Mercedes Schneider did some research and discovered that a very large proportion of the “deans” at the Relay “Graduate Schools of Education” got their start in Teach for America.
Relay Graduate School of Education’s Overwhelmingly TFA-Derived “Deans”
This makes sense. TFA bypasses traditional professional education and places ill-prepared “teachers” in urban and rural classrooms with only five weeks of training. Who would go to a doctor who never went to medical school but had five weeks of training? Who would go to a “lawyer” who skipped law school and read law books for five weeks?
Relay is the right place for “deans” with no real education background. These faux “graduate schools” have none of the authentic markers of a genuine graduate school of education. Few, if any, of their faculty have doctorates. They have no programs in the foundations of education, in cognitive development, in learning the skills need to be a teacher of children with disabilities or a teacher of English language learners. Libraries? I don’t think so.
Relay grew out of a program created at Hunter College called TeacherU, whose purpose was to prepare young people to teach in charter schools. It was sponsored by three no-excuses charter chains: KIPP, Achievement First, and Uncommon Schools. What matters most to the no-excuses charters are strict discipline and test scores. Who needs research? Who needs scholarship? Who needs experts in school finance or history or psychology? Not Relay.
Like the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, Relay is a means of bypassing professional education while mimicking it.
The Atlanta Board of Education just awarded a $600,000 sole source contract to Relay to prepare leaders.
Schneider reviews the background of the 15 Relay “deans” and concludes:
There you have it: 15 “deans”; no Ph.D.s (but one almost); no bachelors degrees in education; no refereed publications, and not a one “dean” qualified for a tenure-track position in a legitimate college of education. But who needs legitimacy when you can franchise yourself into a deanship?
What a farce.
P.S. Mercedes Schneider has an earned Ph.D. in research methodology and statistics. She chose to teach high school students in Louisiana. She knows what a legitimate graduate school of education is.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks, Mercedes.
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What Mercedes writes, I read!
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Relay would not survive without charter schools.
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Was hoping someone on this thread could advise on a similar contract issue here in Oakland. During the 2016-2017 school year, our board, under the approval of Antwan Wilson, sole-sourced a contract with Blueprint Schools Network. Blueprint would provide Math Fellows, via Americorps, for tutoring in 5 middle schools here. How much? How does a cool $1M sound? (with the add-ons). You’d think for that kind of money, our high-needs students would get actual educators with master’s degrees. Nope, Americorps volunteers only had to have a high school diploma. Half of the original contract for $835,000 (!) went to administrators in Blueprint Schools. The actual Math Fellows, were paid a pittance of around $25,000 with health benefits for one year, plus a $5K bonus upon completion.
BSN is headed up by Matthew Spengler. Who is he? Harvard ed-reformer who was principal of a small district high school here, Met West. He then went on to work as a Director at Harvard’s EduLabs figuring out all kinds of neat experiments he could use on our students. Then, he found some superintendents who were willing to farm out their students for Mr. Spengler’s ed experiments, including, you guessed it, Antwan Wilson and Denver Public Schools. Next, Antwan Wilson shows up in Oakland, with Mr. Spengler close behind, ready to peddle his “tutoring” Math Fellows to our highest-needs students. And, bingo, the Board approves a sole-source $1M contract, just like that.
Blueprint Schools end game is really data-mining. OUSD pays a fortune for an unproven program from an organization who’s mission is to apply charter reforms to public schools. BSN gets all the data they want; I’m sure the participants/parents have no idea.
This sole source agreement for essentially low-paid, unskilled “teaching” labor for $1M just doesn’t pass the sniff test. I’m going out a limb and saying it’s both illegal and immoral, but here we are. Any advice?
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I don’t know about the legality, but it certainly is shady and immoral. You may be able to inquire about legality at the Education Law Center of CA. http://www.edlawcenter.org/states/california.html
As far as complaining out the expenditures, as a taxpayer, you can always ask to meet with district administrators or the board of education. If other parents feel as you do, go as a group. Numbers of people always make a difference to administrators and school boards.
One of the great aspects of public education is that you have a voice as a community stakeholder. Privatization reduces parents and students to consumers, not stakeholders. Parents have more power, and students have more rights in public schools. Good luck!
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“These faux “graduate schools” have none of the authentic markers of a genuine graduate school of education.”
Begs the question, why use “test scores” instead of “authentic markers”
in genuine Public Schools?
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This has got to stop. These fast tracked deans and Superintendents should be screened and sent to bottom of for-hire lists. Thank you for this research and concerning information.
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and too often the fast track Magical Superintendent game only means make huge money when the community forces your district to buy out your contract as you then move on to another huge contract elsewhere
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Sure, these are hacks, but one must also realize that there are no “authentic schools” per se. The well-established universities rose from someone’s personal efforts a hundred or two hundred years ago, and they are very protective of their turf. Try creating a new university and get accredited as an “authentic” establishment.
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Relay answers your question. They are fake “Graduate schools of education” and they somehow got accredited.
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Yeah, these people came from Hunter College, not just nobodys. They sure knew whos hands to grease.
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