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Some Knox County Board of Education members have recently said that they have never heard of the Broad Foundation, which is odd, because

  1. The community has been telling the Board about Broad since 2010
  2. The KCS superintendent’s “credentials” are from Broad
  3. Several “Broad Fellows” have been hired as employees of the KCS BOE
  4. It has been all over education news outlets and social media – for YEARS

Did I mention that we have been telling them???

If your BOE member is one who has been ignoring the community for the past 5 years, I doubt this information will help them. However, sharing this information with others will help replace those folks on the Board with candidates who actually pay attention to what is happening in their school system!

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The following is paraphrased from the original, which can be found here:
How to Tell if Your School District is Infected by the Broad Virus

You might have the “Broad Virus” if your district sees:

  • Repeated use of the terms “excellence,” “best practices,” & “data-driven decisions.” (& noted absence of same)
  • False or cherry-picked “data,” used to justify reforms.
  • A culture of fear of reprisal
  • Ballooning of the central office along side painful cuts to classrooms.
  • Sudden increase in number of paid outside consultants
  • Teachers referred to as “human capital” – not people, educators, or staff and not allowed to be creative, passionate, inspired, but merely “effective”
  • Excessive testing introduced & imposed on kids
  • “Broad Residents” ($90,000 ea) appear in strategically important positions
  • Superintendent behaves as if he is beyond reproach.
  • The superintendent has the highest salary ever paid to a superintendent (plus benefits & car) & community is told it is a “competitive rate for a city this size”
  • Superintendent bypasses board & keeps them out of the loop on issues
  • School board candidates receive unprecedented amounts of campaign money from business interests. [or the governor’s family…]

More information is available below: 

A Parent Guide to the Broad Foundation’s Training Programs & Education Policies by Parents Across America (pdf factsheet).
Broad Foundation’s Plan to Expand Influence in School Reform
Meet the Broad Superintendents
Momma Bears Diagnosis:  How to tell if your School District is infected by the Gates-Broad-Walton Virus
The Broad Report

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