoe-superintendent-fired-over-allegations-he-misrepresented-his-credentials#.U9Nk2cu9KK0
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These education reformers don’t feel like they have to be honest in anyway. Wherever they happen to be.
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Angie,
It is a sense of entitlement. They are so capable that they do not require conventional qualifications. They view those of us in the trenches as incompetent morons not bright enough to see our way out of the quagmire.
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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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That supposed 2001 teaching job in Patterson, NJ was omitted from and is in conflict with this resume, where he indicated he was working from July, 1999 – September, 2002 in San Jose, CA at Flextronics International:
Click to access D9212662101.PDF
Who would apply for a job in K12 education and omit their only K12 classroom teaching experience from their CV –if that had genuinely occurred?
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Another Chi-ster from Ill-annoy.
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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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If school boards would hired someone who worked their way up from within the district, instead of paying a search firm to find unsuitable candidates, they wouldn’t have this problem and perhaps the superintendent would stay longer than the average three years. We need people who are not only committed to educating children, but who are also already invested in our community.
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Hi concerned,
The goal is to eliminate community control.
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That’s a depressing, but most likely true, thought.
I find it ironic that the same group who screams for state’s rights, doesn’t trust local governments to make sound decisions for their community. It’s not limited to education.
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And since these superintendents only stay for three years, it’s the other administrators who remain in place before and after this short term who can make the difference.
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Honesty is no longer an asset for candidates of any venue. It is also troubling that too many people in our dumbing down society think that a PhD after their name automatically makes them smarter and more superior to others.
If Terrence Carter has demonstrated this level of deception and dishonesty even before he gets the job, that should question his credibility and judgement.
Just because he is lawyering up should not turn the school district into whips.
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Agree. Misrepresentation should be fraud.
I don’t believe a verbal agreement is binding.
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It would appear that Lexington University ‘awards’ degrees to those wishing to go into the ‘search firm’ racket as well.
A few years ago one of New London’s neighbors used a search firm to bring in an outside superintendent. In no time he had the veteran teachers abandoning ship with buy outs, most of the SPED aides looking for work, class sizes growing, and budgets for educational necessities permanently frozen. A bean counting non-educator he had no need for human relationships, collaboration, or synergy with those who actually knew how the developing brain works. He did serious harm to the Groton school system with his abrasive, controlling, and bullying mindset and methods, which he encouraged in his building principals (Ex. An administrator to a group of teachers asking questions about the need for a pointless, cumbersome new initiative, “If this were the business world you would never question your supervisor. We know how to get rid of tenured teachers you know.”) All courtesy of a vetting process by a search firm that either never picked up on or chose to ignore the reason he was released from his previous position.
Parents, teachers and some Board members were horrified by what they learned after a couple of hours on Google. He, while superintendent, had gone to war against a 12th grade student with a disability at the urging of high profile parents. He felt her condition, for which she had a 504 plan, gave her an unfair advantage in the competition for valedictorian so he unilaterally made changes in district policies on the calculation of GPA and the number of valedictorians recognized. The result- a lawsuit in Federal Court, the Court finding that he had violated the girl’s civil rights and the law, and a very pointed dressing down of him by the US District Court judge. It’s all there, online, if only one chooses to see it.
We can expect more of this as Boards use search firms as a buffer between themselves and their constituents in the brave new world of education for profit.
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If this guy qualifies, then why not invite Joe the Plumber to apply too?
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Joe the Plumber will probably do a better job. He has street smarts.
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NJ Teacher,
After I left that comment, I was thinking the same thing.
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“Doctor Mendacity”
Call me “Dr. Mendacity”
Although I’ve got no doctorate
Although I’ve got no Med degree
Be sure that I can doctor it
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Why are we all surprised. Since when has truth ever gotten in the way of any of these reformers? From Rhee, to Duncan to this guy ,Gates, the Koch brothers it’s all smoke an mirrors. But when you look closely the wizards of educational reform are just like the wizard of ox, fakes.
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I dont blame him at all. The degree wasn’t a requirement for the job. Presumably, they relied on something else. What the people who hired him need to explain is what that something else was, because it wasn’t his degree.
What was/is the basis for hiring him? What is the measure?
This isn’t on him. It’s on the leaders who hired him. THEY have to explain to the public. THEY are having difficulty doing that.
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Here’s a guy not exactly makin’ the chump change:
http://www.sbsun.com/social-affairs/20140725/ontario-montclair-schools-superintendent-james-hammond-made-492k
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Talk about the leader of the school district setting standards and teaching values!…
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All I can say is that this guy is the ultimate in what we Jews call Chutzpah. The word is hard to define. To me, it is arrogance beyond all reason because you have a sense of entitlement. And the reformers all feel they have the entitlement to rule and laugh at us little people. .
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Who needs a PhD to be a Superintendent? Just a good suit, a briefcase, and enough bluster to appear that you are getting the job done. I have experience with this issue, I was a teacher for the Buffalo Public Schools.
(My apologies to the numerous competent superintendents out there who are doing an outstanding job).
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Now it turns out that he plagiarized his application essay.
http://www.theday.com/article/20140729/NWS01/307299956/1017/NWS#.U9fCrGK9KSN
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