The seven years Bersin led the
San
Diego
schools, according to Jonathan Freedman, writ
ing
in San Diego
magazine, represented “the
most comprehensive, combative
and
closely
watched test of standards-based school reforms
in
America.”
Major foundations invested tens of
miffions of dollars to support
his
efforts, which
were documented and
analyzed
by prominent
researchers and think tanks. Graduate students
in education studied San Diego as a rare exam-
pie of a serious effort to improve instruction
and increase student achievement.
The New
York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today,
Christian Science Monitor
and
Education Week
all came calling to cover the story
But that’s not the story San Diegans read
about in the pages of the daily or weekly
newspapers, heard on local talk radio or saw
play out on television. Instead, the local media
served up to its various audiences a nonstop
narrative of conflict. Within a month of him
taking office, the teachers union’s leaders
started accusing Bersin of carrying out top-
down, morale-sapping, professionally offensive
reforms at too rapid a pace.
And
the media
was all too happy to serve as a megaphone for
those complaints.
San Diego’s five school board members
separated themselves into camps
—
three
aligned
with Bersin and two with the union
—
and their fighting and sniping was a con
sistent theme in the news coverage. The plan
Bersin and Alvarado put in place came to be
known
as the “Blueprint,” and it required the
reallocation of tens of millions of local, state
and federal dollars, which, not surprisingly,
incited opposition among various constituen
cies who feared they’d lose out. Their voices
also were heard.
Discussed far less frequently were the
problems Bersin was trying to address, the
research behind his policies, the funding
devoted to them, or the quality of the training
and coaching teachers and principals received.
Education.
RkhardLeeCOflh
Alan Bersin’s tenure as superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District is the subject of Richard
Lee Colvin’s book, Tilting at Windmills: School Reform, San Diego, and America’s
Race
to Renew Public
