Superintendent Thornton fails to inspire innovation and openness, three former administrators say in candid interviews
By early summer, as Greg Thornton ended his third year at the helm of Milwaukee’s public schools, there were already more than a dozen superintendent positions posted on Education Week’s website, including three in smaller, less complicated and chaotic districts in Pennsylvania, his native state.
There were also lots of listings for art and physical education teachers, playground aides and, out in Arizona, even an opening for a school district graffiti remover — all jobs, to hear critics tell it, that might let the superintendent make a bigger and more tangible long-term difference than he has in the Milwaukee Public Schools district.
