On one of his first days with Mann Carey Elementary’s staff, Brown asked people to write down all the anxieties they were carrying into the new school year. When they were done, he had them all crumble up their responses and put them into a bag.
For a staff meeting on the first Monday of the school year, Brown gathered the group on a basketball court and pulled out the bag full of notes. He then put the notes into a pan with charcoal and lighter fluid, and set it on fire.
“I said, ‘We’re burning the burdens. We’re burning the past. We’re rising out of the ashes into something new and transformational,’” he recalled. “The only way we can be better is together and not divided.”
Born and raised on Madison’s south side, Brown graduated from West High School in 1992. After studying history at Delta State University in Mississippi, he came back to Madison for a job working with youth at the Dane County Neighborhood Intervention Program. At the time, the program was based at 501 E. Badger Road — the same building where Mann Carey Elementary is now.
His first job in education came years later in 2005 at the Madison Metropolitan School District, where he worked as a minority services coordinator. Brown went on to get his masters in education with an emphasis on principalship. He also worked at Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District as a dean of students and later became the district’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion, and student achievement.
——-
Did taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Underly Juice Test Scores for Reelection?
——-
Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average (now > $25,000 per student) K-12 tax & spending practices. This, despite long term, disastrous reading results.
Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability
The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery…
The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic”
My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results
2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results
Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.
“An emphasis on adult employment”
Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results
Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.
When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?