Josh Edelman ID'd in test cheating cover-up [View all]

[HiPointDem]

Anyone who cares about public education should care about the D. C. cheating scandal, but there's a special hook for parents and teachers in Chicago. In a federal complaint filed against the D.C. government, former D. C. principal Adell Cothorne identifies Josh Edelman as one of two people she called after seeing teachers apparently erasing answers on student standardized tests. A spokesman for Edelman says he "never heard from Ms. Cothorne about these specific cheating allegations." The wording of that phrase "these specific" sounds like kissing kin to Bill Clinton's infamous testimony to the grand jury "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. Edelman may have a chance to explain in court.

Josh Edelman is one more flyspeck in George Schmidt's long-established dictum that "everything bad starts in Chicago." Edelman went to the D. C. job as Deputy Chief of School Innovation for DC Public Schools after being dumped from his post as Executive Officer of the Office of New Schools at Chicago Public Schools, hired by then-schools chief Arne Duncan.

In 2009, Substance reported that Edelman's office "was responsible for the closing of more public schools in Chicago than any executive in the 150-year history of public education in Chicago." Where is he now? Josh Edelman is now Senior Program Officer, Empowering Effective Teachers, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and was recently appointed to the board of "DC School Reform now," a group headed by David Pickens, first Chicago schools CEO Arne Duncan's Deputy Chief of Staff and then Senior Advisor and System-Wide Manager to the CEO and then Chief of Staff to the Chicago Board of Education.

Where is she now? After what she describes as her worst year in education, Adell Cothorne runs a cupcake shop, Cooks 'N Cakes. Her partner is also a former D. C. principal.

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3881&section=Article