Teddy Roosevelt's great-grandson is a Broadie. Initiated the takedown in Pittsburgh.
A few things we know about the Pittsburgh public schools. They were led by Broad-trained superintendent Mark Roosevelt. Now they are led by his deputy Linda Lane, also trained by the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy.
They received a $40 million grant from the Gates Foundation for teacher evaluation.
They have a bold plan to close the achievement gap.
Scores in 2012 in Pittsburgh dropped for the first time in five years.
Scores dropped across the state and it may have been because of heightened security.
A Pittsburgh parent posted this comment:
Don’t forget our Broad influence either — our “reforms” were begun with Mark Roosevelt being named superintendent with the backing of a foundation supported “community watchdog group.” He was replaced by his second in command and also a Broadie, Linda Lane. He said when he left that he’d “planted the garden” and all we had to do know was to tend the growth. We just got a new Broad fellow this year, too, to join our crop. Teachers have been furloughed, but administration has been doing fine.
A reader of this blog who teaches in the Pittsburgh school posted the following comment:
I teach in Pittsburgh Public Schools and can attest to conditions in Pittsburgh being similar to those faced by children and teachers and parents around the country. Simultaneously, the social fabric of the lives of our children and their parents has become more and more unraveled (jobs, housing, income, public transit, cost of higher ed, etc. wrecking havoc) AND their schools are victims of radical budget cuts and huge focus on curriculum modified to get those test scores up AND teachers, as everywhere, are vilified and furloughed and humiliated and attacked. But we teachers and our union keep doing our best to hold our heads up and keep our eyes on the real only important thing, and that is trying to hold things together for our beautiful children. And we will keep doing that, because that’s who we are. There is so much more to our children and our schools and our teachers than these test scores. Of course.
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/11/thoughts-on-pittsburgh-schools/
