Professor TOm Pedroni of Wayne State University wrote the following letter after learning that Barbara Byrd-Bennett had been selected as the new Chicago superintendent. He and sent it to the Chicago newspapers. None would publish it.
“October 14, 2012
LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
“BARBARA BYRD-BENNETT FAILED OUR KIDS IN DETROIT
“Many of us in Detroit are shocked by Mayor Emanuel’s appointment of Byrd-Bennett to head CPS. Her abysmal record as Chief Academic and Accountability Auditor of Detroit Public Schools should alarm Chicago parents and educators.
“Byrd-Bennett created an academic plan for DPS that promised skyrocketing performance gains. To say the least, these gains never materialized. Her plan centered on the obstinate assertion that closing failing schools and offering parents a “marketplace of choices” would cause test scores to jump. Predictably, test scores actually declined or stagnated in DPS while they increased statewide. This has exacerbated Michigan’s statewide achievement gap.
“While Byrd-Bennett did not make her mark in academics, she did help engineer what many consider the largest textbook publisher contract in U.S. history—a $40 million partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Byrd-Bennett had just resigned as Superintendent-in-Residence for Harcourt School Publishers. The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt deal necessitated a sweeping overhaul of the district’s academic program that was not vetted by any internal process.
“While we applaud the dialogue that Byrd-Bennett has initiated with CTU President Karen Lewis, Chicagoans should be concerned about her previous performance and demonstrated commitments.
“Dr. Thomas C. Pedroni, Wayne State University”
Dr. Thomas C. Pedroni 387 Education Bldg, Detroit, MI 48202 (313) 577-1730 pedroni@wayne.edu
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Freedom of Speech??? Apparently not!! Censorship??? Definitely!!! Let the people read the letter and let them decide for themselves where the truth lies. Not going to happen in this case.
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“. . .where the truth lies.”
That would be anything coming out of the edudeformers mouths.
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It seems that a big issue is the media really doesn’t pay enough attention to details involving education. The general public and even government officials are not involved enough with important educational issues and contributes to misinformed solutions to any problems that continue to plague our educational system. There are many dedicated people in the profession striving to improve student education but the powerful structure in place makes it difficult to be heard.
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Disruption for little lives, that already many times, have disruption at home. It is heartless to close a neighborhood school – a local, free, public school. There are many ways to help a school, without closing it.
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Did he send that to The Chicago Reader, Chicago’s alternative weekly? I can’t believe that they wouldn’t have published it. I’m sure that the Tribune and the Sun-Times wouldn’t have touched that, but if he didn’t send that to The Reader, he was remiss.
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Don’t forget Cleveland:
“Byrd-Bennett came to Cleveland in 1998 when then-Mayor Michael R. White hired her from the New York City schools. In her first few years here, she was credited for raising test scores and graduation rates, cleaning up the system’s books, bringing in millions of dollars from foundations and launching the district’s $1.5 billion construction program.
But her public image fell as the district suffered severe money problems that led to cutting more than 1,400 positions and closing 11 schools in her last two years.
She announced her resignation from the district in August 2005, though she did not depart until early 2006. Her announcement came right after voters sharply defeated a tax increase for the schools.
Her pay in Cleveland — more than the $250,000 she was making in Chicago — came under heavy criticism.”
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The Cleveland school district has a high-ranking official who is a Fellow of the Gates-funded Pahara Institute (Spring 2017).
I can’t imagine any private entity permitting employees to be members of an organization whose purpose was a threat to the entity’s existence. A substantial number of Pahara Fellows, represent organizations that must claw their way into public education to make money.
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I hope Dr. Pedroni and his colleagues at Wayne State are aware of one of the most recent Gates’ incursions into higher ed. The Frontier Set webpage describes the program- implementation of “business models for collaborative course development and delivery”. Also, college faculty, administration and staff should be informed about the Forbes article, “It’s Time for a Quality Alternative to College Accreditation”, written by the Center for American Progress. One of the co-authors was formerly employed by Gates-funded New America. (CAP received $2.2 mil. from Gates 2013-2015.) Rubio introduced similar legislation in March, which is summarized in Sunshine State News (March 14, 2017). Frontier Set and the implementation of college testing similar to PARCC, spells the end of one of the few remaining institutions underpinning democracy in the U.S.
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Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg,…, are investors in the largest seller of for-profit, schools-in-a-box.
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Thank you for the references
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There’s so much government promotion of charters and vouchers I’m starting to get confused on when we’re all supposed to be cheerleading “choice” schools.
They have National School Choice Week and National Charter Schools Week now?
Isn’t that redundant?
Hey- we get the message guys- public schools are unfashionable and must be either denigrated or completely ignored. You’d have to be a moron to miss it. No need to beat us over the head with it every three months.
Weird how The Agnostics conduct these marketing campaigns and public schools are always omitted. One or two times could be error or simply an oversight. Year after year starts to look like a plan.
Why not just call themselves “charter advocates” or “voucher advocates” since that’s clearly what they are? If they don’t do anything for our schools should they be able to promote their careers by claiming to support “public education” when they regularly omit public schools?
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Contractor school advocates and privatizers.
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Since we don’t have any charters where I live the ed reform voucher plan will designate the public school system as the “default” system that backs up the “choice” schools.
This is okay (and inevitable) because of course public schools have a different mission and purpose than private schools.
However. Can I get some guarantee that our schools will be compensated sufficiently for serving in this additional capacity? I’ll need that in writing. Public schools have been consistently burned by ed reformers for 20 years. I insist they grapple with the reality of this and stop pretending that what they do doesn’t affect us. It does. Deal with it.
I want an advocate for public schools at the table when these privatization deals are made. Designating public schools as the disfavored “default” schools for “choice” schools without dealing with the ramifications of that is dishonest and unfair to children in public schools. DeVos and Duncan are wrong. “Plus/and” is a slogan. It isn’t good enough. I want a guarantee.
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Speaking of Chicago, R3, Resist, Reimagine, Rebuild plans a rally for May 1, at 11:00 on the corner of Ogden and Roosevelt.
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How interesting if a journalist got the idea to investigate and publish the massive amount of money spent in buying out superintendent contracts over the past fifteen or so years; the churn with abusive superintendents whose contracts are suddenly terminated and bought out, and yet who still always get hired after the fact because another district is looking to get NCLB/R2T/ESSA money for promoting invasive change has been truly devastating.
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Money talks
Byrd-Bennett didn’t walk
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This Cleveland to Detroit to Chicago to prison scenario makes me think “passing the trash” and “dance of the lemons” are not really about teachers…
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It appears that education is at the bottom of the list and capitalism at the cost of our children’s education has become preveliant. Awareness of our educational systems problems are not being heard. Thanks, Dr. Pedroni for the update.
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