Thoughts on San Diego School Reform

In the late 1980s, the San Diego school district hired a non-educational superintendent.  Alan Bersin, a former federal prosecutor, entered the district with a strong force.  Having previously worked for Clinton's drug and immigration administration, Bersin brought a very political approach to the already well-admired school district.  With the help of Anthony Alvarado from New York City's District 2 schools, the duo changed the face of education in San Diego.  Bersin dominated the politics and PR of the reform, while Alvarado oversaw the instructional side.

The duo quickly mandated the Balanced Literacy program, increased professional development for all teachers and staff, and more principal observations of teachers.  While the teacher unions objected the incredibly fast implementation, the plans moved forward and in 2000 a formal plan was released, titled Blueprint for Student Success in a Standards-Based System.  This plan focused on prevention, intervention, and retention.

What happened in the following years was that a large percentage of San Diego teachers and administrators left the school system.  With brand new teachers coming in, Alvarado and Bersin were given the "clean slate" that they needed- fresh teachers who would not object to the district mandates.  However, even these teachers disagreed with the totalitarian model.  One San Diego teacher comments by saying, "[The teachers] bonded, we spoke in code words.  They spied on us, videotaped our staff development meetings, with the camera pointed at the audience, not the presenters.  Sometimes we agreed that no one would talk.  We would sit quietly, in a form of passive noncompliance" (Ravitch, 2010).

The common theme of all major school reforms of modern day is why are non-educational leaders running schools and school districts?  From Bersin in San Diego, to Bloomberg in NYC, business model reforms are failing.  Schools are not factories that can grind out numbers day in and day out.  Threatening teachers and schools only drives teachers to raise test scores untraditionally, where little learning is being done.  To learn is to truly understand material, so much that it can be transferred and applied to other applications.  Why not ask the teachers, the ones in the classroom, how to best assess this understaning?


Ravitch, D. (2010) The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education.  Philadelphia, PA: Perseus Books Group.