Wednesday, June 8, 2011

News Corp: CMS' Gorman to join education division

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman this afternoon announced his resignation effective Aug. 15. Gorman will become the senior vice president of the education division of News Corp. in New York.

According to a news release -- which you can read in its entirety below -- Gorman will "work with school districts to implement the division’s programs, as well as review their integrity and effectiveness." The education division is led by Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education.

“I’m thrilled to join News Corporation, and to work with someone of Joel’s caliber, and the rest of his team, to transform the educational system through digital technology and other means,” Gorman says in the release. “News Corporation has a reputation for leading significant change across many industries, and I look forward to what lies ahead for the education sector.” -- APRIL BETHEA

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News Corporation Makes Key Management Appointments
to its Education Division


Former Chief Operating Officer, New York City Department of Education, Kristen Kane named COO; Former Superintendent, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Dr. Peter Gorman named Senior Vice President
______________________



NEW YORK, NY, June 8, 2011 – News Corporation today announced that Kristen Kane, former Chief Operating Officer, New York City Department of Education and Dr. Peter Gorman, former Superintendent, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will take on leadership roles at its newly formed Education Division.

Ms. Kane will become Chief Operating Officer of the group, responsible for driving operations and strategy. Dr. Gorman will be named Senior Vice President and work with school districts to implement the division’s programs, as well as review their integrity and effectiveness.

News Corporation’s Education Division is focused on individualized, technology-based content and learning opportunities that support world class student and teacher performance, as well as digital assessment tools for K-12 students in the United States that help eliminate the achievement gap. News Corporation recently acquired Brooklyn-based education technology company, Wireless Generation.

“Pete and Kristen are recognized leaders in their field and each brings particular strengths to bear on our growing business,” said Joel Klein, CEO of News Corporation’s Education Division. “Pete’s success running one of the largest schools systems in the United States, combined with his commitment to educational innovation are the perfect complement to our mission. Furthermore, Kristen’s proven leadership in shaping and running many of the New York City Department of Education’s best programs will benefit us greatly over the years to come.”



“I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with Joel and his team in this capacity,” said Ms. Kane. “I strongly believe there are more efficient and effective ways to improve the system, and I’m eager to get started.”

“I’m thrilled to join News Corporation, and to work with someone of Joel’s caliber, and the rest of his team, to transform the educational system through digital technology and other means,” said Dr. Gorman. “News Corporation has a reputation for leading significant change across many industries, and I look forward to what lies ahead for the education sector.”

Ms. Kane brings a range of experience in both the public and private sectors. At the New York City Department of Education, she served as Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for the development and implementation of the Bloomberg administration’s reform strategy as well as oversight of daily operations.

She also served as Chief Executive of the Office of New Schools, which opened 178 new schools and charters in New York City under her leadership. At the Federal Communications Commission, she served as a Director of the National Broadband Plan developing strategies for applying broadband technologies in the education, healthcare, and energy sectors. Earlier in her career, Kristen worked in equity research at JPMorgan covering the education sector. She holds an MBA and Certificate in Public Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Yale.

As Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent for the past five years, Dr. Gorman led one of the nation’s largest school districts with more than 138,000 Pre-K through 12th grade students, 17,700 staff members and a budget of more than $1.15 billion. This year, the school district has been selected as one of four finalists for the Broad Prize for Urban Education. Dr. Gorman has also served as Superintendent of the Tustin (CA) Unified School District and as both Chief Information Officer and Chief Operating Officer/Business and Finance of the Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida. He holds a Doctorate of Education from the University of Central Florida and an MBA from Rollins College.

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) had total assets as of March 31, 2011 of approximately US$60 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$33 billion. News Corporation is a diversified global media company with operations in six industry segments: cable network programming; filmed entertainment; television; direct broadcast satellite television; publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Latin America.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, out with the business manager! Now, IN with an EDUCATION leade!!!

Anonymous said...

I love how they leave out the parts that he couldn't balance the budget, overspent, and layed off hundreds of teachers while bringing in TFA flunkies...

Anonymous said...

AND increased class sizes, closed schools...who wants to continue this list...

Anonymous said...

When you run out of shell games, you have to find a new corner. You left us with a mess Pete. You hurt a lot of good CMS principals when you failed to demonstrate any degree of courage after you set them up to fail. This latest act is typical of you, times are tough so its time to leave. Seeing how the CMS Board supported you all these years, and seeing how you now left them high and dry without warning, I hope they are smart enough to ignore anything else you say, do, or recommend.

Anonymous said...

Good riddance. maybe now we can bring in a real educator and not someone who is looking to build there resume on the back of hard working teachers that sacrifice everyday. It may take a few years to undo the damage this man did in Charlotte.

Anonymous said...

"Ding Dong, the witch is dead, the witch is dead,the wicked witch is dead!"
Who will step up to help fix the mess he made?

Anonymous said...

As a CMS teacher I can only say, THANK YOU JESUS!!! I've spent the last month doing nothing but testing and not teaching. Hopefully some of the dead-weight, yessir principals will get the heck out as well so we can better serve the needs of our kids.

Anonymous said...

What a liar! Thought he wasn't interested in any other positions... I understand that being superintendent of a large school system is difficult and that hard decisions need to be made, but the last few years have been terrible for the teachers and students in CMS. I can only hope that morale improves in the district!

Anonymous said...

Does any one think it's odd that Pete leaves his job here for a neoconservative billionaire? Murdoch has ties to Teach for America and so does Pete. I feel that all Pete is doing is moving on to a bigger stage (closer to the money) to try to influence education. These billionaires (Murdoch, Gates, Broad) believe that their money can fix all the problems that public education has, yet none of them have any education experience. So what do they do, bring in like minded educators" (see press releases of who is heading up this division)to give them credibility. What is happening to local control of the education systems? Education is supposed to be locally controlled not controlled by outsiders. Oh, don't forget these men are billionaire businessmen. They are in business to make money not lose money. They'll be making money some how, my guess it will be off the local tax payers.

Anonymous said...

Who will want this superintendent job now? What a mess. OK Ann Clark, are you ready? I hope he hasn't poisoned you too much.

Anonymous said...

Apparently News Corp's background check skipped the past few years. Way to stick to your principles Pete...thanks for ruining Charlotte.

Anonymous said...

It's going to be a big job to straighten out this district! plus lots of jobs to fill-no accountability chief, no information technology chief, and now no superintendent. "They" said they wanted to reorganize from the top down; now is "their" chance. Good luck somebody!-anybody

Anonymous said...

This is just the beginning....

News Corporation is big...they own (ie. influence) what we see and read through the media. PG will have a great amount of influence on what kind of digital information your child will read, influencing behavior.

Anonymous said...

Thank God this man is gone! He has ruined our schools and I can say that b/c I am a proud graduate of a CMS school as are all of my family members and I'm an educator. I have never seen our school system in such bad shape. I just hope the person behind him can clean up this mess.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the School Board will rethink this pay for performance agenda - and vote once again to STOP ALL THIS UNNECESSARY TESTING!!

And will the state still vote to give CMS all the teachers' salaries to play around with and redistribute? I hope not.

We need some strong, intelligent, experienced, educator/child-friendly leadership in this district - someone who knows what it takes to make a classroom work from the inside, who LIKES teachers, and is an advocate for them. Who will be on the selection committee for this new superintendent? Will the Board allow teachers to be on this committee?

We need educators on the School Board who can't be bought and sold by the Gates or Broad foundations; those who know what it's like in the classroom, and will come forward and be an advocate to help teachers and children. Who will step up to the plate and run for the School Board?

Anonymous said...

Enron, Adelphia, Tyco, Madoff Investments, Wachovia, ImClone, Martha Stewart, Citibank, Lehman Brothers, BP, and the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority would all be exceptional business models to tap for advice regarding a new leader for CMS- since many of the comments infer that things need to be "run like a business." I'm certain that they would be willing to offer up some advice on how to choose a leader that demonstrates integrity, ethics, vision, temperance, industry, and a profound interest in the success of the community for which they would be a member of for the long term.



"Run it like a business" is a pretty shallow solution giving the state of the economy, housing, and jobs. With that, why don't we look at running it like a school system and that sucess is measured by the success of the students it is designed to serve. Furthermore, and believe me I'm no liberal, I learned in business school and in business life that employees (teachers, staff, principals) who actually enjoy coming to work every day do a better job. One recent best selling business book is spot on. It starts with trust and Pete lost that with the teachers, staff, and principals some time ago.

Anonymous said...

I for one would like to thank Mr. Gorman for his service. I can’t blame him one bit for wanting to leave. He made the tough choices when they had to be made. Everyone on this message board is celebrating his departure and ranting as if he is the sole reason for the woes at CMS. How about vastly reduced tax revenues during a recession? How about a continued flight of middle-class, highly involved and supportive families (of all races, mind you) to the suburbs and private schools. How about being faced with an entrenched culture in public education that refuses to look at any new alternatives that might bring improvement to students' readiness for either college or the technical workforce. How about teachers, despite earning on average over $70,000 in salary and benefits for a nine month year at CMS high schools, insisting on being measured by their “good intentions” rather than their performance and results. You all can continue rejoicing, but these problems will still be here for the next Superintendent and it will not likely get much better. And Mr. Gorman won’t have to deal with the "great entitled" at CMS any longer.

Anonymous said...

Obviously Anonymous @9:45 is CLUELESS! Step out of your job and join the teaching field if you think 70K with benefits (as you call it) is so great. Do what we do for a living before you start throwing stones around. Gorman was a HORRIBLE leader, had some great ideas, but testing, PFP, and TFA's were not his strong points. You are entitled to your own opinion, as we all are, but you have no credibility when you start talking about other careers and no stock in them. We do not talk about your career and try to change what is done (taxpayer or no taxpayer). PFP was pay for students' test scores, if you did not know. That is how we should be paid as a teacher? Are you paid by how another person performs or by how you perform? Schools are NOT a business and should not be run like a business.

Anonymous said...

Response to 10:00PM RE: My original post from 9:45 PM. It is strange how you preach to me to not pass judgement when you have no idea if I am/was a teacher. Truth is, I taught high school math for one year at CMS before realizing the whole system was going to implode and then I got out. I took another job with less pay when I chose to leave but the nonsense and politics surrounding the whole system was unbearable. I am not saying teaching is not a tough job because it is extremely tough, especially when more and more middle-class students were leaving, but I made my comments at 9:45 from the perspective of both a former teacher and current taxpayer who sees no possible solution under the current arrangement at CMS regardless of who the Superintendent is.

Anonymous said...

You never answered the question if you get paid by the performance of another? We have such great pay and benefits, but you left teaching? Gorman is thanked and whoever fills the void has no chance, but we as teachers insist on “good intentions” for pay? I, for one, want to be paid by what I do, not what others do. I show up to work every day, teach every day, show up to extracurriculars to support my students, counsel, parent, feed students, etc....that is what I get paid for. I work in an inner-city school, by choice, and 'many' have no idea what that is like until they try. Take a step in the school of a Garinger, West Meck, or West Charlotte and see if your opinion changes. Saw on the news that a 42" samurai sword was brought to Garinger the other day. Do not recall seeing a man bring a sword to BofA...

Anonymous said...

Why would anyone support Gorman or think he did a good job? What has he done to merit a good job? Moral is down, people are leaving for other counties and states, and students are tested out of the butt. Everyone is excited to see him go for a reason. If you can't see it, wake up!

Anonymous said...

Gorman rightly couldnt take all these welfare freeloading mooching govt zoo animals whining and crying and bitching 24/7/365 about closing wasted thug schools that serve no purpose other than babysitters.

Dont worry about Gorman. He moves on to better higher quality things. Its the decent taxpayers still stuck in this hell hole in real trouble dealing with these ever on the take goons 24/7.

Anonymous said...

Rocky River High School or The Rock is a fine example of the leadership of Dr. Gorman. Mint Hill certainly was "Gored" by the Doc. Hopefully, he can take those thugs from The Rock with him.bacerrh

Anonymous said...

dont worry about Gorman, he knew who to watch out for:
Eyewitness News dug through the 16 pages of Superintendent Peter Gorman's contract and found that Gorman could be walking away from the job with a lot more than his $300,000 salary. It states he'll receive $35,000 in retirement payments for each year served, possibly up to $175,000 dollars.