Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Karla Baehr: only local finalist for Education commissioner

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The DOE press release continues…

Dana Mohler-Faria, Special Advisor on Education to Governor Deval Patrick, agreed.

“I commend the Board of Education for its exceptional search process, resulting in three accomplished and respected finalists to become the Commonwealth’s next Commissioner of Education,” he said. “The new Commissioner will play a critical role in achieving the Governor’s vision for education reform.”

Karla Brooks Baehr has been Superintendent of the Lowell Public Schools since 2000, overseeing the state’s fourth largest city. Prior to moving to Lowell she taught curriculum and instruction in a master’s program at Lesley University’s Graduate School of Education, served as Superintendent of the Wellesley Public Schools, and interim Superintendent in Lexington and Franklin. She is the current leader of the Urban Superintendent’s Network and sits on the state Attorney General’s Urban Violence Subcommittee. She lives in Newton.

Mitchell Dan Chester has been Senior Associate State Superintendent for the Ohio Department of Education since 2006. In this role he oversees education policy development, the state’s accountability system and alignment with federal and state policy, and strategic planning. Prior to that he served as Ohio’s Associate Superintendent for Policy and Accountability, director of Accountability and Assessment for the Philadelphia Public Schools and head of curriculum and instructional programs for the Connecticut Public Schools. He currently sits on the NAEP Contextual Data Panel, and is a former member of the U.S. Department of Education’s Growth Model Peer Review Panel. He lives in Bexley, Ohio.

Richard Laine has served as director of education for the Wallace Foundation since 2002. In this role he is responsible for the Foundation’s national effort to strengthen educational leadership and the conditions under which education leaders work. He currently leads the team overseeing a $300 million leadership initiative being implemented in 24 states, including Massachusetts. Prior to joining the Wallace Foundation he served as education director for the Illinois Business Roundtable, and Associate Superintendent for the Illinois State Board of Education.  He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Finalist interviews will be publicly conducted on January 7 at the Omni Parker House. Each candidate will be interviewed by the Board and by a group of 25 people including Department of Education employees, legislators, and representatives of key stakeholder groups.

The Board is expected to vote to name the state’s next Commissioner no later than their scheduled January 22 meeting.

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Comments

  1. Search for “Karla Brooks Baehr” on Leftinlowell.com (we’ve been following what’s been happening in her tenure in Lowell).

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    p>Her stay here just became too rocky. She decided to move on in light of very vocal (political-cronyist) opposition that was elected in Nov. We had been making strides under her and I regret the political situation that made her decide to leave. The state, however, would gain a very dedicated and knowledgeable public servant.

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    p>Her biggest flaw in Lowell? Not kissing enough crony booty while she was here. Ahhh…politics in Lowell. As another famous politician once said, if you can survive politics in Lowell…or something to that effect.

  2. I gave up on Deval on the matter of education when he tapped Mohler-Faria as his education person.  Mohler-Faria’s fief, Bridgewater State College, is infamous as an outpost of ivory tower thinking on education with little real-world applicability in schools, choked with a Kafkaesque bureaucracy.  It’s easy to find teachers who took one program or degree at BSC, and near impossible to find someone who went back for a second one.  There’s a reason for that.

  3. Richard Howe, blogging at richardhowe.com

    So, I was very happy to read in the SUN/Breaking News on-line, that Dr. Baehr is not only one of the three finalists for the MA State Commissioner of Education position but she’s the only candidate from Massachusetts. This is one of those times that the “local” candidate is the best candidate.

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    p>Jackie Doherty, a member of the Lowell School Committee, blogging at jackiedoherty.org:

    Dr. Karla Brooks Baehr, superintendent of the Lowell Public Schools, was named a finalist today for the position of Commissioner of Education. Long touted for her expertise in curriculum and high-quality instruction, Baehr is the only Massachusetts candidate named a finalist to the state’s top education post. Her leadership in Lowell resulted in record improvement in student test scores, among other measurable progress in the education of our children.

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    p>The relationship between the state Department of Education and local districts is toxic.  As a superintendent, Karla Baehr has high standards for everyone in Lowell.  She also doesn’t tolerate petty bureaucratic nonsense.  She can maintain high standards AND move the state Department of Education from punitive to supportive.

  4. Apparently, the right-wing Pioneer Institute, which has populated the state Board of Education under the recent rash of Republican governors, is taking its last opportunity to hold onto power at the Department of Education.  Not sure which candidate they like (could be both), but they are certainly interested in promoting at least one of the out-of-state candidates.  See today’s Lowell Sun:

    A candidate from out of state could appeal to some education insiders who watched as the board picked in-state candidates with former Commissioners David Driscoll and Robert Antonucci.

    “There’s no question that having a couple of outside candidates is helpful,” said Jamie Gass, director of the center of school reform at the conservative Boston think-tank the Pioneer Institute. “The last couple of commissioners have been outstanding but sometimes it’s helpful to have fresh blood. I applaud Chairman Reville and the Board of Education for conducting a very thorough and widespread national search.”

    • Boston Herald Editorial, December 17:

      The Massachusetts Board of Education is scheduled to release the names of finalists to become commissioner of education tomorrow. We don’t know who is on the list. But we know two who may be, and should not be chosen commissioner.

      They are James A. Caradonio, superintendent of schools in Worcester, and Karla Brooks Baehr, superintendent in Lowell. Both oppose charter schools, which makes them unacceptable.

      Charter schools are public schools. Their authority to operate comes from the state, which may close (and has closed) those that fail to perform. They are financed by the local school district at the average per-pupil cost in the district, but are free from district control. The district still gets a handsome reimbursement from the state for three years even after a student leaves to attend a charter school.

      Caradonio has been vigorous in his opposition. He told a meeting in 1995, “Charter schools undermine public education.” Robert Nemeth, columnist for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, noted that Caradonio also opposed pilot schools, the district-controlled schools whose faculties may vote to work outside of union contracts, and defended the old, disastrously counter-productive bilingual education.

      Baehr’s opposition has been more low-key. But in a February memo to Gov. Deval Patrick she co-authored, she proposed a new funding formula that could cripple charter schools. She would have limited payments to charter schools from their districts to $5,000 per pupil or 75 percent of per-pupil costs, with the state responsible for picking up any shortfall between that figure and what would have been required with no limit. Also, she would make capital contributions to charter schools not formula-driven, as at present, but a budget line item. These changes would make charter schools an annual target for attack in the Legislature.

      Baehr too is no “Janey one-note.” Her memo called for the abolition of the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, which the governor and Legislature did – foolishly killing the only independent school watchdog in state government.

      Last year, 50 charter schools enrolled more than 20,000 students, about 2 percent of the total public school population. More than 16,000 students were on waiting lists. These schools are too important to parents and students to be entrusted to their enemies.

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      p>Boston Herald Editorial, December 20:

      The Board of Education is out with its list of finalists for the commissioner’s job, and the three candidates still in contention get their chance to say “Pick me!” during public interviews in January.

      We’ve already expressed our concern over the candidacy of Lowell Superintendent Karla Brooks Baehr because of her poor record on charter schools, and we look forward to learning more about Ohio schools official Mitchell Dan Chester and Richard Laine, director of education for The Wallace Foundation.

      But today it’s the “public interview” process that’s got our attention. Talk about trial by fire!

      Baehr, Chester and Laine will undergo final interviews on Jan. 7 by the Board of Education and 25 additional people, all “stakeholders” in the state’s educational system. Legislative leaders, teachers, superintendents, Department of Education employees and the business community will all be represented.

      The approach has precedent. And we’re all for transparency in the quest to fill top public jobs, especially one as important as this. Heidi Guarino, chief of staff at the Department of Education, said those who will sit in on the interviews (they will not all ask questions) will provide feedback on the candidates to board members, who will then make the final call.

      “In a whole lot of ways, we’re trying to say the public has a right to have a voice here,” said Paul Reville, board chairman.

      But talk about extremes. Remember when Boston Mayor Tom Menino all but unilaterally hired the new school superintendent? Guarino promises this won’t be a three-ring circus, but let’s just say the candidates better be really good at remembering names.

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