They Hired a Consultant with No Experience

In 2020, the Eanes School Board hired Mark Gooden as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant.

Here’s Gooden’s Curriculum Vitae.

Take a look at his CV and see if you can find any of the following:

• the other school districts in which he’s implemented his program of student focus groups, confessional teacher training, and woke surveys;
• the districts in which he can show positive results from his program;
• the districts in which his work has, in fact, resulted in less Race and Racism™;
• the districts in which he has a track record of “building a community of trust through racial awareness.”

Spoiler: There are no other districts.  He has listed no experience. No proven results.  No track record. 

Of course, I’m not suggesting that Gooden has no experience in the DEI “space.” His CV shows that he’s written and presented oodles of articles applying Critical Race Theory.  Topics include

• Exploring the impact of whiteness
• White entitlement
• Equity
• Equity-centered leadership
• Antiracist leadership
• Culturally responsive mentoring
• Nigrescence
• Countering the idea of color-blind leadership
• Critical conversations [That’s the critical from Critical Theory]
• Disrupting the discourse
• Fostering racial and cultural awareness to unearth privileges

But his CV shows that he has NO experience—let alone any track record of success—implementing the program he sold to Eanes.  Frankly, he can’t even point to evidence of any other consultant having success with these ideas.  The empirical evidence is not there.  He has no idea if his work will make the Eanes climate better or worse.

I don’t blame Gooden for launching his new consulting gig in Eanes.  Snake oil won’t sell itself—so when a gullible mark actually reaches out and asks for the snake oil, man, take advantage!  When Linda Rawlings called Gooden in the tumultuous summer of 2020, it makes sense that he took advantage of the District’s desire to Do Something!  Sure, I can come up with a program!  

But come on, School Board!  What were you thinking?

How can you justify hiring a consultant who has NO EXPERIENCE in what he’s selling?

How can you justify unleashing this untested, unproven program throughout the District?

How can you justify taking financial resources and time away from other programs for this unproven program?

How can you explain looking at his CV and not noticing he’s a one-trick CRT pony?

How can you explain not asking him to provide the slightest evidence that his program works?

So at the end of the day, we know that the Eanes School Board has failed.

They have no idea if Gooden’s program works.

They have no idea how to even judge if his program works.

They have no idea whether his program will have unintended negative consequences.

They have no idea how to know when he’s completed his work.

They failed the most basic of their fiduciary duties to the District.

They might as well have just lit the $140,000 on fire.

Instead they rehired him and extended the scope of his duties.  Just burning more District dollars.  For what?  The School Board has no idea.  

What a clown show.