The School Empowerment Network (SEN) is a Brooklyn, NY-based nonprofit that received its nonprofit status in February 2016.

Just-born SEN specializes in three services: principal development, teacher development, and new school development. Its home page features an obvious link entitled, “START A NEW CHARTER SCHOOL.”

SEN’s three board members are computer science major Daniel Pasette as president; former TNTP (The New Teacher Project) and NYDOE exec director Alex Shub, and former NYDOE COO (Portfolio Planning) Eduardo Contreras.

As of August 18, 2016, it lists on its website a single funder, the Walton Foundation, and a single client: Michigan’s state-takeover Education Achievement Authority (EAA). It turns out that paint-barely-dry-on walls SEN is “leading” EAA, as the SEN website notes:

The Education Achievement Authority of Michigan (EAA) is a public system of schools whose mission is [to] turn the lowest performing schools in Michigan into the highest performing schools through people development, proven instructional strategies, and seamless operations.

At the EAA, School Empowerment Network is leading the design and implementation of teacher development pathways as well as an Achievement Leadership Institute (ALI) to prepare the next cohort of school administrators. As teachers build a track record of success in EAA schools, they have opportunities to reach more students, earn more money, and grow professionally by moving up our career ladder, from “Model” to “Lead” to “Master” Teacher—and eventually, if they are so inclined, into school administration positions.

SEN is also leading the implementation of Small Learning Communities (SLCs) to improve student academic and social/emotional outcomes. Our model assigns a cohort of staff to a specific grade or grade band of students, building one-year-at-a-time a clearly defined school culture which is modeled and embodied by all. As a result, small school communities are able to understand and meet the needs of each and every student. In 2015-2016, two SLC academies were launched in the district, and School Quality Review results already show evidence of new and much stronger school cultures, where clearer behavioral expectations have been established and are largely being met.

What lovely SEN marketing– and such a contrast to EAA reality, which includes likes of EAA embarrassment, former chancellor John Covington, who cut out as EAA leader amid questionable financial management issues.

Though Michigan’s state-run EAA is in its final year, the schools remain under the auspices of the state’s school reform office. The future jurisdiction of these schools is connected to a restructuring of the Detroit Public Schools.

Given the timing of the legislated EAA dissolution and the establishment of SEN as a nonprofit, it is possible that SEN was created to oversee the EAA school transition. SEN could be the chicken, but it could also be a Walton-funded, EAA egg. Note that SEN won the EAA contract under highly questionable circumstances, as the Detroit Free Press reported in November 2015:

The district running Michigan’s lowest-performing schools awarded a $1.7-million training contract to a company that scored 8th out of 10 companies seeking the work, according to documents reviewed by the Free Press.

The School Empowerment Network, or SEN, has no office, no listed phone number, an unfinished website and a seven-member staff. Its initial bid of $2.3 million was more than twice the $1-million bid submitted by the highest-scoring firm, Boston-based Public Consulting Group, which has 60 offices in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Most of SEN’s current staff worked formerly for New York City schools at the same time Veronica Conforme, the current chancellor of the financially troubled Education Achievement Authority, also worked there. The EAA is SEN’s only client. …

The contract was awarded as the EAA is under siege because of poor academic performance, declining enrollment and an FBI investigation into kickback schemes involving vendors.

Nothing like relying on a then-not-even nonprofit that is more costly and low-scoring in its bid to lead critical clean-up of obvious corporate reform failure.

As for that Walton Foundation funding, SEN has this explanation:

In 2016 School Empowerment Network received a grant from the Walton Family Foundation to launch our Charter School Intensive Development Program (CSIDP). CSIDP recruits, selects, and trains transformational educators to open high-performing New York City charter schools, offering students from underserved communities more quality school options that prepare them for success in college, careers, and the competitive world beyond.

Founding a new school through the Charter School Intensive Development Program provides a unique opportunity to implement a distinct vision for serving NYC’s students and families and offers an unparalleled educational leadership experience. Participants in the program will receive high level support from SEN’s experienced principal coaches and partner organizations. We provide our future leaders with three years of support – from the charter application through the end of the first year of operation –  to help develop a charter leadership and school pipeline that creates new high-quality options for NYC students and families.

Of course, since SEN is a brand new nonprofit, there is little information available to the public regarding the connection between SEN and other corporate-reform-promoting nonprofits.

But there is some.

For the following information, I am using the nonprofit search engine, citizenaudit.org, for which I have a membership graciously purchased by a number of my readers. Since SEN does not yet have 990 tax forms on file, some of the information I cannot link to directly, but I can report the results of my search here.

Anyone with a membership to citizenaudit.org is able to verify the information below. (One could also verify on sites like 501c3lookup.org.)

The important name here is Cherie Velez, who is listed as the contact person for the SEN nonprofit. (It is possible that the Cherie Velez in question is this Florida-based Cherie Velez of Liberty Consultants, who “specializ[es] in providing customized financial, operational, and human resource solutions to a wide variety of businesses, including for-profit and non-profit.” However, I have not confirmed this.)

Cherie Velez is the name listed as the contact for five nonprofits.

The first is Campbell Brown’s Partnership for Educational Justice (PEJ) (EIN 464462811). PEJ is described as an “educational organization.” Despite having been awarded nonprofit status in September 2014, PEJ has yet to file any 990 tax form. However, PEJ has found the time (and money) to bring suit against teacher tenure in both New York and Minnesota.

The second is the Philos Project, Inc. (EIN 471182714), awarded nonprofit status in February 2015, and located at 79 Madison Ave., New York, NY. Brown’s husband, Dan Senor, sits on the board of this religious-affiliated nonprofit.

The third is also a religious-affiliated organization, the Shabbat Project, Inc. (EIN 464715368), which was awarded nonprofit status in April 2015, and also located at 79 Madison Ave., New York, NY. The Shabbat Project 2015 990 is inaccessible for some reason; however, the fact that it shares an address with the Philos Project is enough to establish a highly-probable connection with Senor.

The fourth Velez-associated nonprofit is The 74 Media, Inc. (EIN 472788684), more commonly known as The 74– co-founded by editor-in-chief Campbell Brown. Described as an “educational organization,” the 74 received nonprofit status on March 2015 and is due for its first 990 tax filing, uh, now.

And, of course, the fifth Velez-associated nonprofit is the one named at the outset of this post, charter-school-helper, SEN (EIN 474058445), a “charitable organization: education services and schools”…

…which one might logically conclude is connected to corporate-reform-pusher, Campbell Brown.

  Campbell Brown

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Released July 2016– Book Three:

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of both A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

Pahara Institute is a nonprofit, market-based-education-reform mill designed to proliferate corporate reformers. It was formed in 2012 and is located in Walnut, California.

The corporate reform message of Pahara Institute is the stale sale of *public schools failing and leaders with new, innovative solutions needed*– except the solutions are neither new nor innovative.

Still, Pahara Institute seeks to spread school choice and test-score based reforms.

Lest there be any doubt about Pahara Institute as a corporate reform proliferation nest, consider the bio of its founder and CEO, Kim Smith:

Kim Smith is the founder and chief executive officer of the Pahara Institute. … Immediately prior to the Pahara Institute, Kim was co-founder of Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. Earlier in her career she served as a founding team member at Teach For America, created and led an AmeriCorps program for community-based leaders in education, managed a business start-up and completed a brief stint in early online learning at Silicon Graphics. After completing her MBA at Stanford University, she co-founded and led NewSchools Venture Fund, a philanthropy focused on transforming public education through social entrepreneurship, where she helped to catalyze a new, bipartisan, cross-sector community of entrepreneurial change agents for public education. Kim has helped to incubate numerous education and social change organizations and has served on a range of boards, which currently include those of Bellwether, NewSchools, and Rocketship Education, and she has authored or co-authored a number of publications about innovation and social entrepreneurial change in education. [Emphasis added.]

Corporate ed reform entrenched.

Note the all-too-familiar corporate reformer lingo in the Pahara Institute Mission and History/Purpose, which, of course, is both “bold” and “urgent”:

The Pahara Institute is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to identify, strengthen, and sustain diverse high potential leaders who are reimagining public education, so that every child in America has access to an excellent public school. …

American public schools are not delivering on our promise to prepare every child to achieve prosperity and success. Children from low income and underserved communities do not have access to the quality of educational resources enjoyed by peers in wealthier communities.

To achieve educational excellence and equity at the same time and to live up to our aspirations as a democratic society, we must make bold improvements to our public schools so that every child in America has access to the tools and skills he or she needs to be successful in life.

The Pahara Institute seeks to strengthen the movement for educational excellence and equity by:

• helping to develop and sustain experienced, innovative leaders
• identifying and developing the next generation of leaders
• better connecting leaders across the field, and across traditional silos and stakeholder groups

Our work is to support exceptional, innovative leaders who bring urgency and dedication to ensuring that all our children have access to an excellent public school.

The following Pahara Institute mission comes from its most recent tax filing as of this writing: Pahara Oct 2014- Sept 2015

Pahara Institute identifies, strengthens, and sustains diverse, high-potential leaders who are reimagining public education, so that every child in America has access to an excellent public school.

In 2014-15, Pahara Institute spent $4.4 million on the following “service accomplishment”:

The Pahara Institute provides leadership development activities and programs for leaders in education reform. Education reform in the US is a complicated undertaking, and it is important that we have a strong cadre of diverse and highly skilled leaders who are able and motivated to reimagine our public schools so that we are providing a high quality education to all of our children and communities. The institute addresses this need through initiatives targeting the development needs of a range of education-related leaders. During the current fiscal year, the Institute had 364 participants in its programs.

In 2012, the Gates Foundation funded Pahara Institute $2 million “to support the Pahara Institute and its two leadership programs, the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship Program and a new emerging leaders program designed to accelerate the development of high potential emerging leaders of color.”

However, Pahara Institute’s primary “partner” is the Aspen Institute, also a major vehicle for advancing corporate education reform ideas. (I wrote a chapter about the Aspen Institute in my first book, A Chronicle of Echoes, including its history and mammoth annual event, the Aspen Ideas Festival.)

Note that the Gates Foundation is a major funder of the Aspen Institute (over $94 million since 2002), which, in turn, is the primary “partner” of Pahara Institute. However, the Aspen-Pahara fiscal connection becomes murky as Pahara Institute is not mentioned on the Aspen Institute tax form and vice-versa.

Current fiscal murkiness aside, as its “about” page notes, Pahara Institute was originally launched in 2006 as the Aspen-NewSchools Fellowship, a joint venture between the Aspen Institute and NewSchools Venture Fund.

To give an idea of who participated in the Aspen-NewSchools Fellowship, see this 2008 newsletter featuring that year’s Aspen-NewSchools fellows, including:

• Cami Anderson, Sr. Superintendent of District 79, NYC Dept. of Ed.
• Jemina Bernard, Executive Director, NY Teach for America
• Becca Bracey Knight, Managing Director, Broad Center for the Management of School Systems
• Tim Daly, President, The New Teacher Project
• John King, Sr. Deputy Commissioner for P-12 Education, NY State Dept. of Ed.
• Jordan Meranus, Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund
• Rebecca Nieves Huffman, VP, The Fund for Authorizing Excellence, Nat’l. Assn. of Charter Schools Authorizers
• Terry Ryan, VP for Ohio Programs and Policy, The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
• Sarah Usdin, Founder and President, New Schools for New Orleans [Emphasis added.]

The first cohort of Pahara fellows (2007) included the following corporate ed reformers (bio links from main link above are rich with corp ed reform connections):

• Russlyn Ali, Managing Director of Ed Fund, Emerson Collective
• Chris Barbic, Founding (former) Superintendent, Tennessee Achievement District
• Richard Barth, CEO, KIPP Foundation
• Michael Bennet, US Senator (Colorado)
• Susan Colby, Partner, McKinsey and Company
• John Deasy, Former Los Angeles Superintendent, now with The Broad Center
• Kaya Henderson, Former DC Chancellor
• Jon Schnur, Co-leader, New Leaders for New Schools
• Jim Shelton, Former Ed Program Director, Gates Foundation
• Elisa Villanueva Beard, CEO of Teach for America

Some more Pahara fellows from other years:

• Ben Austin, Founder, Parent Revolution (2014)
• Tom Boasberg, Superintendent, Denver Public Schools (2013)
• Chaka Booker, Managing Director, the Broad Center (2015)
• Derrell Bradford, Exec. VP and Exec. Director, NYCAN, 50CAN (2016)
• Jean-Claude Brizard, Former CEO, Chicago Public Schools (2010)
• Chris Cerf, Superintendent, Newark Public Schools (2016)
• Deborah Gist, former Rhode Island Commissioner of Ed and current Superintendent, Tulsa Public Schools (2013)
• Aimee Guidera, Founder and Exec. Director, Data Quality Campaign (2013)
• Keri Hoyt, Chief Operating Officer, Success Academy Charter Schools (2014)
• Shavar Jeffries, President, Democrats for Education Reform (2017)
• Michael Johnston, Colorado State Senator (2013)
• Neerav Kingsland, Former CEO, New Schools for New Orleans (2013)
• Patricia Levesque, CEO/Exec. Director, Foundation for Excellence in Education (2013)
• Marc Porter Magee, Founder, 50CAN (2014)
• Deborah McGriff, Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund (2013)
• Kira Orange-Jones, Executive Director of Teach for America, New Orleans (2010)
• Dana Peterson, Deputy Superintendent, New Orleans Recovery School District (2013)
• Margaret (Macke) Raymond, Founder and Director, CREDO (2017)
• Caroline Roemer (Shirley), Exec. Director, La. Assn. of Public Charter Schools (2012)
• Stefanie Sanford, Former Director at the Gates Foundation, now with The College Board (2011)
• Laura Slover, CEO, PARCC (2013)
• Andy Smarick, Partner, Bellwether Education, and Member, Maryland Board of Education (2010)
• Preston Smith, Co-founder, Rocketship Education (2010)
• Daniel Weisberg, CEO, The New Teacher Project (2016)

There are many, many more Pahara fellows on the long list extending from 2007 to 2017.

One would think that with such concerted effort, market-based ed reforms would actually work– school choice would clearly triumph over those stepchild community schools, and test score outcomes would usher in local and state economic improvements.

I wonder how many Pahara cohorts it will take to bring us into the market-driven promised land.

I have at least ten more years before I retire from my traditional teaching position.

The race is on.

__________________________________________________________

Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

On October 01, 2015, the Times-Picayune published a social scene article entitled, “All You Need is NOMA’s Love in the Garden.”

As is usual for the society pages, names of notable attendees were published, including that of Louisiana state superintendent and the woman who accompanied him (underlining added):

Others enjoying the mood were NOMA Director Susan Taylor with husband, Paolo Meozzi, event co-chairs Robyn and Andrew Schwarz and Margaret and Pierre Villere, NOMA Volunteer Committee Chair Joni Diaz with Tommy Diaz, NOMA Board President Julie George and Ted George, Elizabeth and Clifton LeBlanc, David Edwards, Winnie and Mark Brown, Anne and Edmund Redd, Marshall Hevron, Beth and Austin Lavin, Celeste Marshall, Nicole Wright and David Francis, Bryant York and Elizabeth Porter York, Janet and Scott Howard, Mandie Landry, Cathy and Morris Bart, Penny and Al Baumer, Basi and Michael Carbine, Cammie Mayer, Kay McArdle and Joe Handlin, Penny Francis with daughter Casi, Taylor Morgan, Brent Wood, Lorena O’Neil and Max Vorhoff, Katherine Westerhold and John White, and Jennifer and John Rowland.

Interestingly, in an article about the same event appearing in the New Orleans Advocate almost two months later, in late November 2015, journalist Nell Nolan chose to alter White’s name, arguably to obscure his attendance at the event– and likely, his social connection to Katherine Westerhold (underlining added):

“Love” laurels were extended to Dawn DeDeaux, Tina Freeman, Susan Gisleson, Delaney Martin, Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun as the honored 2015 artists. Further brass were the event chair couples, Robyn and Andrew Schwarz and Margaret and Pierre Villere, and their committee of 92 LOVE-rs. Also, NOMA’s Montine McDaniel Freeman Director Susan M. Taylor and husband Paolo Meozzi, Cathy and Morris Bart, Penny and Al Baumer, Basi and Michael Carbine, Cammie Mayer, Kay McArdlle and Joe Handlin, Penny Francis and daughter Casi, Taylor Morgan, Rodney and Jane Besthoff Steiner, Valerie Besthoff, Lorena O’Neil and Max Vorhoff, Julie and Ted George, and Katherine Westerhold and Max White. Joni Diaz chairs the NOMA Volunteer Committee.

It turns out that Max White– I mean– John White and Katherine Westerhold are an item. From Westerhold’s Facebook page:

February 11, 2016

October 03, 2016 (Apparently taken at a wedding given the FB comments on pic.)

January 06, 2017

and this one, posted on July 10, 2017– and which surely does look like a wedding picture:

Nice pictures. They make me wish White were a decent guy.

So much for that.

Incidentally, on the day that Westerhold posted the above picture, I was in court in Baton Rouge for the hearing about whether Ganey Arsement et al’s lawsuit regarding BESE’s missing the senate deadline for White’s approval has standing. The judge decided that in order for the suit to have standing, one among a number of high-level individuals (e.g., the governor, attorney general, or president of the senate) needs to sign on to the suit. In this regard, Arsement is seeking the public’s help with contacting the governor.

But back to Katherine Westerhold.

In 2013, Westerhold was an employee at the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE). Her job title was “fellow,” and for that, she was paid $85,000. Though she was slated to be laid off according to this April 23, 2013, memo drafted by White, according to her resume (see page 68 of this September 2015 GNO, Inc., board meeting document), Westerhold remained employed with LDOE until April 2015. An excerpt:

The Louisiana Department of Education: Baton Rouge, LA September 2012 – April 2015

Deputy Chief of Staff, Recovery School District
Chief of Staff, Talent Office

• Built and executed a comprehensive plan for supporting 1400+ schools as they implemented state teacher and leader evaluation policies
• Guided the design of a district pilot program to reduce truancy in New Orleans and led the process of evaluating lessons learned in order to
inform on-going policies
• Managed the drafting and release of a policy report outlining lessons learned from early implementation of evaluation policies
• Co-led efforts to educate district constituents about new compensation legislation, oversaw the review and approval of each district’s overhauled
plan for compensating teachers, and managed relationship with technical assistance provider
• Provided staff and project management oversight to an office of 20+ employees, conducting weekly check-ins with multiple director-level staff,
coaching them through planning related to policy implementation and troubleshooting implementation-specific challenges

Westerhold also spent a year and a half connected to the Recovery School District (RSD) through The New Teacher Project (TNTP) (March 2010 – October 2011).

According to her Linkedin bio, Westerhold is currently the director of policy and government affairs with the Relay Graduate School of Education located in New Orleans.

Note that Chiefs for Change– now led by John White– is formally promoting Relay Graduate School of Education as part of state ESSA plans.

Relay is also on LDOE’s list for add-on certification providers, specifically for special education certification in mild-moderate.

So, White is basically using his superintendency to plug for use of the services of an ed nonprofit in which his girlfriend/fiancée/wife holds a leadership position. But there is more.

In March 2015, former LDOE data analyst Jason France wrote about how certain upper-level LDOE employees have offices in New Orleans– nice offices at 1615 Poydras Street:

LDOE employees with multiple offices

RSD no longer directly manages any schools, it just recruits them and “oversees” them. (New Schools for New Orleans is a non-profit that already does that.)  RSD’s employees are actually extensions of the LDOE. Many LDOE employees live in New Orleans and have offices in Baton Rouge and luxury offices in New Orleans. Many of LDOE’s executive employees live in New Orleans and do all their work from the RSD offices across from the Superdome, or from the privacy of their homes – as their exorbitant conference call bills will attest to.

Sources have relayed that a non-exhaustive list of employees operating this way are:

• · Katherine Westerhold
• · Hannah Dietsch
• · Alicja Witkowski
• · Taina Knox
• · Rebecca Kockler
• · Kunjan Narechania

…

What does RSD do with all their money?

What does RSD do with all its money you ask?  Well for one thing, they like to rent luxury office space in downtown New Orleans across from the Superdome.

RSD takes up the entire 14th floor at 1615 Poydras Street. …

…some amenities:

Encompassing 508,741 rentable square feet, the Class A Property is 85% leased and serves as the corporate headquarters for McMoRan Oil & Gas.

The property’s rent rolls are dominated by high profile, local, national and international corporations including Freeport-McMoRan, ANKOR Energy, U.S. Coast Guard, Gillis Ellis & Baker, Kuchler Polk Schell Weiner & Richeson, Usry Weeks & Matthews, Duplantier Hrapmann Hogan & Maher, First NBC Bank and Regus.

1615 Poydras accommodates an on-site restaurant, a barbershop and dry cleaning pick-up & delivery services.  Our location in the Central Business District (CBD) directly across from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, provides easy access to City Hall, hotels, Canal Street shopping and the historic French Quarter.  Tenants enjoy easy walking distance to the NFL Saints Champion Square and the world-class Mercedes-Benz Superdome directly across the street.

Man, who wouldn’t want a drycleaners with pickup and delivery service and a barbershop in their office building?

Check out the gorgeous marble and mahogany floors and enormous meeting rooms overlooking the city.

Who knew being a state worker could be such a sweet deal, especially amidst a 1.6 billion dollar deficit?

Out of curiosity, I googled the address of Relay Graduate School of Education in New Orleans.

1615 Poydras Street, Suite, Suite 820 (eighth floor)

Relay and LDOE are very close. But there is still more.

The sister of La. assistant superintendent Hannah Dietsch, Hallie Dietsch, works alongside Westerhold at Relay as director of operations for New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

In this link, Hallie Dietsch is trying to raise money for New Schools for Baton Rouge, and their students who were affected by the floods. New Schools for Baton Rouge promotes Teach for America (TFA), TNTP, and Relay Graduate School of Education. In the picture, below, she is seen with Westerhold.

From 2008-2011, Hallie Dietsch did a temp teaching stint with TFA in New Orleans. She completed her alternate certification with TNTP in 2009, the year before Westerhold, who has no teaching certificate, worked for TNTP.

Hallie Dietsch’s Louisiana teaching certificate expired in 2012. And why not? She no longer needs it.

But is does make more sense now why John White lied about having five years of teaching experience in an area of certification in order to get that La. ed admin level 3 certification to possibly become a local superintendent when his season as state superintendent ends:

He has a significant-relationship incentive to try to remain in Louisiana even as he continues to draw a notable six-figure salary.

This is a tight-knit group, folks, the size of which definitely exceeds this post.

Taxpayer-funded corporate ed reform in Louisiana is definitely the gift that keeps on giving to them.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

If it touches the K12 classroom, ed reform can turn it into a business opportunity.

Consider SPEDx, a Georgia for-profit that describes itself as follows on its website:

SPEDx was founded by Dr. Richard Nyankori with the aim to help educators and others accelerate the progress of students receiving special education in our nation’s schools.

SPEDx was inspired by Richard’s brother Matthew and the many other students and adults with disabilities who enrich the lives of others with their own unique talents and abilities that contribute to vibrant families and communities across the nation.

Fueled by advances in data science, increased attention to improving outcomes for students with disabilities, and a unanimous US Supreme Court ruling in the Endrew F. case that would elevate achieving ‘appropriately ambitious’ goals as the new standard, SPEDx works with educators and others to realize a vastly improved success for students in special education.

Also according to its website, SPEDx offers two services (eyebrows up already): consultation to “move special education priorities forward” and IEP analysis– where it seems that SPEDx becomes an additional presence in students’ individualized education plans– which means that SPEDx would have access to those IEPs– access that a state or district could grant to SPEDx without parental knowledge. Below is SPEDx’s detailing of the consulting and IEP analysis services:

Consulting

Our consulting services focus on helping our partners figure what could work best to move their special education priorities forward. Our approach is steeped in design thinking and understanding problems from the ground up, with empathy, and then quickly iterating potential solutions that can scale widely.

IEP Analysis

SPEDx offers IEP analysis to help educators identify individualized patterns for increasing progress towards a student’s intellectual and behavioral goals. We then use these patterns to understand what specific interventions accelerate progress. Through this analysis, educators ensure that each student can make ambitious progress inside and outside of the classroom.

But who is SPEDx founder, Richard Nyankori, and what is his experience with special education populations? To ascertain Nyankori’s professional background, I consulted his Linkedin bio.

  Richard Nyankori

In 1992, Nyankori graduated from Emory University (Georgia) with a degree in sociology. For the next four years (1993 – 1997), Nyankori taught with the Baltimore City Public School system (which, incidentally, overlaps with two of the three years that TFAer-gone-DC-chancellor, Michelle Rhee taught in the same school system). Nyankori notes that he taught special education, math, science, and reading; however, he does not indicate if he taught some of each of these for all four years, or if he taught one for each of four years. He also does not include information about any special education training. And though his Linkedin bio does not mention Teach for America (TFA), this ProCon.org bio indicates that Nyankori is a former TFAer (1993); thus, one can conclude that his time in Baltimore City Schools was as a TFAer with the associated, limited, TFA training, with teacher licensure granted after two years spent in the classroom. As it stands, TFA began its Baltimore presence in 1992— the year Rhee arrived, only a year before Nyankori arrived, so any substantial, prior training in special education on Nyankori’s part is looking pretty sketchy.

His third year in Baltimore, Nyankori received a M.S. in curriculum and instruction/administrator certification from McDaniel College (1993 – 1996). According to the degree description, one need not have a bachelors degree in education first. The degree as currently listed is 34.5 credit hours, and one can choose from two specializations: generalist or administrator. There is no special education specialization associated with this degree as it is listed.

After Nyankori’s four years in a Baltimore classroom, he began working on a Ph.D. in education policy, planning, and administration through the University of Maryland, which he took eight years to complete (1997 – 2005). During those eight years, Nyankori held a total of four jobs, the last one reconnecting him to Rhee via her TFA-like spinoff, The New Teacher Project (TNTP):

• Coordinator of Special Projects, Course Developer, PLS 3rd Learning (online education), 1997 -1999
• Interim Principal, Baltimore City Public Schools, 1999 – 2000
• Assistant Principal, Hartford County (Maryland) Public Schools, 2000 – 2001
• Director of Training and Certification, The New Teacher Project, 2001 – 2007

Note that none of the above positions have special education as an emphasis.

In 2007, when Rhee was appointed DC Schools chancellor, Nyankori followed her there as her “special assistant” for one year, and it seems that for that one year (2007 – 2008), he also held another position simultaneously: Nyankori was put in charge of special education in DC for four years (2007 – 2011), including one year beyond Rhee’s remaining time as DC chancellor (she resigned in 2010):

• Special Assistant to the Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), 2007 – 2008
• Deputy Chancellor, Special Education, DCPS, 2008 – 2011

As is so often true with ed reformers, Nyakori’s bio has him on the fast track to administration with little certified, hands-on experience in that which he is supposed to oversee. In his case, this is true in his limited classroom experience (four years– which by TFA standards is extensive) and certainly more pronounced with his being appointed to oversee special education for all of DC when one cannot be certain from his bio that he even has a solid year of classroom experience in special education, much less a single year of certified, special education experience.

Following his time in DC, Nyankori once again bounced around professionally in the way that career ed reformers do: He spent five years in two different roles with Insight Education Group, an education consulting company; much of this time overlapped with his role as “advisor” to Goalbook (another education company), and, finally, in 2016, Nyankori founded SPEDEx, a company that offers no details on why anyone should trust Nyankori to advise on special education issues:

• Vice President of Product Development, Insight Education Group, Inc., 2011 – 2013
• Executive Vice President, Insight Education Group, Inc., 2013 – 2016
• Advisor, Goalbook, 2012 – present
• Founder and CEO, SPEDx, 2016 – present

What, exactly, would SPEDx feature regarding Nyankori’s credentials and hands-on experience in the special education classroom?

As it is, the SPEDx website misleads readers by identifying Nyankori as “Dr.” without also indicating that his Ph.D. is not in special education. As already noted, from the SPEDx website:

SPEDx was founded by Dr. Richard Nyankori with the aim to help educators and others accelerate the progress of students receiving special education in our nation’s schools.

Now, to the greater point in my writing this post: Texas Education commissioner Mike Morath entered into a $4M, no-bid contract with SPEDx, and I plan to examine this situation more closely in future posts. For now, here is an excerpt from the January 17, 2018, Dallas Observer:

[Former Texas special education director Laurie Kash] reported that the TEA illegally awarded a $4.4 million no-bid contract in May to the recently created, for-profit, Georgia-based company SPEDx to analyze private data about how students received special education services, the Austin American-Statesman first reported.

In her complaint, Kash claimed the TEA didn’t follow state law to publicize its justification for awarding a no-bid contract to SPEDx. …

 

Morath eventually shut down the $4 million data-collection program although the TEA had already paid Nyankori’s company $2.2 million in federal funds for students with disabilities.

More to come. Stay tuned.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

On December 15, 2017, the Texas Tribune reported that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) terminated its “controversial no-bid special education contract” with with controversial for-profit, SPEDx (aka Avenir Education Inc.). The article opens as follows:

After pushback from special education advocates, the Texas Education Agency is terminating a no-bid contract with a company to analyze thousands of personal records of students with disabilities — and reviewing agency contract processes.

Part of the pushback in Texas was captured in this highly critical review published only days earlier, on December 13, 2017, on Houston Public Media, entitled, “Special Ed Experts Raise More Questions about Controversial Data-Mining Company,” centered on a SPEDx report using special education data from Louisiana. From the article:

More concerns are emerging about a company awarded a $4 million no-bid contract to mine special education data in Texas, based on the company’s previous work in Louisiana.

News 88.7 obtained a copy of that report by SPEDx, which experts say raises serious questions about their methods and findings.

“What jumped out at me is that it seemed counter to much of the research that has been done nationally,” said Randy Soffer, with the University of St. Thomas.

SPEDx_Louisiana-report

Soffer pointed to national research that shows children with disabilities do better academically and socially when they’re included in general education classes. But SPEDx found that in Louisiana, students made more progress when they were more isolated in special ed classes.

Soffer added other concerns include how SPEDx based its findings only on standardized test scores — instead of including student work, individualized education plans and more qualitative analysis — and how it focused on how to save money.

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

On the same day that TEA canceled its SPEDx contract, Andrea Ball of the Austin American-Statesman contacted Sydni Dunn, the press secretary at the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) for commentary on the issue:

From: Ball, Andrea (CMG‐Austin) [mailto:aball@statesman.com]
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 12:43 PM
To: Sydni Dunn <sydni.dunn@la.gov>
Subject: Request from reporter

Hi Ms. Dunn ‐

My name is Andrea Ball and I am a reporter at the Austin American‐Statesman in Austin, TX. I am working on a story about SPEDx, a software company that does analysis of educational programs and services.

Louisiana used this company this year to analyze individualized education plans. Texas, based on the work done in your state, has also entered into a contract with SPEDx.

There’s a lot of controversy about that contract here. But the part that involves Louisiana is that special education advocates are using your study to criticize the company, saying it is flawed and that SPEDx has a fundamental lack of understanding of special education.

I wanted to reach out to you and see if your state was happy with the work it produced, whether it has been useful and so on. Essentially, I’d like to hear about your experience with the company. Is that possible?

Thanks very much for your time and consideration.

Andrea Ball
Austin American‐Statesman
512‐459‐6249

Ball’s request caused a flurry of emails on December 15, 2017, at LDOE.

Dunn then contacted Jamie Wong, LDOE special ed policy director (who happens to have connections to SPEDx CEO Richard Nyankori via DC schools and Michelle Rhee’s TNTP). Dunn also adds LDOE chief of staff, Bridget Devlin to the email chain:

From: Sydni Dunn <sydni.dunn@la.gov>
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2017 13:29:09 -0600
To: Jamie Wong <jamie.wong@la.gov>, Bridget Devlin <bridget.devlin@la.gov>
Subject: FW: Request from reporter

Not yet sure how I want to answer this, or if we should at all. But let’s discuss. Are we still using this company? Do we have notes from selection process about why we chose them, or some type of evaluation we could provide?

Let’s do discuss. You are still using them, Sydni. LDOE has a three-year contract with SPEDx, mysteriously for “no cost.” And on what would you have based selection, even if you had a selection process? SPEDx has no experience analyzing SPED data prior to its contract with Louisiana. So maybe you don’t want to answer this “at all.”

But back to the emails.

Wong adds LDOE assistant superintendent Rebecca Kockler and LDOE general counsel Joan Hunt to the chain:

From: Jamie Wong <jamie.wong@la.gov>
Date: Friday, December 15, 2017 at 2:14 PM
To: Sydni Dunn <sydni.dunn@la.gov>, Bridget Devlin <bridget.devlin@la.gov>, Rebecca Kockler <rebecca.kockler@la.gov>, Joan Hunt <joan.hunt@la.gov>
Subject: Re: Request from reporter

Looping in Rebecca and Joan. I think we need to keep a response very short but should make sure they note that we did not spend any money on this.

“We did not spend any money on this.” Such a loaded statement. It’s as if it is okay to offer access to state SPED data to a for-profit whose reputation is in question in Texas for its shoddy Louisiana report just so long as the access to student IEPs and resulting, poorly-executed research is not being funded through LDOE. (More to come on the funding and access fronts.)

Kockler then adds this:

On Dec 15, 2017, at 3:18 PM, Rebecca Kockler <rebecca.kockler@la.gov> wrote:

Did you all listen to the Houston Public Radio article on our report?

Wong responds:

From: Jamie Wong <jamie.wong@la.gov>
Date: Friday, December 15, 2017 at 3:27 PM
To: Rebecca Kockler <rebecca.kockler@la.gov>
Cc: Sydni Dunn <sydni.dunn@la.gov>, Bridget Devlin <bridget.devlin@la.gov>, Joan Hunt <joan.hunt@la.gov>
Subject: Re: Request from reporter

No can you share link?

Sent from my iPhone

And so, Kockler shares the link to the Houston Public Media article noted previously in this post:

From: Rebecca Kockler <rebecca.kockler@la.gov>
Date: Friday, December 15, 2017 at 3:32 PM
To: Jamie Wong <jamie.wong@la.gov>
Cc: Sydni Dunn <sydni.dunn@la.gov>, Bridget Devlin <bridget.devlin@la.gov>, Joan Hunt <joan.hunt@la.gov>
Subject: Re: Request from reporter

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2017/12/13/256551/special‐ed‐experts‐raise‐more‐questions‐ about‐controversial‐data‐mining‐company/

Five minutes later, Rebecca adds:

From: Rebecca Kockler
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 3:37 PM
To: Jamie Wong
Cc: Sydni Dunn; Bridget Devlin; Joan Hunt
Subject: Re: Request from reporter

Sydni I’m going to call you this afternoon. Talking through with John now.

And four minutes after that:

On Dec 15, 2017, at 3:39 PM, Rebecca Kockler <rebecca.kockler@la.gov> wrote:

Sydni, does she want to publish today? Can I call you in an hour or so?

And, in the final part of this email exchange, Dunn responds:

From: Sydni Dunn
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 3:42 PM
To: Rebecca Kockler
Cc: Jamie Wong; Bridget Devlin; Joan Hunt
Subject: Re: Request from reporter

I didn’t want to respond without getting details from you all first. Her deadline is likely ASAP, so yes, call me when you can.

Sent from my iPhone

Not sure whether Dunn responded to Ball. However, Ball’s article, which was published at 7:09 p.m. later the same day, on December 15, 2018, includes no mention at all of Louisiana or its questionable SPEDx contract.

It seems that between the time of Ball’s lunchtime email to LDOE and her 7 p.m. publishing of her article, TEA decided to kill Texas’ SPEDx contract and that such news may have altered Ball’s focus from Louisiana’s contract.

It is also possible that Dunn chose not to contact Ball.

Below is Ball’s December 15, 2017, article, in full:

The Texas Education Agency has canceled its contract with a technology company charged with analyzing special education programs.

The TEA had contracted with SPEDx, a Georgia-based company, to look for trends and patterns in special education records. But the $4.4 million project incurred the ire of advocacy groups and parents, who said they worried about privacy and the fact that it was a no-bid contract.

“Significant concerns have been raised regarding our agency’s processes and the scope of the project,” TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said in a statement Friday evening. “The efficacy of the project would be undermined without real support from parents and educators alike. As a result, this project cannot proceed effectively. TEA will continue to work with parents and educators to identify methods to improve outcomes for our special education students.”

Earlier this year, the TEA hired SPEDx to analyze individualized education plans, which are records detailing the services provided to children in special education. Those records contain highly confidential information, such as medical conditions, educational performance and family history.

The state signed two contracts with SPEDx for a total of $4.4 million. Although billed as an analytics project, most of what SPEDx had been hired to do was to help the state with strategic planning of special education services.

The TEA never announced the contracts publicly to parents. Instead, the deal was discovered by Texans for Special Education Reform, a group of parents, educators and other special needs advocates.

The group’s co-founder, Cheryl Fries, was pleased to hear the contract has been canceled, but added that “the dismissal of this contract is not the end of the story. It’s the beginning of a new chapter to hold TEA accountable and to let them know that Texas parents, of children with special needs or not, are paying attention and should be involved in their planning for our children.”

The controversial project blew up on a number of levels.

For months, Texans for Special Education Reform had been lobbying against the project, speaking about it with TEA officials. In November, the state’s then-special education director, Laurie Kash, was disciplined by her boss for criticizing the project. Kash later filed a complaint with the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Inspector General, saying the project didn’t go through the proper channels. She also raised concerns that a TEA employee might have funneled the contract to a friend, an allegation that an internal audit dismissed.

Kash was fired the night before Thanksgiving. TEA officials said it was because she is facing a lawsuit in Oregon that claims she tried to cover up sexual abuse allegations of a little girl while working at her former job. Kash and her attorney said she had been retaliated against for raising her concerns about the contract.

Last week, Disability Rights Texas and the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education called for a halt to the project because of concerns about it and about the lack of transparency surrounding it. The TEA said at that time that it would not cancel the contract.

But on Friday evening, the TEA sent out a statement to reporters saying it had pulled the plug. The cancellation takes place in 15 days and SPEDx must destroy all the data it has received, the agency said.

Morath has also started a review of the agency’s contracting processes.

Ball followed up with this article on December 28, 2017:

At 5 p.m. on a Friday, the Texas Education Agency abruptly announced that it had pulled the plug on a special education data-mining project it had defended for months.

Parents and advocacy groups had too many concerns over the $4.4 million, no-bid contract, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said. He promised to review the agency’s contracting processes.

But documents, contracts and emails obtained by the American-Statesman show that the deal with Atlanta-based SPEDx was vetted at the highest levels. Morath was regularly updated on the project, approved the no-bid designation and signed the contract. Penny Schwinn, deputy commissioner of academics, helped write it. Justin Porter, executive director of special populations, worked closely with the company.

On Dec. 15 — after weeks of intense scrutiny by parents and advocacy groups — the TEA walked away, saying it did not have the necessary buy-in.

“As a result, this project can not proceed effectively,” Morath wrote in a statement emailed to the media.

The now-scrapped project is another black eye for an agency that has been accused in recent years of failing to serve special education students properly. While no investigative body has said any laws or rules were broken, the effort has prompted an internal review of the agency’s procurement policies and a federal investigation. And it has spurred the ire of advocacy groups who say they yet again have reason to distrust the TEA.

Read here for a more detailed version of Ball’s investigation into SPEDx and TEA. Though the more detailed account mentions Louisiana, it includes no comment from LDOE. It does, however, note that “The Louisiana effort was the only such project SPEDx had ever done and, at the time the TEA showed interest in the company, it was still in progress.”

As to Wong’s comment, “We did not spend any money on this [SPEDx’s Louisiana study]”: I have heard from a third party that Wong is the one who disclosed that the Broad Foundation is paying SPEDx for its Louisiana analysis of SPED data. I have not yet confirmed this connection, and I am still awaiting results of additional Louisiana public records requests for email exchanges related to SPEDx and possibly some more documentation from Texas.

It is possible that Broad is supporting SPEDx as it gains experience via Louisiana and by way of convenient connections, including Wong’s and Nyankori’s past connection via DC schools.

It is possible that LDOE turned over its SPED data  for “no cost” to novice SPEDx so that SPEDx could advertise that “have done this before” (or “are doing this now”) in order to drum up business.

I have more emails between SPEDx CEO Richard Nyankori (and associates) and LDOE officials, which will shed light on how SPEDx operates– and with whom.

I’ll save that for another post.

In the meantime, those who wish to read my SPEDx series to date can do so by clicking this link.

Happy Iceberging!

____________________________________________________________________________________

Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

On June 12, 2018, Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academies (SA) posted this job ad for middle school math and science teachers. Moskowitz is using Teach for America (TFA) spinoff org, The New Teacher Project (now known simply as TNTP) to “run the hiring process” in order to fill those teacher vacancies.

SA suffers from high levels of teacher turnover that SA doesn’t care to address, according to multiple comments by former employees on Glassdoor. Commenters also note that due to high attrition, promotion comes quickly, outpacing competence.

More teachers are always needed– which makes the services of a teacher pipeline useful.

The SA ad begins, “TNTP has partnered with Success Academy….” That’s what TNTP does— it sells its services to school districts, supplying “both vision and manpower.”

The SA job ad describes TNTP as “a national nonprofit founded by teachers.” Well, that is a stretch. TNTP was founded in 1995 by former TFAer, Michelle Rhee (with TFA founder, Wendy Kopp, serving on the TNTP board “as needed”); Rhee left TNTP in 2007 to become DC chancellor. (Note that Rhee’s DC assistant superintendent, Kaya Henderson, was also a TNTP “partner,” as noted on TNTP’s 2000 tax form.)

The year of Rhee’s TNTP departure (2007), current TNTP president, Karolyn Belcher, began to show up on TNTP’s tax forms as one of its “highest-compensated employees.” In 2015, Belcher became TNTP president; her 2017 total compensation was $301,882.

Like Rhee, Belcher also hails from TFA, having taught only two years (1990-92).

In December 2015, I wrote a post about Belcher’s rise in TNTP— and the fact that Belcher operated a Harlem-based charter school that had its charter revoked; a 2004 report by the Charter School Institute indicated that Belcher’s school, Reisenbach Charter School, received a negative report, including issues of low 8th-grade test scores, high teacher turnover, and fiscal problems.

Despite Reisenbach’s negative history, as a city councilwoman in 2004, Moskowitz argued to keep the Belcher’s school open.

Once again, it seems that Moskowitz might be trying to lend a hand to Belcher, a fellow corporate reformer. And since SA experiences high teacher attrition, one might think of the SA-TNTP agreement as one corporate reformer hand washing another.

But will SA provide enough soap?

According to TNTP’s tax forms (see end of post for links), TNTP revenue is finding it difficult to keep up with TNTP expenses:

• 2012: total revenue: $50.3M; total expenses: $50.8M
• 2013: total revenue: $57.9M; total expenses: $55.5M
• 2014: total revenue: $57.2M; total expenses: $63.4M
• 2015: total revenue: $83.5M; total expenses: $62.7M
• 2016: total revenue: $49.7M; total expenses: $61.7M

In 2015, the unusual increase in revenue was from unusually high “contributions and grants”, with “program revenue” falling from the previous year:

• 2012: contributions and grants: $18.2M; program revenue: $32.1M
• 2013: contributions and grants: $21.3M; program revenue: $36.3M
• 2014: contributions and grants: $20.1M; program revenue: $36.9M
• 2015: contributions and grants: $48.8M; program revenue: $34.5M
• 2016: contributions and grants: $16.6M; program revenue: $32.9M

The 2015 revenue boost looks like a philanthropic bailout. But there was no such boost in 2016….

Note that on its “our finances” webpage, TNTP advertises itself as follows:

To ensure the long-term sustainability of our work, TNTP is a revenue-generating non-profit.

However, TNTP’s program revenue has been on the decline since 2014– which defies TNTP’s statement about revenue generation ensuring TNTP’s long-term sustainability.

Whether adding Moskowitz as a client will help TNTP’s questionable finances remains to be seen. But TNTP may help keep Moskowitz’s SA teacher revolving door turning, at least for a while.

TNTP Tax Forms:

• TNTP 2012 990
• TNTP 2013 990
• TNTP 2014 990
• TNTP 2015 990
• TNTP 2016 990

__________________________________________________________________________________

Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

Former New Mexico chancellor of education, Hanna Skandera, has been trying to re-establish herself as an ed reform name since her June 2017 departure from the New Mexico ed department.

Hanna Skandera

In April 2018, she produced a Walton-funded video about the “next step” for ed reform to “connect to real-life issues and needs,” words in step with the Walton goal of trying to appear grass roots rather than top-down (see the Walton Family Foundation 2015 report and my October 2015 post about the report for more). (The 74 is also credited with funding Skandera’s video, though the Waltons also fund The 74; so, it’s like the Waltons are paying themselves.)

In June 2018, Skandera became editor-in-chief of The Line, a K12 ed publication whose former editor-in-chief was former Los Angeles schools superintendent, John Deasy.

According to the Colorado secretary of state, on January 18, 2018, Skandera filed articles of incorporation for Mile High Strategies, LLC (limited liability company). The organization is in good standing (filing up to date): however, it is unclear whether Mile High Strategies is anything more than Skandera alone offering consulting.

On her Linkedin bio, Skandera also advertises herself as founder of Pathway 2 Tomorrow: Local Visions for America’s Future. The organization’s website advertises $100,000 grants and 72 “partners,” including the following:

• Education Commission of the States,
• Education Trust,
• National Alliance for Public Charter Schools,
• College Board,
• ACT,
• Chiefs for Change,
• Democrats for Education Reform,
• Teach for America (TFA),
• TNTP,
• New Schools Venture Fund,
• Achieve,
• 50CAN,
• Data Quality Campaign,
• Teach Plus,
• Foundation for Excellence in Education,
• Thomas Fordham Institute,
• Walton Family Foundation,
• Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO),
• and Frontline Research and Learning Institute (for whom Skandera serves as The Line editor-in-chief)

Note that the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) supports 39 of the remaining 71 of Pathway 2 Tomorrow “partners.” (Not all “partners” are nonprofit orgs; some, like HCM Strategists and SOVA Solutions, are consulting firms.) Note also that exploration of all of WFF’s 2018 grantees includes no reference to either Pathway 2 Tomorrow or its website– a website lacking in any identifying information, including copyright information.

And consider who is missing from among these 72 “partners”:  the Gates and Broad foundations. Among the 72, Walton is the major money source.

There is also no obvious “about” link regarding who, exactly, is in charge of Pathway 2 Tomorrow. The information about “our team” is buried in the “approach” link and includes two individuals: Skandera and Kristen Lozada Morgan:

Hanna Skandera

Having worked in numerous states and organizations, most recently in a state leadership role, Hanna has witnessed firsthand the importance of alignment between education policy and local needs and priorities. Over the last year, she’s had the privilege of working with leaders from across the country and heard the local voices reflect on the state of our education system. The consistent theme of an evolving localized education landscape and a need for fresh ideas acutely resonated with her. She believes the time is right to support states and local communities as they lead to impact education policy.

Hanna brings over two decades of executive leadership experience to a variety of private, public and non-profit organizations. In addition to serving as New Mexico’s Secretary of Education from 2011-2017, Hanna served as Undersecretary of Education in California from 2004-2005, Deputy Education Commissioner of Florida from 2005-2007, and Deputy Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Education from 2007-2009.

Kristen Lozada Morgan

Kristen’s career has been dedicated to building the capacity of organizations to serve students equitably and effectively. Currently, Kristen consults nationally with government agencies and education nonprofit organizations to provide expertise on operations, strategy, and organizational improvement.

Previously, Kristen served as a founding math teacher at a charter school in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. She then led the finance and operations teams through the organization’s growth to a network of schools, earning recognition including an Excellence in Government — Innovation Award for the use of innovative solutions to solve pressing problems. Subsequently, Kristen led EnrollNOLA, the unified enrollment system at the Louisiana Recovery School District, improving operations while promoting access and transparency for families.

Originally from Hawai’i, Kristen earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, and an MBA from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. Kristen is the proud parent of two soon-to-be school-age daughters.

Kristen Lozada and her husband, Colleston Morgan, were both Teach for America (TFA) recruits in New Orleans. For some reason, Lozada Morgan chose to omit direct mention of TFA from her Pathway 2 Tomorrow bio. Her Linkedin bio includes Lozado’s TFA experience (June 2007 – June 2009). What it does not include is any mention of Pathway 2 Tomorrow. Instead, she merely identifies herself as “education and nonprofit consultant” (October 2015 – present).

On the Pathway 2 Tomorrow site, neither Skandera nor Lozado Morgan is identified by a professional title. However, Skandera nebulously mentioned as a “visionary” in the article featured on the home page, “$100,000 Innovation Award Winners Announced!”:

$100,000 Innovation Award Winners Announced!

P2T is excited to announce the recipients of the $100,000 Innovation Award.  The Innovation Award Committee selected two proposals addressing the authentic engagement of students as partners in education policymaking. The Prichard Committee Student Voice Team and the Iowa Department of Education will share the award capturing students for impact in their communities and across the country.

“These two proposals provide a roadmap for building authentic student ownership in decision making and school transformation,” said Hanna Skandera, former New Mexico Secretary of Education and P2T visionary. “While we have always said that students matter and that we have a desire to incorporate their perspectives, these proposals provide game-changing impact for scale.”

Over the next year, P2T and its Partners will drive progress on the critical areas that emerged from the Call for Proposals, inclusive of the solutions selected for expansion, to leverage broader impact in states and communities across the country.

Also, Via the “news” link, one can glean some of this information via article authors and press release contacts, and the “partners” page includes names and affiliations of numerous “review panel participants” and “supporters and advisors.”

The IRS has no record of a nonprofit named “Pathway 2 Tomorrow” or “Pathway2Tomorrow,” though it does include info on nonprofits with variations on the name (e.g., Pathways 2 Tomorrow; Pathway to Tomorrow). Neither the Colorado Secretary of State nor the Delaware Secretary of State (a popular state for LLC filings) has any LLC registered under the names “Pathway 2 Tomorrow,” “Pathway2Tomorrow,” or “Pathway to Tomorrow.”

Pathway 2 Tomorrow does not seem to be an organization in its own right but rather a program operated by an organization that prefers to conceal itself from public view.

Based on internet archives of its home page, it seems that Pathway 2 Tomorrow went live around July 2018— and with 55 partners already on board.

On June 28, 2018, The 74 featured an “exclusive” article on Pathway 2 Tomorrow. Interestingly, the article identifies Pathway 2 Tomorrow only as an “initiative”– all the while craftily avoiding the question of who, exactly initiated this “initiative”:

An initiative launching today is issuing an open call for proposals to match community needs with innovative education policy solutions.

Led by former New Mexico secretary of education Hanna Skandera and education consultant Kristen Lozada Morgan, Pathway 2 Tomorrow: Local Visions for America’s Future “is an inclusive approach to education solutions and is interested in hearing from voices not always heard – those of educators, practitioners, parents, researchers, advocates, nonprofit and business leaders, and entrepreneurs.”

“What’s really unique about Pathway 2 Tomorrow is the local grounding,” Skandera told The 74. “It comes out of local voice and demands, and the way these ideas are shared in states and communities is through partners. People don’t go to a policy catalog to create their next policy agenda. They go to the places and the coalitions that they build at the local level and the people they trust.”

P2T has signed on nearly 50 bipartisan partners and even more supporters and advisers, ranging from school chiefs to political leaders. Among the partners are Teach for America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Data Quality Campaign, and the College Board.

Amid an evolving education landscape that is clamoring for solutions to prepare for the growing needs of an unknown future economy, coupled with new requirements for state-driven policy under the Every Student Succeeds Act, P2T launched as a response to the changing needs of state and local business, government, and education leaders.

Time for some conclusions:

Based upon the details presented in this post, my first guess is that Pathway 2 Tomorrow is a Walton-directed “initiative” to try to drum up some semblance of nationwide grass roots support for school choice and other Walton-favored ed reforms, all the while concealing from the public the top-downness of its efforts to “create” local-level ed reform.

I also think the absence of Gates and Broad funding has to do with no need for billionaires to donate to the “initiatives” of other billionaires.

As for The 74’s “exclusive” on Skandera’s mystery initiative: I believe The 74 knows full well who is behind Pathway 2 Tomorrow and was willing to conceal the identity of the actual “initiator” from the public.

Finally, concerning Skandera’s starting a consulting LLC around the same time: It seems likely that she will use the LLC as an “independent contractor” to receive her compensation. Benefits of such an arrangement include receiving regular pay and making regular tax payments.

If I am wrong about Pathway 2 Tomorrow’s being a Walton front and her LLC being related to it, I am happy for Skandera to set me straight by providing the details about just who initiated her initiative, who handles its finances, and who is paying her salary as its “founder/visionary.”

Better yet: Include such information on the Pathway 2 Tomorrow website.

*Locals* like knowing such things.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Interested in scheduling Mercedes Schneider for a speaking engagement? Click here.

.

Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

Jessica Tucker Baghian wants to be Louisiana’s next state superintendent. No surprise here.

According to the February 27, 2020, Advocate, Baghian, who currently holds a state assistant superintendent position, officially applied for the state superintendent job being vacated by John White effective March 11, 2020. The application window closes on Friday, February 28, 2020.

Baghian’s resume is part of the Advocate article, and in true market-ed-reformer fashion, it is light on classroom experience: two years (2006-08). She holds two degrees: a bachelors in mass communication (LSU, 2006), and a juris doctorate (Harvard, 2011).

Louisiana native Baghian started teaching in 2006 under a one-year provisional certificate (2006-07). (To see Baghian’s teaching certificate, click here and search “Jessica Marie Tucker.”) Her highest teaching credential is an expired Level 1 teaching certificate that was issued for three years (2007-10). The note on her certificate indicates that “teacher assessment required for higher certificate,” which means in her top-heavy ed career, she has no experience in completing necessary requirements to renew a permanent teaching certificate.

Baghian holds no administrative certifications. She has no experience even as an assistant principal.

Baghain told the Advocate, “I have spent my career working on behalf of the children of Louisiana,” she said. “I just believe so deeply in the potential of our children.”

Baghian believes so deeply in children that she holds no teaching degree, and she exited the classroom permanently after only two years, and she lacks experience in school-level administration.

Baghian’s resume reveals her to be the usual ed-reform hollow shell of experience.

According to this February 14, 2020, BESE press release on the superintendent search, the process moving forward is as follows:

The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) has announced the launch of a national search for next State Superintendent of Education. The Board published the official applicant information packet on its website and set a submission deadline of February 28, 2020 for individuals who wish to be considered for the position. …

The next State Superintendent will inherit a system that has made significant strides in recent years including raising academic expectations, increasing access to quality early childhood education, expanding career education opportunities, and strengthening educator development, but will also face considerable challenges. As such, the Board hopes that the opportunity will attract a bold, new leader. Describing the task ahead, Orange Jones said, “The work group is committed to casting a wide recruiting net and facilitating an open and efficient selection process in order to attract the most competitive and diverse pool of applicants we can.”

The work group will oversee the administrative process of reviewing submissions, screening candidates and conducting interviews. Promise54 will assist the work group in managing the process. By early spring the work group anticipates facilitating possible interviews and proposing one to three applicants to the Board for the appointment of the next State Superintendent. Serving with Orange Jones on the Superintendent Selection Work Group are District 1 BESE member Jim Garvey, District 6 member Ronnie Morris, and At-Large member Doris Voitier.

Individuals wishing to apply for the position are invited to visit the BESE website at https://bese.louisiana.gov, where an applicant information packet is posted and available for download. The packet includes a job description that outlines qualifications, preferred experience, educational requirements, key responsibilities, as well as the process for submission of materials.

Applicants can submit their information until 5:00 p.m. Friday, February 28, 2020, with the work group beginning their Board-delegated responsibility of reviewing candidate information in March. The work group may conduct interviews and facilitate the interview process with individual BESE members in accordance with the state’s Open Meetings Law. Finalists could be named as early as March or April 2020. The resignation of current Superintendent John White is effective March 11, 2020.

The Board appoints the position of State Superintendent by a two-thirds vote of its total membership, requests confirmation by the Senate, and requests approval of the salary by the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget. Compensation will be commensurate with the selected candidate’s experience. BESE is an equal opportunity employer.

I understand why some believe that BESE will hand the job to Baghian. However, I don’t think Baghian as next state superintendent is a given. One reason I hold this view is that White supporter, James Garvey, is the BESE member who pushed for usage of a recruitment agency to conduct the superintendent search. Garvey appears to want to shop around.

One more point: The BESE announcement includes the following (underlining mine), which appears at first to sing Baghian’s praises but then seemingly pulls back a bit:

The next State Superintendent will inherit a system that has made significant strides in recent years including raising academic expectations, increasing access to quality early childhood education, expanding career education opportunities, and strengthening educator development, but will also face considerable challenges. As such, the Board hopes that the opportunity will attract a bold, new leader.

So, yes, Baghian is in the race (an unsettling albeit expected reality), but I don’t think her winning that race is somehow in the bag.

Jessica Baghian

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Book four coming in March 2020!

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