Peter Gorman's new gig? He's going to work for Rupert Murdoch. He gets to stay in Charlotte. But then the details get a little vague. Here's what we do know: Gorman will become senior vice president of News Corp.'s new education division. News Corp., owned by Murdoch, is a global media company with assets of $60 billion in everything from Fox News to the Wall Street Journal, films, cable and on and on. As spelled out in a News Corp news release that came out within minutes of Gorman's resignation announcement, the soon-to-be-former Charlotte superintendent will work with school districts across the country to put News Corp. learning programs in place. Those are based "on individualized, technology-based, content and learning opportunities that support world class student and teacher performance." For details, we can turn to a Murdoch speech at the G8 summit last month. In it, Murdoch asserted that education has dozed through much of the digital revolution. "In my industry," he said, "editors who put out newspapers the night before now marvel at the sight of readers getting news delivered to cellphones and tablets. "But not in education. Our schools remain the last holdout from the digital revolution. The person who woke up from that fifty-year nap would find that today's classroom looks almost exactly the same as it did in the Victorian age: a teacher standing in front of a roomful of kids with only a textbook, a blackboard, and a piece of chalk. "My friends, what we have here is a colossal failure of imagination. Worse, it is an abdication of our responsibility to our children and grandchildren - and a limitation on our future." Among Murdoch's solutions: software in classrooms and on home computers that makes teaching and learning a more intimate, individualized and "sticky" experience. Gorman will work with Kristen Kane, the former chief operating officer of the New York City Department of Education under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Kane becomes the COO of the education group, charged with "driving operations and strategy." Both she and Gorman will work for the division's CEO, Joel Klein, a former chancellor of the New York City schools. Said Klein about Gorman: "Pete's success running one of the largest school systems in the United States, combined with his commitment to educational innovation are the perfect complement to our mission."
Details Vague On Gorman's News Corp. Gig
