A New Path to a Career in Education

Excellent Opportunity

Regarding the first comment, I think part of the reason "educrats" get to bypass classroom experience is because those who have it mispell words on public forums e.g. "overpaid". That's not exactly impressive.

To the second comment, there's obviously a lot to be said for experience. However, when making change it is often prudent to solicit ideas from individuals who do not come with predispositions.

Another educrat $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Of course this guy bypassed actually becoming a school teacher and went straight to the top. I can't even begin to tell you how many of these phony overpayed educrats are draining school districts of money and teacher's of time as they institute and then abandon one ridiculous costly program after another that fail, meahwhile teachers are kept more and more from teaching the basics in their classroom and pushed more and more to adopt public relations viewpoints that destroy the integrity of the Protestant work ethic that this country was founded upon. Tagorda- get lost!!!!

Try getting older professionals to switch

Try recruiting mature professionals (ie: 40's and 50's) who have actually been involved in the school system through their children. As a local Board of Education member, the spouse of a teacher, father, youth coach of mulitple sports, and a MBA (and a lot of common sense); there is nothing I would love more then to be able to transition into the Education field. The issue at my age is that I can't take the pay cut to start out in the classroom. However, I beleive that I can bring a passion for education and kids, along with my business experience, that a younger person might not have developed yet.

So, if the right candidates are choosen this is a program that could add great value to the education process.

why so negative?

I agree with Andrea. Our education system is in shambles and hasn't changed in years. We need EVERY person thinking and working on how to fix it - including business people, non-educators or anyone else painted with the broad brush strokes that most commentors have used so far. It concerns me that the comments here come from people who are concerned about our children, but don't think that we need both people who understand children and people who understand finance or human resources or operations, etc so our schools can run better so our teachers and principals have more resources to do what they are passionate about.

Not enough people know what is going on with our education system. Far fewer are working to fix it. Our children need ALL the help they can get, if we don't all agree with the approach.

Unproductive criticism

As a recent MBA grad who has worked in education all of my life, I look forward to applying to the BROAD residency program this year. Fortunately, I will not be swayed by those who feel the program and the "Broadies" merely ...'come in and turn students into data points'. It seems counterproductive to criticize without offering any ideas or advice to 'outsiders' who make the sacrifice to bring their expertise to the education sector. The U.S. has little if anything to brag about in terms of where education is placed on the list of social priorities. I find if very disheartening to hear such critics of a program that seeks to improve this through non-traditional means.

Kudos to Distrust of Broadies

I am so sick of these people - the Broadies. Normally, from personal experience, I find they don't connect with the students, AND, they alienate many informed, highly trained individuals who have connected with the students and know them, have known them, from Kindegarten through high school.

Mercenaries

These dilettante mercenaries reduce children to data sheets. At best, they are clueless about how children think and learn. At worst, they destroy the love of learning.

How did we get to the point where the ONLY thing that matters in this important part of childhood is whether kids can perform well enough on a multiple choice test to satisfy some bureaucrats?

The media and general public accept without question that the testing and resulting data tell a true story about how well children learn. Why is there so little scrutiny of the validity of the data being collected?

US News- you took a big gulp of the purple kool-aid.

The Broad

I can't believe the hype that you provide the Broad Foundation.

If you really want to learn about them, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and The Walton's of WalMart, visit http://seattle-ed.blogspot.com/.

A massive distrust of Broad-trained people

US News needs to print an objective story about these Broad (rhymes with toad) people, rather than pushing yet another propaganda piece for them. And yes, that's exactly what this article is.

Once these outsiders have arrived in a school community, they subject it to a type of top-down "leadership" which irritates and alienates the locals. Schools become portfolios, kids become data points.

Floating in from afar, these Broadies rarely understand or connect with the communities in which they've landed -- nor its history and needs -- so they end up alienating people and making a big mess. Sometimes they're pressured out (Deborah Sims, Antioch, CA). After six years, Oakland's third, and last, Broad leader finally stepped down a couple of months ago. Everyone let out a big sigh of relief.

I'm telling you, these people are often despised.