The nation's most prominent preparation program for urban school superintendents has been revamped, extending its scope, nearly doubly in length and placing greater emphasis on leadership development and helping leaders grow high-performing organizations.
"Most prominent" is a delightful set of weasel words, but I suppose it makes better copy than "the most high-profile unaccredited professional program anywhere." It's also worth noting that without the words "school superintendent," this sounds pretty much as if it could be the description of any management training program anywhere.
But the Broadsters want you to know that they've been listening to the 150 fellows who emerged from their program. No word on whether they weighted this feedback according to whether the particular alum had previously resigned in disgrace, been fired, or faced allegations of various misbehaviors.
Managing director Christina Heitz tells the story
Over time, we consistently heard from our Fellows that the focus on best practices in leadership and management helped them make progress. But they wanted to do more. They wanted to develop breakthrough strategies that propel faster, greater improvements which are both systemwide and sustainable; to nurture the kinds of relationships and partnerships that help them do this work with people and communities; and to closely collaborate with colleagues across the nation, sharing resources and learning from each other's successes as well as their mistakes.
You would think that one of those 150 Fellows might have expressed an interest in learning something about education, schools, teachers, or students. But the Broad does not recognize education problems-- only management problems.
The new model includes some exciting changes!
* The program will now run 18 months instead of 10, adding "more than 100 hours of personalized learning on topics such as public engagement, student assignment patterns and funding equity." It would have been sweet if they were given personalized learning about personalized learning, but I am dying to know what form their personalization actually takes. For that matter, given that the first new cohort only has eleven members, I'm wondering what their IMpersonalized learning looks like. I'm also curious about "student assignment patterns." Is that like a Masters Degree in No Homework on Fridays?
* Broad is branching out from big city schools to high-performing public charter school systems, state and federal departments of education, and statewide turnaround districts. So basically, professional bureaucrats and disaster capitalists. Are they grooming the next Arne Duncan (who was on the Broad Board and hired several alumni to work at the DOE)? Good to know we'll keep providing the government with professional managers with no education background.
* No more requirement that you take a new job after graduating. Which is a sideways way of saying that they now take Fellows who are already in positions of power and just want to sharpen their power-claws.
* Sadly, there is no expanded curriculum about how to blow up schools so you can shut them down (a subject on which Broad literally wrote the book).
* I would also expect a class on How To Avoid Allegations of Misconduct, or at least How To Ride Out of Town By Transit Other Than a Rail. I suppose the modern business leader thought visionary doesn't really plan on staying in one place long anyway.
At any rate, now that the Academy now wants to create Master of the Universe (Education Division) rather than mere superintendents, they've switched from the former Broad Superintendents Academy to the Broad Academy. Meaning that their total lack of accreditation matters less than it used to.
The new class
The eleven shiny new world beaters each get a paragraph worthy of a Miss America introduction. Is there anybody special here?
Antwan Wilson was previously an assistant superintendent in Denver, but now "he is applying that laser-like focus on supporting student success in both the classroom and in life to his new role as superintendent of Oakland Unified School District. Broad has provided Oakland with leadership before; let's hope this one goes better.
Dacia Toll is co-CEO of Achievement First Charters, whose Hartford branch has posted impressively high numbers in the Suspension of Six Year Olds category. But hey-- you're never too young to start the process of being squeezed out of a charter school.
Marc Sternberg is getting ready to become director of K-12 for the Walton Family Foundation. Ka-ching.
John Schnur is founder and head of New Leaders, a group which has its own heartwarming story. Five buddies (including a TFA grad, a McKinsey management consultant, a charter school advocate, a former NYC teacher and Schnur, former ed policy analyst for Bill Clinton) at Harvard grad school got their business plan into the finals of Harvard Business School's annual competition. Funding followed, and they were soon cranking out urban principals in 11 cities (many, like New Orleans and Prince George's, already reformster faves and home to Broad alumni-- it's just a small world in reformsterland).
In addition, there are several folks in the charter school biz already, including the Grand Daddy of the Too-Wet Dream of Charterdom, New Orleans-- yes, NOLA RSD super Patrick Dobard is getting himself all Broaded up!
And let us not forget Andrea Castaneda, the chief of fiscal integrity and statewide efficiencies at the RI Dept of Ed. She "knows there is not a second or cent to spare when it comes to school improvement" [Correction. Earlier versions included an allegation that Castaneda was involved in shady investment ideas. That's one of her friends-- the state treasurer. But it's not Castaneda. My apologies form the error]
Change you can believe in
There are signs of a shift here, and what they say is that is that Broad is shifting from training superintendents who can run schools like a business to training business chiefs who can make money in actual education-related businesses. It's a subtle shift, it's true, but it takes Broad one step further away from actually caring about schools. The bottom line has not changed-- the Broad Foundation is still tops in its desire to dismantle public education, privatize the best part, and sell off the pieces.
But Dobard has inspiring things to say. He calls the academy "one of the most fulfilling experiences" of his entire professional career. "What makes it different is that it is full of a lot of 'we's.' This work can't be about just 'I' or 'me.' It's about working with others, reaching out to others and how, together, we can transform communities and the lives of underprivileged youth."
I suppose it's too much to hope that the "we" would include teachers, parents and community members. I know it's too much to hope that any of this ties directly back to actual teaching and learning and school stuff.
In the meantime, just remember, if everyone in the audience will clap really loud, Tinker Bell will come back to life as a qualified school superintendent or charter school operator or edubiz CEO. Wishing will make it so.
The
nation’s most prominent preparation program for urban school
superintendents has been revamped, expanding its scope, nearly doubling
in length and placing greater emphasis on leadership development and
helping leaders grow high-performing organizations. - See more at:
http://www.broadcenter.org//newsroom/full/new-programming-new-name-among-changes-for-the-broad-academy#sthash.PvwwRts0.dpuf
The
nation’s most prominent preparation program for urban school
superintendents has been revamped, expanding its scope, nearly doubling
in length and placing greater emphasis on leadership development and
helping leaders grow high-performing organizations. - See more at:
http://www.broadcenter.org//newsroom/full/new-programming-new-name-among-changes-for-the-broad-academy#sthash.PvwwRts0.dpuf
The
nation’s most prominent preparation program for urban school
superintendents has been revamped, expanding its scope, nearly doubling
in length and placing greater emphasis on leadership development and
helping leaders grow high-performing organizations. - See more at:
http://www.broadcenter.org//newsroom/full/new-programming-new-name-among-changes-for-the-broad-academy#sthash.PvwwRts0.dpuf
