The Atlanta Board of Education will vote tonight on whether to give a $600,000 sole source contract to the Relay “Graduate School of Education” to train school leaders.
Edward Johnson, a champion of public schools and an advocate of systemic change based on the philosophy of W. Edwards Deming, has spoken out against this decision, and with good reason. Deming helped to transform Japanese industry based on principles of teamwork and collaboration and the recognition that accountability starts at the top, not the bottom. (To learn more about Deming, read Andrea Gabor’s excellent The Man Who Invented Quality, especially chapter 9, where she explains Deming’s opposition to merit pay. Her new book, After the Education Wars, directly applies Deming thought to education.)
Relay is not really a “graduate school of education.” It is an organization founded in 2011 by three “no-excuses” charter chains–KIPP, Achievement First, and Uncommon Schools–based on a charter teacher training program called TeacherU at Hunter College in New York City. Graduate schools of education have faculty members with doctorates in their fields; they have research programs; they have departments and courses devoted to pedagogy, psychology, philosophy, sociology, economics, history, and other aspects of education. Relay has none of these features. Its “schools” are managed by charter teachers, some of whom have a masters’ degree; they specialize in teaching how to raise test scores and impose strict discipline according to the canonical texts of Doug Lemov; if you search for a Relay campus, you are unlikely to find one. Relay is one of the ways in which corporate reformers are determined to destroy professional education, for teachers and administrators alike.
I wrote a letter to the Atlanta Board of Education, following Ed Johnson’s complaint, explaining that Relay was not the right choice.
The chair of the education committee of the Atlanta NAACP wrote too, urging that the agenda item for a sole source contract be deferred until other institutions were invited to submit proposals.
From: Lula Gilliam [mailto:education@naacpatlanta.org]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2018 12:12 PM
To: mjcarstarphen@atlanta.k12.ga.us; jesteves@atlantapublicschools.us; epcollins@atlantapublicschools.us; lgrant@atlantapublicschools.us; bamos@atlanta.k12.ga.us; michelle.olympiadis@atlanta.k12.ga.us; nmeister@atlanta.k12.ga.us; Erika.Mitchell@atlanta.k12.ga.us; kandis.woodjackson@atlanta.k12.ga.us; cbriscoe_brown@atlanta.k12.ga.us; pierre.gaither@atlanta.k12.ga.us
Cc: jkahrs@gsu.edu; dcowan1@gsu.edu; bawilli@gsu.edu; president@naacpatlanta.org; AfQPE@aol.com; edwjohnson@aol.com; Marypalmer515@gmail.com
Subject: Relay Graduate School of Education Sole Source Contract
To: Atlanta Board of Education (ABOE) members
Good afternoon,
Community education activist, Ed Johnson, included the Atlanta NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) on an email thread that has raised several concerns. We have been informed that ABOE has an action on tonight’s (March 5, 2018) agenda that includes Item 7.05.
The Board will be voting to enter into a sole source contract with Relay Graduate School of Education (RGSE). The purpose is “for tuition for school leaders and central office supervisors to participate in the [Relay] National Principal and Supervisor Academy.” The contract amount is $600,000.00.
We are certain you are aware the terminology sole source denotes that no other entity can provide these services. Are you all familiar with the Principals Center at Georgia State University (GSU), which provides the very services that are mentioned in this sole source? Did you contact the Center about the contract and offer them an equal opportunity to provide these services? If not, please explain. Just in case you don’t have this, I am including the contact information for the Center’s executive staff: Dr. James R. Kahrs (jkahrs@gsu.edu) and Dr. Dionne Cowan (dcowan1@gsu.edu) as well as copying them on this email. Also copied are GSU president, Dr. Mark Becker, and Dr. Brian Williams, Director of the Alonzo Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence (Atlanta NAACP Education Committee – Co-Chair).
Founded in 1913, GSU graduates more African American students than any other college/university in the country. With this impressive distinction and a true testament of leadership training at its finest, seemingly, Georgia State’s longevity and outcomes negate that no other entity can provide the services described by ABOE. On the other hand, Relay Graduate School of Education was founded in 2011. What is their track record for success that has ABOE considering a sole source contract in the amount of $600,000.00?
The Atlanta NAACP would caution ABOE to tread carefully in the use of “sole source” and the doling out of public dollars. We highly recommend tabling this agenda item in order to offer this contract to the best possible provider. Our children and families deserve nothing less.
In the best interests of students and parents,
Lula M. Gilliam
Atlanta NAACP
Chair – Education Committee
Co-Chair -Labor & Industry Committee
970 Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive
(404)524-0580 (office)
(770)256-0275 (cell)
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am still in disbelief that NY has given this “graduate school” accreditation.
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We have make-believe teachers, make-believe schools and make-believe graduate schools of education. All that is missing is make-believe students.
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Avatars fake students are being used in teacher education. Bill Gates funded some of that work. Check out MUSION.
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I find the separate and unequal aspects of Relay training so called teachers offensive. I think the NAACP is being very polite. It seems to me that mostly middle class students will continue to be taught by legitimately trained teachers, but poor minority children will be taught by those trained by Relay. This is more separate and unequal treatment that should be eschewed by anyone that understands civil rights. Relay was created to offer a cheap labor stream to charter schools whose reputation for burning though staff members is well known. Since these poor souls will not be able to work in authentic public schools, they will have to remain as an indentured servant in a charter created to traffic in black and brown children in order to enrich white overseers. Where have we seen this before?
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Relay hooked up with Newark Public Schools a few years back. It does not solely provide teachers to charter schools. It is a gift that keeps on giving,
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Unfortunately Relay is an approved provider for Louisiana also. But what do you expect from a State Superintendent John White who is attached at the hip to Teach For America because he is an alum with absolutely no legitimate education training himself.
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I do not know how Diane can respond to all of these challenges and write a book already contracted for. I hope the letters from Diane and NAACP make a difference. Relay should never have been accredited.
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I have been delayed starting the book but hopefully things will calm down and I can focus.
I keep learning every day.
With statewide teacher strike in W. Va, possibly Oklahoma, not the right time to go silent
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THANK YOU, Diane.
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Seems like there’s never a right time to go silent these days.
You ARE focused, Diane, and you keep the rest of us focused and learning, too.
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So many outrages, so little time.
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The outrages are coming so fast it’s like living in the vortex of a cyclone giving the impression that everything is being destroyed around us.
And malignant narcissists and psychopaths like Trump loves chaos, and he is a master of using chaos to come out on top while trampling everyone under his copious blubbery body.
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A few years back I read that the same people funding and running the war against the public schools have also been buying up and/or taking over the Accreditation bodies. If what I read was accurate, then the pirates/frauds, like David Coleman, are in charge of accreditation.
https://www.50states.com/college-resources/accreditation.htm
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This is another example of how most of so called reform is a gigantic pay to play scheme.
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Bingo.
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