education commissioner

Deborah Gist’s Ocean State Voyage has ended and her replacement Dr. Ken Wagner begins his tenure as Rhode Island’s Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education today. The hiring process, with its “listening sessions” and its search for a gentler more accommodating commissioner, signals a departure from the Gist/Mancuso regime. It remains to be seen if this difference is substantive or merely cosmetic. Governor Raimondo promised an open and inclusive hiring process.

Students, teachers, parents, school committee representatives, board members, administrators, charter school advocates and union leaders known or recommended to the Governor were invited to attend so-called “listening sessions” and make their views known. Nine listening sessions were held with the Governor and the new Board of Education Chairwoman Barbara Cottam, among the listeners. Discussions focused on the desirable characteristics of a prospective commissioner. Participation was by invitation only.

Raimondo took charge of the search for Gist’s replacement with the blessing of the BOE and its new chairwoman. In May, Brad Inman, the governor’s Director of Constituent Services, wrote in response to my queries: “The Board of Education asked the Governor’s office to do the initial vetting and present the Board with a list of finalists for their consideration. It will then be the Board who selects the Commissioner.”

When I tried to find out who, in the Governor’s office, was doing the vetting (or had the educational expertise to do so) nobody was at liberty to tell me.

At a May 14 BOE Meeting, Chairwoman Cottam informed the board that “candidates are currently being interviewed and she expects a finalist(s) will be sent to the Board from the Governor’s office shortly.” The “finalist(s)” indicates that Cottam didn’t know whether a group of candidates or the one final choice was to be passed on to the Board for their approval. At the subsequent meeting, she reported that “interviews for the next Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education have continued and that there are many great candidates.” Who was doing the interviewing and who were the great candidates?

After the much touted “listening sessions” the search sank from public view. There was no BOE Search Committee and, as far as I can discover, no new job description that incorporated the findings of the listening sessions. The one that I received from Angela Teixeira, special assistant to the commissioner and liaison to the Board of Education, is dated September 2004.

As the Warwick Beacon reported, comments made by Kevin Gallagher, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, indicated why what he called a “help wanted ad” was rejected. From the Beacon: “Instead, the decision was made to define the characteristics the next leader of the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) ought to possess. The administration, Gallagher said, intends to use that information to identify people who ‘fit that profile,’ rather than ‘sitting back passively’ and waiting for candidates to apply.”

Ken Wagner was recruited in much the same way that Deborah Gist was recruited by the Carcieri administration and his BOE (then the Board of Regents) in 2009. What Governor Carcieri wanted was a prominent “reformer” to head R.I.’s education establishment. This seems to be what Governor Raimondo wanted too, although she didn’t want Gist. I suppose that she also wants criticism of high-stakes testing to stop, parental and student opt-outs to end, the free proliferation of charter schools and no more complaints about the PARCC or the Common Core. I suppose, too, that she believes Dr. Wagner can help with these things.

The R.I. law governing the appointment of education commissioners specifies that they be chosen by the (gubernatorially appointed) Board of Education, whereas other positions at the same level–directors, for example–are straight-forward gubernatorial appointments. This discrepancy caught the attention of East Side Senator Gayle Goldin, who introduced the bill to change it which was passed by the R.I. Senate last session. The Senate voted that in the future the Governor alone should select Commissioners of Education, although this will not become law until it is also passed by the R.I. House. The Governor’s choice would then be subject to the advice and consent of the R.I. Senate.

The advice and consent of the Senate versus the approval of the board of education may seem insignificant, no great improvement to the selection process. But it is, I think, in involving democratically elected representatives who are responsive to their constituents and familiar with the schools in their districts. Having witnessed both board meetings and meetings of legislative education committees, I’d say the senators are often better informed, more independent of the RIDE bureaucracy, and certainly more approachable than appointed board members.

The framework for discussion may soon change radically, depending on the terms of the reauthorized federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) which remain to be finalized. Policies in effect now will have to be reworked and renegotiated in every state. U.S. senators and representatives listened and heard the widespread dissatisfaction with the Bush /Obama reform agenda promoted by Secretary Duncan and enthusiastically endorsed by former Commissioner Gist. Dr. Wagner seems to share many of Gist’s reformist enthusiasms. We’ll soon find out if he fits the profile of a better listener and one who will act on what he hears.

This spring Governor Raimondo held meetings with various stakeholder groups to find out what characteristics they would want in an education commissioner. According to the Providence Journal article of July 7, “Common themes emerged, with each group calling for a leader who listens and is collaborative, thoughtful, and student-centered.”

In my view, the choice of Ken Wagner, currently senior deputy commissioner for education policy in New York state, does not meet these criteria.

According to the information that the Governor’s office put out about him, Dr. Wagner “led the development of EngageNY, a free curriculum aligned with new [Common Core] learning standards.” The rest of the story is that EngageNY has become an expensive fiasco in NY State. The NY State Education Department had originally contracted with three groups to create scripted module lessons for schools across New York at a cost of $12.9 million dollars of Race to the Top money. As educators began using the modules they found numerous errors, gaps, editing mistakes, and other problems. Is this the work of a thoughtful leader?

Dr. Wagner believes in the value of high stakes testing, and considers the Opt Out movement to be misguided. The failure rate across NY State on their Pearson developed Common Core Tests continues to be about 70%, with much higher failure rates for students with disabilities and English Language Learners. Since these tests were not independently validated, and many authorities who examined the practice tests and released items believe the questions to be developmentally inappropriate and unnecessarily confusing, how can a “failing” label be trusted? How concerned was he about the well-being of the students who were labeled failures?

New York state is one of the major areas of the country to see significant opposition to Common Core-related testing. Several hundred thousand students were opted out of the testing in April. Did Ken Wagner listen thoughtfully to the articulate and passionate parents in NY state who determined that these tests were not in their children’s best interest? Apparently not, since Wagner told New York Magazine, “we really believe that these tests are not only important but irreplaceable.” (By the way, NY state recently jettisoned Pearson for a different test developer.)

Of significance to parents concerned about the privacy of their children’s personally identifiable information, is the fact that Wagner was a stalwart defender of NYSED’s connection with inBloom, despite tremendous backlash from parents. inBloom was a company created and funded by the Gates and Carnegie Foundations with $100 million, and was designed to collect confidential, potentially personally identifiable student and teacher data from school districts and states throughout the country. There was the real risk that even de-identified student data could be re-identified when shared with software companies and other for-profit vendors, a practice allowed by a weakened federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

After much turmoil and several legislative hearings, the state legislature decided it had no option but to make inBloom illegal in order to stop it. Is this the way to collaborate with those who hold a deeply held and reasonable position different from your own?

Governor Raimondo’s introduction of Ken Wagner to RI stated that “Education is a ladder to the middle class, and investing in education will grow our economy because businesses want to locate near a pipeline of well-educated, well-trained workers.” Presumably Ken Wagner agrees. Is this really what RI parents and communities want from their public education system—workforce development? What about education for self-empowerment and for participation in a diverse and vibrant society?

I am distressed but not surprised at the governor’s choice. It is impossible not to consider potential influence from her husband Andy Moffit, who has worked in education reform for the global consulting firm McKinsey and Company. He also collaborated with Sir Michael Barber (formerly at McKinsey, now at Pearson) in the writing of Deliverology 101. This is troubling in that this book is a manual for consultants and managers to perpetrate a testing, data, and accountability mind-set, which is adopted from a soulless economics/finance/micro-managing paradigm misapplied to the most human of tasks–nurturing the next generation of self-actualized members of our society. The ultimate result, whether intentional or not, is the dismantling of public education as we know it and delivering it up to privateers.

Rhode Islanders need to do some serious homework and then express displeasure with this choice for commissioner and what it will inevitably mean for Rhode Island public school students, teachers, families, and communities.

Tag: education commissioner

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