ASCD responds to Oprah.
On September 21, 2010, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s Executive Director Gene R. Carter wrote an open letter to Oprah Winfrey explaining ASCD’s response to the September 20, 2010, “Waiting for ‘Superman’” episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show. ASCD is one of the largest professional organizations of educators in the world. A copy of the letter is provided below.
September 21, 2010
Dear Ms. Oprah Winfrey:
Thank you for choosing to move education to the forefront of the national conversation. The film Waiting for “Superman” is one of many documentaries being released this fall on the state of our nation’s schools, and I hope these films encourage viewers to work with schools in their local communities to ensure that every student in America has the opportunity to learn and achieve.
As a career educator and the executive director of ASCD, an education association of 160,000 educators worldwide, I was dismayed that your show on education reform excluded a key demographic from the dialogue: teachers. Yet the research—and your high-profile guests—say a child’s teacher is the most important factor to determining his or her success.
Moreover, simplistically dividing a profession of 5 million people into “good teachers” and “bad teachers” misses an important opportunity to show how all educators must continue to learn, develop, and grow throughout their careers. Would we ask a proficient doctor to stop learning new technologies or strategies that may help save a life? No. Our most effective teachers are the ones who pursue professional development not only to sustain student achievement, but also to help teach other educators.
In international comparisons, the United States’ education system is often viewed as substandard or lacking. I’ve seen successful international education systems, such as that in Finland, where there is a direct correlation between student achievement and teacher respect. Perhaps we need to focus on how our country, our individual states, and our local communities can better value this high-risk, high-reward profession.
What if filmmakers, politicians, philanthropists, and high-profile school leaders demanded that our educators receive the ongoing support they need to help each student in every classroom in America succeed to his or her greatest potential? Now that would make a great focus for your Friday follow-up show.
Sincerely,
Dr. Gene R. Carter
Executive Director
ASCD
I’m glad to see that somebody of merit approached Oprah, but I didn’t see much research behind that presentation at all, and many of Oprahs’ controversial shows have demonstrated some research on the part of her staff.
It is about time that someone exposes the truth about Gene R. Carter and the likes of his executives, this unethical so called CEO and his ASCD executives have been leading ASCD through a very well-orchestrated fraud scheme for the past 20 years as if it was their own supermarket.
Carter’s own financial gain and political ambitious has been planned around the recruitment of as many member teachers as possible, through the use of flashy slogans and fake programs, like the “whole child” bogus that has no history or credibility, it is a well-planned fraudulent marketing gig that was created for him by his staff to fraud more and more American teachers. And lately he has been trying to use the same tactic with the congress through manipulative articles and subtle threats, thinking that he is supported by an army of members.
I guarantee you that when ASCD Members know the truth about Gene Carter and his executives, they will withdraw their membership immediately, and he will be left with no one and the following is a small part of the truth:
Gene R. Carter has been abusing his position, and the none of profit status given to the association for years without anyone knowing the truth about his deceitful and fraudulent ways. While he preaches and pledges support for teachers, he is the first one to abuse them through the high cost of memberships in exchange of overpriced services and products. Gene and many of the ASCD executives enjoy outrageous salaries and benefits that are unheard of in the non for profit world, according to the ASCD 990 forms which can be obtained through Guidestar.org, Gene Carter’s annual Salary has been between $700,000 and $800,000 (double the salary of the USA President, and the total of the dues of 17,346 ASCD basic Members) , and of course this doesn’t include the hidden benefits that allow him to spend most of his time touring the world most exotic places, and of course he had to spread the corruption through the entire organization to keep them quiet, have you ever heard about a non for profit Board of Directors that hold their meetings in 5 stars resorts around the world in countries like India and Argentina?
We call on congress to immediately investigate GENE R. CARTER, ASCD Executive Director and CEO, Eric Bellamy, ASCD CFO and all of his Assistants for charity abuse and public fraud, we also urge everyone who reads this posting to obtain the ASCD 990 forms for verification and to distribute this info to as many teachers as possible around the country.