Talk:David L. Brewer III

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Here's a relevant article: http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/how-superintendent-david-brewer-ran-aground/17943/ --Mig 01:46, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

How Superintendent David Brewer Ran Aground The admiral's sinking ship

By PATRICK RANGE MCDONALD Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 10:00 am

(Photo by Ted Soqui) After five months of political battles with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his allies in Sacramento, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David L. Brewer III needed to find his focus. The retired Navy vice admiral was still a newcomer to the nation’s second-largest public-schools system, and he was utterly inexperienced as a public educator. So, in April 2007, Brewer made a promising and low-key move.

Quietly billed as a “superintendents’ weekend retreat,” the L.A. Weekly has learned, an invite from Brewer asked three noted educators to talk shop with him at the West Los Angeles campus of Loyola Marymount University, a short drive from his home in Playa del Rey.

Brewer’s guests were no slouches. Rudy Crew launched a major turnaround in New York City as the public-schools chancellor and later became the superintendent of Miami–Dade County Public Schools, one of five nationwide finalists for the Broad Prize for Urban Education. Among the country’s most prestigious awards, the Broad Prize is given to urban districts whose schools reflect the best overall performance and improvement in student achievement, while reducing stubborn achievement gaps among poor and minority students. It includes a hefty $1 million in college scholarships.

The two other highly regarded educators were Garden Grove Unified School District Superintendent Laura Schwalm, whose much-improved, racially mixed schools won the Broad Prize in 2004, and former San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, an outspoken black reformer who stared down that city’s old guard, earning her district a Broad finalist nod in 2005. Now, Ackerman is Christian A. Johnson Professor of Outstanding Educational Practice at Columbia University and superintendent-in-residence at the Broad Superintendents Academy in L.A.

All in all, Brewer was meeting with some of the best and most experienced minds in the country — no-nonsense reformers with a track record of turning around public schools.

On the first day of the retreat, Brewer met his guests in an empty classroom at 8:30 in the morning. “We wanted to hear out David,” Crew tells the Weekly, “and understand where he was thinking about things.”

According to Crew, Brewer arrived at the meeting “eager to take on the challenge” of improving L.A. Unified and “very interested in the nature of the work.” But Crew also noticed that he was “very much overwhelmed, in some ways, by the things going on around him.”

A newbie coping with the remnants of an unsuccessful mayoral takeover, Brewer was falling behind in important ways: He had failed to fill key positions on his senior management team, and to fully develop a coherent academic vision for a district with 878 schools and 694,288 students. And he was earning nasty headlines over the disastrous new computerized payroll system, Business Tools for Schools, which went sideways as thousands of the district’s 45,473 teachers received inaccurate paychecks — some getting under- or overpaid for months.

As the meeting unfolded, the four educators shared their priorities. For the seasoned turnaround experts, it was all about the students. Crew, who is also black, told Brewer to focus on low-performing schools as soon as he could. “It was true for me in New York and Miami as well,” Crew says of his own experiences.

Ackerman recalls how she stressed raising student achievement, addressing inequities between high- and low-performing students and creating accountability among teachers and bureaucrats.

Yet when it was Brewer’s turn to lay out his priorities, he went off in a completely different direction that left the übersupes uneasy: Working with politicians in Sacramento and Los Angeles, he told them, was his major focus.

“We see it in a different context,” says Ackerman. “The core business is improving achievement for students. Then everything else supports that. Without that clarity, it’s a struggle. But if you put kids at the center of everything, things will always get better.”

On the last day of the retreat, Crew, Schwalm and Ackerman handed Brewer a list of priorities, with heavy emphasis on achievement in the classroom rather than at City Hall. “There’s a tremendous need, certainly in the first year, to create and sustain a vision and to make it tangible,” says Crew, adding that speechmaking needed to be ditched at some point for day-to-day work.

The educators suggested that Brewer quickly hire senior staff, create an overall strategic plan, engage parents, address problems with low-performing schools, and shape a detailed accountability plan for teachers and bureaucrats.

“We left him with some pretty good impulses,” Crew says.

Seven months later, Crew and Ackerman, who stay in touch with the superintendent mostly through e-mails, are still waiting.

Says Crew, “He really needs to take this onto himself.” Ackerman is even more blunt: “He can’t afford a second year that’s a repeat of the first year.”

Instead, Brewer’s cheerleading persona, paired with his lack of action, has spawned embittered employees who call him “Admiral” to his face in a nod to tradition, but who say it mockingly behind his back. One-quarter of his four-year contract has vanished with no concrete accomplishments and no apparent strategy for improving student achievement or lackluster teaching. And Brewer and his still-incomplete senior management team play a constant game of catch-up, creating a ripple effect of delayed reform efforts and unfocused ideas.

Instead of switching gears and dedicating more time to the creation of strong math and reading programs for middle and high school students — his core responsibility to stanch the high dropout rate, experts and educators say — Brewer is still preoccupied with politics, recently hiring Democratic consultant Michael Bustamante for $15,000 a month to reverse his spiraling unpopularity.

“With that kind of retainer, he is not editing press releases,” says media-crisis expert Scott Schmidt, pooh-poohing the district spin that Bustamante is just a routine public-relations hire.

Brewer must also contend with teachers who are incensed about their paychecks and angry about middle school and high school literacy programs they say mistakenly try to bolster self-esteem rather than basic learning skills. And the aloof superintendent has let a power vacuum develop that racial and economic factions are seeking to fill. To top it off, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — Brewer’s off-and-on nemesis — has in recent months offered very few concrete plans of his own for improved schools, leaving the superintendent to take political hits that some fear could force his early departure. Brewer cannot do “what the mayor is doing, and disappear from the press” on the issue of school reform, says former L.A. Unified board member David Tokofsky. “It’s somewhat of a brilliant political move, actually,” he says of Villaraigosa. The struggles of the mayor, whose school takeover failed miserably and whose own competing “Schoolhouse” reform landed with a thud and vanished from the public eye, throw the mistakes made by Brewer into starker relief.

And Brewer seems strangely determined to make things worse for himself. In a move last month that some observers found particularly appalling, district staff spent time, money and effort to compile a spiffy-looking pamphlet that spun his lagging first 12 months as a dubious-sounding “Year of Listening and Learning.” When Brewer finally presented his oft-delayed, all-but-the-kitchen-sink reform-plan outline to the school board on December 4, critics inevitably asked why he spent 2007 listening — not doing.

High school teacher Mike Stryer, who came downtown after his classes to hear Brewer out, grabbed the chance during a public comment period to eyeball his big boss, sitting just a few feet away, dismissing his reform agenda as a “hastily construed smorgasbord of ideas” that is “so vague it confuses goals with tactics.” Brewer stared back, but he had nobody to blame but himself.

That’s not at all how analysts, the media, educators or community leaders thought things would go when the school board, openly exhilarated by their choice, unanimously selected the personable Navy leader on October 12, 2006, to succeed outgoing superintendent Roy Romer. Romer, a former governor of Colorado, had been the first effective superintendent in L.A. in two decades, with a strong record in building new schools and requiring solid instruction.

“Romer always talked about construction and instruction,” says former board president Caprice Young, who hired him. “His main strength was carrying out a vision.”

Unlike Brewer, Romer hired a senior management team in the first month.

An even more dramatic contrast to the camera-loving Brewer was the way Romer declined press interviews for weeks so he could concentrate on the nuts and bolts of his job. The former governor also stood up to the teachers' union, United Teachers Los Angeles, furious over Romer’s order that grade-school teachers spend at least two hours per day on reading instruction — his shock therapy for a district churning out tens of thousands of functionally illiterate children each year. It was a radical move that educators now widely accept.

Within a few years, Romer presided over a dramatic increase of student test scores in reading and math, particularly at the elementary level.

“[L.A. Unified’s] worst schools today are better than their average schools in 2000,” says longtime education expert John Mockler, former executive director of the California State Board of Education. “That’s an outstanding change,” marking the first sustained turnaround in nearly a generation in L.A.

Although test scores among middle and high school students rose over that same period, according to Mockler, they have much further to go. Romer’s next plan was to start rehabilitating secondary schools. (Romer declined to discuss his superintendency with the Weekly.)

In 2005, however, Romer faced a vociferous critic in the person of newly elected Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. According to former board member Tokofsky, the mayor “poisoned” the political climate to such a degree that it was nearly impossible to push meaningful reform or seriously address the dropout rate in the middle schools and high schools.

“When you declare all of the schools are failures,” says Tokofsky, “it’s hard to properly motivate people.”

Villaraigosa and his allies seemed not to grasp that test scores in L.A. were doing something they had rarely done — rising. He sought to take over the district with a special state law called AB 1381, which, had it not been tossed out by the courts, would have shifted decision making from the seven-member elected school board to a superintendent overseen by a “council of mayors” — with a lead role for Los Angeles’ mayor. Romer, meanwhile, signaled that he would soon leave after six years on the job. The board wanted not only a strong replacement to carry on Romer’s work, but a leader who could battle the then-popular and charismatic mayor.

During a nationwide search, according to Tokofsky, Maria Ott, the district’s chief academic officer at the time, proved to be a standout candidate who really knew the business of public education. But, Tokofsky says, several board members found her “boring” because good PR was high on their list.

“She was talking folk, when the mayor was rock & roll,” Tokofsky explains. Ott lacked charisma, in other words, and the only candidate who shined in that area was the untried David Brewer.

“[Brewer] was hired because he was nontraditional leadership,” says then board member Mike Lansing, now executive director of Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor. Defending the hire, Lansing points to Brewer’s “experience working with a large work force” in several shipboard posts and a two-year stint as vice chief of naval education in Florida.

“He spoke very well for the district, and that was important,” says current board member Julie Korenstein, who also voted to hire him. “We hoped he would learn quickly,” she says wistfully. On November 13, 2006, Brewer took his first official steps inside district headquarters downtown, at 333 South Beaudry Avenue. With an annual salary of $300,000, the retired admiral was also outfitted with a car, a $45,000 yearly expense account, a $3,000 monthly housing allowance, and a corner office on the 24th floor with majestic views of downtown Los Angeles and the Hollywood sign. According to Tokofsky, the first three months of Brewer’s tenure were the “victory” months. “There was such hope unleashed during that time.”

Brewer certainly hit the pavement, speaking to community groups in the San Fernando Valley and South and East Los Angeles and holding powwows with politicians in L.A. and Sacramento. An admirer of the ancient military-strategy book Art of War by Chinese mercenary Sun Tzu, he was determined to win over Villaraigosa.

“The mayor and I are going to transform this school district,” Brewer said after one meeting with Villaraigosa, having already gushed that the two were “joined at the hip.” The mayor gushed back, calling the retired admiral his “good friend” and giddily explaining that they finish each other’s sentences.

But Brewer’s fascination with the politics enveloping the massive district — its total annual budget is nearly $14 billion — soaked up months of time. Despite having a then-friendly Romer-era school board that would have quickly approved many of his decisions, Brewer failed to hire senior staff to help him in the crucial areas of curriculum and instruction — the real backbone for any turnaround.

“It would have been better to hire [his core staff]” when he had the backing of the board that hired him, says Lansing. “I think [Brewer] would agree with that.”

His dithering, which allowed a new, far less friendly school board to sweep into office before he could assemble his senior management team, was the first of several blunders. In October, when he finally made a big hiring decision nearly a year after taking office — promoting Romer’s successful chief curriculum instructor Ronni Ephraim to deputy superintendent of professional learning, development and leadership — he faced hostile board members and sudden battles driven by insider politics.

But vocal Brewer critic A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, was pleased with Brewer’s decision to give Ephraim responsibility over how the district trains its teachers. Ephraim, who is white, had overseen changes in classroom instruction in the grade schools that led to dramatic increases in reading test scores — including big achievement gains at impoverished black and Latino schools that many educators had insisted could not be improved due to poverty.

Yet behind the scenes, Villaraigosa’s board allies somehow believed that longtime educator Ephraim was using the wrong approach to teach English to Spanish-speaking children. Overriding Brewer’s own desire, and caving to pressure from ethnic advocacy groups, school board president Monica Garcia and her colleagues handed Brewer a publicly humiliating decision, giving Ephraim a one-year contract instead of the standard two-year deal. Longtime Villaraigosa friend and school board member Yolie Flores Aguilar voted against even the shortened contract. Ephraim would not comment on her situation.

In October, Brewer also managed to hire a chief financial officer, Megan Reilly, who finally started this month, and chief technology officer Tony Tortorice, neither of them L.A. Unified veterans. Columbia University professor Jeffrey Henig, author of several highly praised books on public education, including The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics and the Challenge of Urban Education, warns that if Brewer's staff don't know where the bodies are buried, they may not be able to “make the bureaucracy work.”

The most disconcerting hire is the one Brewer hasn’t made. The No. 2 job in this district, which educates one out of every 12 children in California, is that of the chief academic officer/deputy superintendent. That person would be Brewer’s right hand. The position, inexplicably, is still vacant.

Yet on December 4, Brewer stunned board members while unveiling the initial outlines of his long-overdue High Priority Schools reform plan, mentioning almost in passing that he was not going to hire anyone for the second-ranking job until June 2008.

“Did you say June?” asked board president Garcia in disbelief.

Brewer replied: “I’m giving myself some time.”

Garcia stared at him, then shot back: “But your schools don’t have that time.”

Her comment, a rare display of open disapproval in decades of superintendent-school-board relations in this city, sent a hush through the crowded auditorium.

Educators who want Brewer to succeed — and there are many — have urged him for months to make this crucial hire. One result of his dawdling is that he still lacks both a clear plan on curriculum and instruction and a broader strategic academic plan. “I can’t even imagine leading a major school system without senior management,” says former San Francisco superintendent Ackerman.

The deputy superintendent is also the liaison between the supe and eight local district superintendents who oversee respective subdistricts carved out of the sprawling LAUSD, which encompasses not just L.A. but 29 other cities and county areas. Without a deputy, according to district insiders, Brewer’s communication with the rest of the district is poor at minimum.

Unless something changes, Brewer and his staff may be heading for a meltdown. “He’s juggling a lot,” says board member Tamar Galatzan. “[Brewer] relies on a small group of people for a lot of work, and those people are going to get burned out.”

Ackerman moved on her strategic plan for San Francisco within six months — and plenty of union leaders and teachers moaned about it. “If you want people to follow,” says Ackerman, who very much wants Brewer to succeed, “you have to be very clear.” But vagueness from Brewer is breeding “unrest.”

In a sit-down interview with the Weekly, the superintendent did not spell out any elements of a strategic plan, instead strongly emphasizing warmed-over slogans such as “high-performance culture” borrowed from author/motivators Stephen Covey and Jim Collins, whose books Brewer reads.

That is really the goal right now,” the superintendent said of his high-performance-culture message. “And everyone has to figure out where their role is in making that happen.”

When asked who he meant by everyone, he replied in the broadest possible terms, typifying one of his troubles: “Everybody from the principals and directors all the way down to the bus drivers.”

Says noted Harvard University professor Richard Elmore, director of the federally financed Consortium for Policy Research in Education, “If the superintendent doesn’t drive a pretty big stake in the ground, it isn’t going to happen. Teachers don’t know what to do.”

Recently, Brewer has suggested that the teacher-payroll fiasco, and the time it consumes, has hampered his efforts. But when asked about Brewer's excuse, Ackerman said unequivocally, “You have to juggle multiple balls.”

Now, a window appears to be closing, with the school board sounding increasingly unsupportive. “He asked [us] for six months, and it didn’t happen,” board president Garcia says dismissively of his strategic plan, underlining the tensions between Brewer and the board members, several of whom won office after taking millions of dollars in campaign donations from Villaraigosa’s business and labor pals.

This month, Villaraigosa conducted a controversial, money-drenched political campaign — complete with door prizes — to convince parents and teachers to let his office oversee reform at a handful of schools. Embarrassingly for Villaraigosa, just 9.9 percent of mothers and fathers bothered to participate. The small fraction who did vote agreed to let the Mayor’s Office oversee at least five schools.

Brewer, looking paralyzed even in comparison to Villaraigosa and his lackluster showing, is now covering his flank, saying his ideas for fixing 34 of the district’s worst schools will be “applied” to all classrooms. Yet some district insiders wonder if he has it backwards, suggesting he should adopt an all-encompassing plan like those in urban school districts that have shown sustained improvement — not let L. A.'s worst schools drive his agenda.

Brewer left observers scratching their heads on December 4, when he unveiled his long-awaited High Priority Schools plan. He used PowerPoint slides with pronouncements like: “The Strategic Plan is about synergy” and “It’s not a buffet, it’s a 7-course meal.”

Yet he spent less than two minutes going over what is perhaps his greatest challenge: how to improve the way kids are actually taught. (Brewer briefly suggested a more “personal touch” by teachers.) On December 18, after a rushed discussion of that key issue, the board approved his High Priority Schools plan for the 34 worst schools.

In the weeks leading up to his big December presentations, Brewer made two bizarre moves that provide at least some evidence that he may not be able to pull any of this off — prompting onlookers to wonder why he’s paying Democratic PR consultants a small fortune.

On November 6, the superintendent, dressed in his customary dark suit with gold tie, held a 6 a.m. press conference in the nearly empty lobby of LAUSD headquarters. He heralded “big change” and a “major adjustment” for the messed-up payroll system. The near-dawn hour was carefully calculated to get him on the early-morning news shows, and TV and radio stations showed up, dutifully reporting his sound bites.

Yet within hours, the small lobby was teeming with irate teachers eager to tell a different tale — of taking precious class time off work to straighten out what the district hasn’t. Radio stations abruptly dropped Brewer’s “big change” press coverage to run tape of educators vehemently contradicting his claims of a payroll fix — and making him out to be a liar.

Asked about Brewer’s rainbows-and-sunshine press conference, East L.A. teacher Ellen Montiel told the Weekly, “He’s clueless. The people who put this [payroll] program together don’t understand it. How can he ever understand it?”

Not long after that, on September 28, Brewer made a second questionable move, inadvertently revealing just how much of a political animal he is in a stinging “interoffice correspondence” he wrote to LAUSD board members, a copy of which was surreptitiously sent to UTLA four days later. In that memo, Brewer attacks California state Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero — a woman with significant sway over the district’s funding — over her public hearing on the paycheck controversy. Calling the hearing a “scripted affair,” he slams Romero as “neither interested in the facts or what their responses entailed,” and rails, “In cases where it was pointed out that she had her facts wrong, the Senator briskly moved to another topic.”

Then Brewer gets to his real issue: He tells the board that the media paid Romero only “moderate” attention, provides a detailed list of press outlets that did and did not attend, and suggests some media talking points for board members. The talking points are filled with clichés such as: “I’m frustrated too. The transition did not go well and our folks who provided testimony yesterday made no excuses,” And, “Could we have handled it better? Sure. But hindsight is 20-20.”

The question of how effectively he spends his time came up yet again in September, when Brewer made two visits to Washington, D.C., testifying before Congress as an “expert” on the federal No Child Left Behind Act — yet saying nothing that had not already been noted ad infinitum by weightier educators. On his second trip to Washington, he and board members Garcia and Aguilar lobbied for changes in federal funding rules — in particular, a controversial bid to bring back “native language” testing, or tests in Spanish, another sign that Brewer is listening to those who oppose the past five years of promoting English, and English tests, for all kids.

Amid all of this political jockeying, his High Priority Schools plan — Brewer’s response to the mayor’s slams over the dropout rate — had finally been scheduled for a widely promoted unveiling at a “committee of the whole” board meeting on November 20. Educators citywide marked their calendars for the big day, as Brewer launched a very visible public-relations junket, appearing on KPCC public radio and granting other interviews.

Things went incredibly sour, however, when, just hours before his big unveiling, district staff sent out an e-mail at 5 p. m. on November 19, canceling the “committee of the whole” meeting and setting off an avalanche of gossip about the Admiral at district headquarters. According to LAUSD spokeswoman Binti Harvey, the reason was simple: Brewer, now on his seventh or eighth rewrite of the plan, wasn’t ready.

Board member Julie Korenstein believes Brewer’s now-pointless publicity tour was an example of his “wasting time.” A frustrated Korenstein, a board member for 20 years who is close to UTLA and represents the Valley, says, “I think he has the wrong advisers.”

Educators in the Valley are so squeamish about Brewer’s thus-far vague ideas that several schools flatly refused to be named in his list of 44 High Priority Schools — a vote of no confidence that eventually slashed the project to 34 schools. That represents only one-tenth of the district’s 300 or so most problematic schools.

Board member Galatzan, whose election to a seat representing the Valley was largely financed by Villaraigosa, says, “In the Valley, there are a lot of parents who feel middle schools and high schools aren’t safe and the education isn’t good.” She spoke to Brewer about it, and he said that while he was concerned with those bigger-picture problems, he was busy with his 34-schools plan. Galatzan says the two agreed to talk later about yet another plan, one more relevant to the Valley.

Unlike Brewer, superintendents Crew and Ackerman moved quickly in Miami and San Francisco to launch visible academic reforms, realizing that if they did not, the loudest voices — not necessarily the right ones — would fill the vacuum with plans of their own. Under Brewer, a power vacuum has plainly developed.

Now, sometimes-strident ethnic and economic lobbies — dominated by Latino and black advocacy groups — are demanding dollars and separate treatment.

Old school: Longtime board member Julie Korenstein was initially thrilled about Brewer. No more. (Photo by Orly Olivier) The gaping power vacuum was apparent on October 23, when board member Marguerite LaMotte, who is black, pushed for a resolution to address academic and disciplinary problems among African-American students — the kind of separatist, color-based tendency resisted by former superintendents Ruben Zacarias, the first Latino to head the district, and Romer, both of whom saw it as the wrong direction for a district whose children speak more than 90 languages.

After LaMotte spoke, members of the self-described Committee for Educational Justice and Equality for African-American Students took turns dressing down the gathered bureaucrats. Brewer didn’t exactly stand up to them: He promised that things would change. But the crowd wasn’t placated. People sarcastically yelled, “Yeah, right!” One woman called out, with venom, “When are you going to do that? Today? Or tomorrow?”

Owen Knox, a retired LAUSD administrator who leads the justice committee — one of many race- or ethnically-oriented groups — complains, “The superintendent hasn’t put forward any plan for African-American students. I would’ve thought that out of all his plans, one of them would have considered African-American students.”

At a subsequent meeting, the board adopted LaMotte’s resolution, which orders the superintendent to devise yet another plan, and sticks a divisive race issue on Brewer’s desk. Not to be outdone, Latino groups are demanding changes specific to them — and their politicking could be more potent. In Los Angeles, 250,575 Spanish-speaking kids are “English-language learners” who lack basic English skills, which makes LAUSD arguably the largest teacher of English in the nation, if not the world. (By comparison, in New York, the nation’s biggest school district by far, just 95,000 Spanish-speaking children attend school not knowing English.)

One special-interest group, Families in Schools, wants changes in the way Latino children are dealt with. Its president, Maria Casillas, led the failed five-year effort known as the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project, in which the cash-rich Annenberg Foundation poured $53 million into Los Angeles–area schools — to zero effect. Casillas, who is close to board members Garcia and Aguilar, says her group is simply seeking a better foundation and earlier support for kids learning English. She says Brewer “didn’t understand this at first, but I don’t fault him.”

In fact, the district has poured enormous sums into “structured” English immersion, English as a Second Language, and other English-learner programs since dumping the pricey, Spanish-heavy “bilingual” programs — and English learning has been climbing ever since, even among poor, illegal-immigrant children. But since July 10, when the board gave Brewer a long list of official deadlines for achieving various reforms, Garcia and Aguilar have been pressing him to make changes in the way the district approaches its English learners’ curriculum, including “culturally responsive pedagogy.”

District insiders who fear being tagged as racists warn that these efforts constitute an ethnically coded push for a separate curriculum for Spanish-speaking students. All of these diverging demands — from safer schools for middle-class students in the Valley to separate educational approaches for lower-income black and Latino children — inevitably start a clash over funding. Columbia University’s Henig says the board’s heavy focus on English learners, driven by Garcia and Aguilar, may foster resentment among blacks and others. “Not only is [English learning] not responsive to the needs of the African-American community,” the professor explains, but “it becomes a battle over priorities.”

Brewer downplays issues of race and class, insisting, despite a clear spike in ethnic lobbying before the board, that, “We’ve stabilized that problem to a large extent.” He believes “promoting common things like music and sports but also language” can help, and touts the recent hiring of four Mandarin Chinese instructors — a tiny blip among 45,000 teachers — calling it “another major accomplishment” of his first year. And, he promises, “This is just the beginning... We’re going to expand Mandarin Chinese to just about every school by 2020.”

The problem lies in what he’s doing about the roughly 10,000 L. A. Unified teenagers expected to fail next year’s California high school exit exam. Even though it is widely accepted that Brewer was somewhat of a racial hire by the previous school board — a charismatic black man who could neutralize his Latino rival Villaraigosa — Henig says that bad news like exit exam failure rates could leave him susceptible to overthrow “because he doesn’t have a local constituency. He’s an outsider.”

With all the troubles Brewer faces, some are wondering who’s advising him. While Brewer himself cites Crew, Ackerman, Chicago superintendent Arne Duncan and San Diego superintendent Carl Cohn — a widely admired black superintendent who improved the deeply troubled Long Beach schools not far from L.A. — he doesn’t seem to be listening to them.

Brewer says two longtime educators in his family — his wife, Richardene “Deanie” Brewer, and sister-in-law, Julie Williams — are his “main confidantes.” He did not cite to the Weekly anyone within the district, despite having several proven senior staff members at his disposal.

Brewer does appear to be listening to political consultants: When he decided to pay $15,000 a month to Michael Bustamante, a longtime Democratic consultant best known as the guy who advised Governor Gray Davis during the disastrous electricity crisis, it was clearly “for strategic purposes,” says Scott Schmidt, president of RSC Partners, a media-crisis communications firm.

An image consultant — which is how political operative Bustamante bills himself — is supposed to create a “narrative” over time, “almost like a political campaign” for Brewer, Schmidt explains. Bustamante’s close ties to Democrats in Sacramento are a prime reason he was hired, Schmidt surmises, noting that, “Nothing is ever a coincidence... The district needs to show to Sacramento and the city of Los Angeles that it has strong leadership.”

All this costly brainpower didn’t stop Brewer’s in-house district PR staff from making their boss look foolish a few weeks ago when they published — apparently with Brewer’s go-ahead — an awkward one-year-anniversary pamphlet featuring the superintendent’s “highlights and accomplishments” for 2007. By giving Brewer’s first 12 months the theme “Year of Listening and Learning,” however, they clearly opened him to ridicule. (Just as awkward, 2008 is deemed: “Year of Action, Leadership and Accountability.”)

“It’s a very transparent way to confront criticism of the superintendent,” Schmidt says disapprovingly. Board president Garcia also was “not pleased with the wording.”

Beyond his motivational speeches, self-advertisements and adventures in politics, critics believe Brewer has not spent nearly enough time in the classroom. “He’s not aware of what’s really going on,” says high school teacher Doug Lasken, a 24-year veteran.

Lasken, for example, says the district’s new high school and middle school English-literacy program is actually a “throwback” to the dismal 1990s, when grammar, spelling and writing skills took “a back seat.”

“It’s a safe, feel-good approach,” says Lasken, that emphasizes things “like learning how to read manuals. Its goal is to create good self-esteem.” But, he warns those promoting it, “there’s really no way around the hard part of learning how to read and write.” For that reason, he says, “The teachers are totally against it. I’ve never seen teachers this angry before.”

Lasken wonders if Brewer knows what is contained in the dumbed-down literacy program. “I don’t see his name associated with the secondary literacy program,” the teacher says. “He’s a very hands-off guy. I guess he’s into motivational theory, but he doesn’t really seem interested in the nuts and bolts of reading instruction.”

Secondary school teachers, he says, are being told to devote 60 percent of classroom time to the program and just 40 percent to state-approved English textbooks, which “are much more rigorous in their coursework.” According to Lasken, many teachers are flatly refusing to follow this directive.

Brewer also seems to have made little headway in the other key subject where L.A. high school and middle school students fail in large numbers: math. “The numbers don’t look pretty,” says UCLA School of Education professor John Rogers, who recently released UCLA’s annual Educational Opportunity Report. While 80 percent of California’s class of 2006 passed the math section of the high school exit exam, 74 percent of students in Valley schools passed, and a much worse 64 percent passed in L.A.’s citywide schools. Districtwide, only about 9 percent of the class of 2006 were enrolled in college-prep Advanced Placement math during their senior year.

Rogers says the district lacks credentialed math teachers coming out of state colleges. Instead, undertrained teachers — some of whom don’t know math well — are given the district’s confusing “pacing” system of instruction, which moves students through textbooks by skipping to and from various sections of different chapters. “It’s an incoherent plan,” blasts L.A. Unified high school math teacher Richard Wagoner. It renders carefully designed support materials meant to back up each chapter “useless — and kids don’t get a good feel for the textbooks.”

Martha Schwartz, a math consultant who regularly serves on the state’s Instructional Materials Advisory Panel for Mathematics, says, “The district keeps revising the pacing system year after year.” That’s a big mistake because “with math, you have to build from one piece to the next. That may be why they keep having to do it over.”

David Klein, co-founder of the advocacy group Mathematically Correct and a math professor at Cal State Northridge who teaches the subject to future teachers, advocates more rigorous, straightforward instruction. He says LAUSD administrators reward sexy-sounding math “innovation” — whether it works or not — far more than they reward actual “effectiveness.” He blames the inner politics of the district, where “the least knowledgeable [educators] in math are elevated.”

Brewer, according to Wagoner, has been silent on the math debate. “I don’t know what he knows,” says the teacher. “I feel bad for him. I think he took the job without realizing what it was about. He could easily say, ‘This plan isn’t working,’ and dump the whole thing.”

Harvard professor Elmore sees the potential for an academic free-for-all in which the district’s 660-plus principals, eight local superintendents and scores of other administrators push a mishmash of highly localized approaches, whether their pet ideas result in students learning the subject matter or not.

“If you don’t have the presence of the superintendent,” Elmore says of the world of public education, “then people consider everything as optional.”

Brewer was once again speechmaking on November 15, standing behind a podium at 8:30 a.m., facing a room full of civic and business leaders at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel. He was guest speaker for the city’s ultimate power breakfast, Town Hall Los Angeles, touting his High Priority Schools plan as well as an “innovative” breakthrough idea — to lure dropouts back to school via text messaging. He didn’t get into the specifics of how to find these disaffected kids’ phone numbers — or what kinds of mind-jarring messages would suddenly make them want to learn algebra. But he was overjoyed with the idea.

“You have to reach the children where they are!”

Brewer stood tall and square-shouldered, wearing his dark power suit with gold tie. He looked to be in total control, and he threw out such snappy-sounding phrases as “college prepared and career ready,” “world-class education,” and “deep change.” Though he insisted he was not a “headlines superintendent,” he was talking that kind of talk. Little he said was new: Students wanted to feel that people “cared” for them, parents wanted their kids to attend college, teachers wanted to improve their skills. It was the kind of rap Brewer had been dishing to audiences for months.

Then, Brewer fielded questions. One person who grabbed the roving microphone was UTLA president A.J. Duffy, whose once-tenuous leadership of the union has been given new life thanks to the district’s payroll screwups and the Brewer power vacuum. (A few weeks later, UTLA would beat the superintendent to the punch by releasing its own “reform plan” for the lowest-performing schools.)

“I’ve been in this district for about 28 years,” Duffy stated to Brewer, “and by my reckoning, I’ve gone through a reform program every third or fourth year. The teachers, parents, administrators and other stakeholders want to know, why should we believe you?”

Brewer smiled, then launched into an answer about “facilitating a structure for deep change.” As the polite political showdown played out, Joey Smith, a black 11th-grader from the gifted magnet program at Crenshaw High School in South L.A., sat with his classmates at a banquet table in back — behind all the civic and business leaders given closer access to the superintendent. Smith had never seen Brewer speak, never read about him, and really knew nothing about the retired vice admiral.

“I was excited to see what he was all about,” recalls Smith, an obvious go-getter who plans to attend an Ivy League college. But the more the superintendent talked, the more turned off the young student got.

“I got frustrated because he seemed to be going around the questions rather than answering them,” Smith says. “I think he has an idea of what he wants to do, but he doesn’t know how to do it. He may be a strong leader figure, but he doesn’t know what to do.”

And that seems to be the crux of Brewer’s growing troubles, understood after an hour’s observation by a perceptive 16-year-old. As 2007 comes to an end, the superintendent is still listening and learning. Or, as a cynic might say, plodding and yearning.

It is obvious why Brewer is 'the man' for LAUSD as the LA City School Board has suggested. With NCLB, schools have given all personal information including cell phone numbers of students to military recruiters and full access to high school campuses as have college recruiters. Dropouts will be texted using the same method and if students fail, the military wins in new recruits. If I were a manager at Walmart, and my employees' paychecks were screwed up twice, you can bet the third strike I'd be out. How the public can sit back and witness for an entire year our hardest working citizens, the teachers, get bullied around and abused while mayor and governor sits on their hands is unconscionable. $300,000 plus perks and now more spent to improve image while millions is wasted that could be directed to the children is criminal. Teachers must be paid properly now and children must get what they deserve. Instead, the military is getting more recruits and good teachers are fleeing faster than roaches in the kitchen at night when you turn the lights on. Where is the justice? People wake up, here's a simple Math equation; How many lawyers will it take to bail the district out on teachers who've foreclosed on mortgages and had seriously extenuating circumstances in their disrupted lives this year due to the payroll debacle? I'd rather have a Walmart manager who is not making seven times the average employee making sure the children get what they should. Thank you LA Weekly for turning on the light but my question is, where are the exterminators? Anna Fisher Kindergarten Teacher LAUSD Posted on Friday, December 28, 2007, at 2:31 am by Anna Fisher

As an educator at the secondary level, I'm extremely disappointed in the members of LAUSD who have the audacity to blame one person for the problems that are prevalent in our school system. Several of my colleagues voted California's current Governor into office several years ago (I didn't), yet none seem to have anything to say about the Governor and the members of the State Legislator that have failed to live up to a multitude of promises that have been made to California's educators. If my memory serves me correctly, the last time educators were given a raise it was a measly 5% while State Legislators were given a 20% raise. I have yet to meet an educator that entered into education because of the exorbitant amount of money we make--we are in it for the children. Regardless of Superintendent Brewer's inconsistencies, lip-professing, promises, or failures, educators should admit that the Los Angeles public school system is still under the shadow of former Superintendent Roy Romer's educational plan. The LAUSD assessment binders focus on breadth as opposed to the depth of knowledge our students need to know about a unit in order succeed in academics. This program (that is still going strong) undermines an educator's creativity, creates an atmosphere of distrust among parents and school officials, and sends the message that even if you attended Oxford University, you are still required to follow a step-by-step program while teaching a specific unit. Aside from some of the action committees that are promoting an all inclusive educational program for students of color, no one mentioned the importance of educators, administrators, and school board officials meeting to create a culturally responsive curriculum. I don't expect primary grade level students to be able to vocalize the need to learn about their culture and heritage, but high school students always ask me why Chicano Studies, Asian-American Studies, and African-American Studies are absent in the curriculum. A culturally responsive curriculum should essentially incorporate popular cultural and media into 90% of lessons because most students, regardless of their ethnic background, will tell you that schools ignore students' interests. If educators and LAUSD officials do not abandon the "sheepish" mentality, the parents of disadvantaged students will file lawsuits, educators will continue to resign within two years of beginning their career in the classroom, and poverty in the world's fifth largest economy will continue to skyrocket. Posted on Saturday, December 29, 2007, at 4:03 am by t.b.

The young people in Los Angeles are very lucky to have one of the best public education systems in the world. Many schools are brand-new; most have state-of-the-art equipment; teachers and aides are numerous; and the majority of the teachers are eager to impart their knowledge. Those students who choose to study hard and behave themselves graduate with a great education that leads to a successful occupation or profession. Posted on Saturday, December 29, 2007, at 1:27 pm by timothy

No wonder LAUSD is such a disaster, it's filled with illegal Mexicans to the breaking point, we are giving education to a large part of Mexico for free, and our Mayor marches with them and protects them (sanctuary city), what a shameful city Posted on Saturday, December 29, 2007, at 4:17 pm by edla

Love how your writer extols Romer's instructional programs. They've been in place for years, yet scores continue to drop in middle and high school. Hmmm...in East LA the only schools that have exited NCLB "Failing" status are the ones where principals respect teachers' professional expertise and allow them to teach the California standards instead of the rigid steps of a program that doesn't meet students' needs. Doesn't that tell you what you need to know about Romer's "successes"? LA Weekly, I already have a city newspaper that doesn't know anything about education. Couldn't you find a writer who knows their stuff? Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 4:38 am by east la teacher

Unlike previous superintendents Brewer has spent more time and resources in the black community then any other superintendent. For example, he is setting up a major partnership with Crenshaw High School under his innovation division with the Urban League Bradley Foundation and USC. For your information under Brewer LAUSD spends more money per capita on Crenshaw than any other high school or middle school in the district. Brewer just put one million dollars into Bradley Elementary School to fund an all boys program. As everyone is aware African boys are the lowest performers in the district. Brewer has focused his attention on the lowest performing schools and students because he believes by improving those schools he will be able to improve all schools. Brewer is also spending a lot of his personal time and resources with the other predominantly African-American high school, Westchester. He has invited Loyola Marymount University - which has one of the premiere colleges of education to partner with Westchester under his "innovation division." While Brewer clearly has his shortcomings, but to say that he has not delivered on promises is unfair. Brewer's strategic plan is a very comprehensive plan to overhaul not only low performing schools but all schools. Brewer's ultimate vision frankly, as I've heard him say, is to not only raise scores for poor performing students but to also get the middle class to return to the school district. Brewer's main challenge is fixing major organizational problems inside LAUSD. He has established several new positions to focus on the organizational problems. For example, he has appointed a new deputy for professional development (who will provide formal leadership and management training for all LAUSD employees) and a new director for parent and civic engagement. And so amazingly previous superintendents never established these positions. As I've said Brewer has his shortcomings and probably runs his mouth too much, but to imply that he is plodding is disingenuous. He is trying to move a mountain of an organization and it will take time. Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 10:53 am by k.j.

Your article really got me going. For your press and other press in LA to continue to denigrate the new superintendent is absurd. It is not like LAUSD was some high performing school district prior to his arrival. The tests scores have been languishing in the abyss for years. When you have a new superintendent who seemingly does something that the people of LA, and yes including educators, do something innovative and different, the entire press and its townspeople can't let up on the man. Trust me, education is pretty simple, have a student and teach them correctly. The problem continues no doubt to be implementation and not teaching relevant curriculum to this new generation. Face it, education has not changed its habits in 100 years. I can bet that LAUSD schools still have the students’ desks facing the teacher. I do believe if given the chance Brewer would at least bring this district to the last half of the 20th century. From my vantage point, this district is still in the 19th century. It would take a god to bring you anywhere near the 21st century. One man and his leadership team truly can’t move you there in one year. Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 1:16 pm by tina

(continued) I often wonder is the press' agenda to continue to conspire to keep black and brown children at the bottom of the educational ring. By constantly bashing the leadership of this district and for the matter any urban district defies logic. I would like to see what we all in America say when we are running from a class of people who are uneducated because you the press continue to bash the people who dare try to take on a tough school district. Your constant attacks are counterproductive and I am sure distracting to the superintendent and his leadership. Yes, he no doubt needs a strong academic officer, but do you really think that that person will be able to make LAUSD transform overnight? Are you people just in it for show to say that he has the team together? Even that can’t guarantee success like you seem to think it would. You still had a horrible district with one in the past and… Do you feel that superintendents need to act hastily without finding the best person for the job? If he does read these management books I can only surmise, they are telling him something that education books have failed to tell many superintendents who still to this day have not successful made a current urban school district all that. Yeah, they may have an increase of 2 points, but what is that when those students would have to compete with public school graduates from school districts that have test scores that would put LAUSD and any other school district to shame. Give the man a break and stop being so negative. It is about time that the community and that means the press get behind him and find something positive to write. Keep this up and no one will want the job and you will be left with no one or at best a mediocre superintendent. Also, your suggestions of his love for the camera and the entire Hollywood thing are disgusting. I have never seen such a press that will make the superintendent into some Hollywood type. For goodness sake, don't you realize that education is a serious matter? I don't think the retire admiral basks in his sartorial splendor. I can imagine the poor man had to buy a new wardrobe given the fact that he was in the navy for over 30 years. Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 2:12 pm by tina

(continued) Your pettiness about this is just ridiculous. With America really in a nervous breakdown , it would appear that the press would use its power of influence to try to keep someone who is truly dedicated to educating children and not pandering to what you feel is safe and sound and yet ineffective for urban education. No, these children are not guinea pigs, but it appears that in the past, many have thought so. You have a curriculum just teach and implement appropriately. And yes, the last I checked many of those board members are not educators either so stop this foolishness. Trust me, you really don’t need to be an educator to run a district. Did you realize that the school of education has the lowest performing students at a university? It appears that in the past LASUD have had educators running it and look where you are now. It is not the children's fault. I am sick of hearing that. To me, the problem rests more than what people want to admit, on the teacher. Research clearly states that a good teacher impacts student achievement for over 3 years and on the flip side of that so does a bad teacher. At least the supt is trying to allow these bad teachers to correct themselves with his professional development. You all know that to get rid of a bad teacher is almost impossible and LA seems to support such teachers. My suggestion is get over it and work with what you got. Yeah, Brewer may have said he wanted to get rid of bad teachers and backed off, but I sure somewhere he realized that it is a great idea but fruitless and would not win. I think is alternative if great and the teachers' union should support him and tell those teachers to start teaching. Tina Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 2:15 pm by tina

Incidentally, Arlene Ackerman was run out of San Francisco and DC. It is truly amazing to sit in a chair at the esteem Columbia University and pontificate on what other superindendents can do. I ask you why didn't you turn those two districts around if you were so hot? And to say to your mentee that he cannot have the same experience as his first year in the press is quite loyal. And as far as Mr. Crew is concerned, he no doubt ticked off some people in Miami; he had a threat put out against him as well as a board member suing him. Brewer is no doubt being circumspect in taking any ones advise who still cannot make an urban school district competitive with a suburban school district. Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 3:21 pm by Dan

Amy, I am tired of the likes of you and press people constantly talking about Brewer's salary. I am no math person but you can bet he makes less per hour than those teachers who claim to teach to standards but yet cannot get their students to pass a basic assessment. I am aware that superintendents spend enormous hours working and soliciting support for their district. For you and the likes of you to harp on this is ridiculous. I would just love to see a teacher run a district that many UTLA members continue to discuss. Many articles in major newspapers and obviously not this one or the LA Times will report that any superintendent who takes on urban school districts must be highly compensated for the mess they have to put up with in regards to the press and the constituents who blast them. Yeah, it is truly quite easy to sit back and provide opinions but if parents and the community raised children appropriately, education would not be so difficult. So in short, get off Brewer's salary; he actually makes less than superintendents in much smaller suburban districts in which students know how to study and turn in homework and teachers know how to address different student's learning styles without it becoming a political issue or a collective bargaining issue. From my understanding many teachers in LA talk about the fear of the children. If they are that scared of them, find another job in which you feel you are so secure. Children and teens are responsive to adults who truly show sincere care and love towards them. I know; I have taught in urban schools for years. I have students who seemingly would have been considered hopeless who are now doctors, lawyers, professional football players with a college degree I my add and a host of other professions. LAUSD teachers need to stop thinking of themselves and just care about the charges in which they are required to teach. You will get your money and you will get your taxes straight. Yes, it is a hassle, but heah, that is what happened when the former supt. failed to implement your payroll effectively. You live in America and in most cases we all try to be fair and eventually things will work out. An urban teacher that is tired of the mess in LA Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 3:48 pm by Samatha

Rhonda again--- I reread my comments and realized that I made a few typos. I would not want another respondent to say that urban teachers cannot correct themselves. Yes,I will admit, I wrote in haste and did not check accordingly before sending the post. As my students say, "my bad." Now for my corrections. The word "thought" should have been through. One sentence should have read, "Why do we have students in LAUSD still..." I had a sentence fragment in one sentence. That sentence should have expressed, " It is the teacher who does not listen or enroll in such money making programs that will have the financial problems in the future." The word "gaul" should have been spelled gall and I wrote "know" when it should have been "now." If I missed others, I am sorry, but I just want readers to at least understand that urban teachers are great, but must be stimulated and motivated in their workplaces if they expect to get what they so justly deserve. Rhonda Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 4:32 pm by RhondaB

To the writer of this article: Perhaps you should do more research about the district and the new approaches that Brewer is initiating to help restructure and organize a poorly structured organization before you write such an article against him. Again, you are part of the problem and not the solution. I am sure that wherever you attended school, your professors should have taught you the power of the press and your influence. Again, I ask you, are you out to destroy every superintendent that comes to your city? I most definitely am a supporter of free speech but to bash a man's character without truly knowing him is just wrong. It is my experience in reading other fine major US papers that the reporters stick to the facts of the initiatives of the supt and not so much his character. And you know for a fact that Brewer is not just sitting in his 24th floor office enjoying the view. Get real! A good reporter would at least stick to the facts of what he is doing to make LAUSD better or not. If Brewer is having moral issues or just a sleaze ball criminal, I see no need for all the comments about his character, his salary, and clothes. You know for a fact that several supts in this country make as much or more than he. Many have done less for the districts that hired them and many have done far more than what their predecessors have done, but again they must get paid. Is it because he is African American and the people of this town just can't have a public figure like him make such a salary? Well, I strongly suggest you take that up with the board that hired him and give this a rest. Do you really think he is going to do this for free?For God's sake, the man spent over 30 years protecting you and others for the right to write your article. Believe it or not, not all people in LA want to be in that population of a movie star. You all need to learn to divide your segments of your diverse population. Trust me, I have met Brewer and he is not into that Hollywood crap. My belief is that he is in the camera to attempt the best he can the negative commentary that you and your colleagues continue to do at record pace. I have never in my life seen such a display of coverage on a superintendent of schools. You know that approximately 3% or less of this 300 million people in America would consider this job; the rest I guess have sense enough not to take on your bully behavior. At least you have to give Brewer and the ones before and after him to at least attempt to educate children. If not, you know what will happen to your city. If not, live long enough and you will see. It want be pretty. Be thankful he had the fortitude and the passion to take this brutal city on. You should at least provide the readers with all that is necessary to make a fair and balanced article concerning what Brewer is doing and not so much about what you perceive his character to be. It appears that you are out for Brewer. If so, just come on out and say it and perhaps you and the likes of you can fine someone in this great big country to take the heat that this man has taken from a city that claims the moniker of city of angels. Let me be frank, it appears more like the city of demons. If you and your colleagues want to continue to build a reputation as such, great! I guess you and your cohorts understand that as long as you know that you can get out of hell, you will continue. However, you don't give a care about the others, namely the students. It is my belief that a good or bad superintendent’s intent is always to take care of the children. It is when he or she gets off track that the press should gently remind him or her and not attack. In my estimation, I am still waiting to see if this city truly cares about educating children or are they just in this to talk and critique. Funny, the same talk and writing you do, you turn right back around and accuse Brewer. Interesting. I guess Hollywood news can get old and things never change in the city of.... Saddened Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 5:32 pm by Saddened

First of all, who in their right mind would want to take on this job as superintendent of LAUSD? The citizens of LA should be thankful that Brewer even took the job. I’ve read the press on your past superintendents and those articles were not so kind to them either. However, I do believe you are on a witch hunt to run Brewer out as well as attack his character. This is awful. If the board members wanted someone else, and I mean a Latino, they should have continued to look for one. I don’t think the admiral necessarily wanted this on his plate unless he truly felt he could make a difference. Your continuous attacks are unfair. He no doubt realizes he had a mission, but the constant attacks are unnecessary and I wouldn’t be surprise if he told you all to go where the sun does not shine. Look, the man inherited a payroll system that Romer failed to implement properly. I have heard about how other school systems that purchase new software test it before running it. Obviously, Romer’s administration failed to do this. Brewer walks in on it and you people think that all should be done overnight. At least the admiral is a gentleman and has not blamed his predecessor for this. And, when contacted by you, Romer had no comment either way. Way to go Romer!!! However, from my estimation, Brewer is getting the corrections straight as quickly as anyone can. Of course, anyone in their right mind knows they have to pay people! You don’t have to run the comparison of working at Wal-Mart. Only someone in some lawless country would think they could and would get away with such labor practices. I don’t think even a military officer would be that cold. Again, what else do you expect him to do? He spends money to correct something and you continue to scream. If he did not spend money to correct it, you still would scream. Come on people. Work with the district. I know this district has a bad name and obviously the press wants to continue blasting it to sell papers. But again, the people you claim so much concern about, the students, continue to lose with this constant bad press and finger pointing. Please, just stop it. A concerned educator Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007, at 6:41 pm by barbara

I commend the article for getting the math issue correct. For some reason the upper echelons of LAUSD believe in embracing every fad in math teaching, however doubtful. The "experts" don't recognize that there is a place for good traditional math teaching. The student does need to bring good work habits and a good attitude to the equation, and the district does not stress this. Posted on Wednesday, January 2, at 3:14 pm by Herb

I honestly think that most, if not all, of the people that are defending Brewer in this comments section are actually Brewers' bureaucrat underlings (notice the shrill, defensive tone)posting comments from their overpriced, overstaffed downtown palace headquarters with nothing better to do (notice the length of these comments) until the next payroll screw-up (due Jan. 5). No real teacher could possibly defend his "accomplishments" because there are none. All talk, all form over substance, and now he's hiring a PR firm to help him craft an image of competence and effectiveness. Think about it for two seconds... a navy admiral for a district superintendent?!! How about a former teacher of the year on a battleship?!! Posted on Wednesday, January 2, at 10:06 pm by VNHS Teacher

VNHS teacher, If you cannot say that your students are passing a basic assessment at 90% proficiency, I don't think your "accomplishments" are all that either. Challenge me and try it. You may realize that then you have earned your paycheck be you paid, overpaid or underpaid. You know that Brewer did not implement this pay system. He along with his staff are working overtime to pay you and the likes of you. Anyway, if you want to blame someone, blame the previous adminstration. It's done and all are trying to fix it. A teacher who is not a Brewer underling Posted on Thursday, January 3, at 6:37 am by Guess again

VNHS teacher, FYI, I am not one of the bureacratic underlings in an overpriced downtown palace job. You see, as a teacher as you claim to be, your analysis and guess work about this matter are all wrong. My hope is that you do not teach or prepare your students with false suppositions and shaky analysis. I can only imagine that your anger and negativity truly does prepare your students to be productive citizens. Please! Get a life! another teacher Posted on Thursday, January 3, at 6:37 am by Guess again

WOW! Posted on Thursday, January 3, at 12:10 pm by B 4

I don't know enough about LAUSD to comment in detail. The stories we've all read about the dysfunctional payroll system are pretty scary, not just in its effects on the employees, but that there wasn't enough in place to prevent the problem from occurring. I am in San Francisco and endured Arlene Ackerman's tenure as Superintendent here so I don't accept the notion of Ackerman as guru, except a fraudulent one. She was autocratic, self-righteous, self-aggrandizing, arrogant, and incompetent. Her real concerns were with loyalty over competence, and show over substance. She drove out anyone who wouldn't swoon at her pronouncements. She and her minions are race-baiters from the start. Its unfortunate that anyone would see her as a competent advisor. She was so awful that her supporters on the school board were at best, embarrassed by her. The consultants made money, as they often do. It seems inappropriate for an advisor to complain that the person they're advising isn't taking their direction - and where's the loyalty and solidarity there in talking to the press in that? Ackerman's appeal was that she blamed educators for under-performing students. No one else need worry about their role or responsibility. Her prescription was to replace the teachers that they didn't like with new hires they liked better, even though many hired in those circumstances were less prepared and committed than those they replaced; to have a longer school day; Saturday schools that fell apart within weeks; and school uniforms. That was supposed to transform the world. It didn't and its silly to think that it would. Its a much more complicated problem. Education is not unaffected by the factors of race, ethnicity and poverty. California spends substantially less per child than most other states. It has more students to teachers and fewer resources. Students' parents don't uniformly value and support education. The federal laws that value test results over everything all but dictate scripted learning and do leave many kids behind. There is no magic bullet. Posted on Thursday, January 3, at 5:39 pm by Eric

Brewer has a military mentality with no clue about education reform or management. The school board has to take the blame for hiring this "procurement officer". Whose fault is it? What brain dead LAUSD school board members decided to hire this Admiral? Where did they think that this district would come up with the money to pay such an inexperienced person. Too bad my cousin who works for the auto industry wasn't picked...has as much brains as Brewer! What a disaster we are in...I'm almost embarrassed to be a teacher in the LAUSD system! Posted on Thursday, January 3, at 7:30 pm by JOHN CLIFFORD

John C You are absolutely correct; you should be embarrassed to be a teacher in LAUSD! I have witnessed some of your teachers in action and they are the most unprofessional and unprepared "teachers" I have ever seen in the country. I was quite shocked. As far as your opinion about the admiral is concerned, if you have not met him, I would not be so hasty to judge him to be brainless. Now if you think that military officers are clueless about educational reform, think again. Brewer was responsibile for re-educating the same students that you and your other colleagues in the country failed to teach. Let's not talk about all your community colleges in CA which are flooded with students in math and English developmental classes. Many barely can read and CA has the most community colleges in the country. So if Brewer is brainless, what in the world are you teacher? You say he cannot manage this district, from what I see, the average teacher and that includes you, can't manage and teach your students on a daily basis. Yeah, you are so right about your assessment; you should be ashamed to be a teacher. Unfortunate for the children, you and the likes of you have a union who will protect you when you have such an attitude about teacher or your failure to not teach. This is shameful. So in short, why don't you leave this profession. Let's see who would hire a teacher with your great attitude. Rhonda Posted on Friday, January 4, at 6:12 am by Anonymous Coward

I have taught in urban and suburban school districts for over 30 years. The problem I see with most urban districts, including Los Angeles, is that the central offices do not have the appropriate infrastructure to support student achievement for the success of all their local schools and for their teachers to effectively teach knowing that they have an efficient central office to support them. I do believe this is part of Brewer’s vision. In addition, parents do not participate in their children’s education and so many of the teachers in urban districts are not qualified or well trained to teach this diverse group of students. I am not telling you anything new. If you are current, you know that all educational journals are always claiming that the poorest teachers are relegated to the urban schools. I know that is shocking and a very bold statement, but heah, it is factual and researched based. Many principals who lead their schools as Instructional leaders are met by teachers who often feel so empowered to bash them even though they cannot collectively get their students to proficiency on standardized tests. As I view these posts, many commentators are constantly talking about the superintendent’s salary and the people in the palace, “his underlings.” However, those people can lose their jobs, yet teachers can retain theirs because of the union. Again, do you have to be constantly reminded that incompetence is not enough to get rid of a teacher? It often appears praised and acceptable. It would take a teacher to molest students or kill someone before they are removed, but that is another conversation. My belief is that if teachers are teaching and students are learning, it really does not matter who your superintendent is. The superintendent’s job is to make your life better that is, he is to solicit support from the community and businesses to ensure your success, find the appropriate resources to make your work situation better be it a new curriculum or a new way of instructing. However, it appears that what I am reading in the press and the voices of so many UTLA teachers is that they are all focused on what Brewer is doing and his personal self and not what the front line people are doing, meaning the teachers. Have you ever thought about being accountable to yourselves? You know that superintendents come and go every 3 or 4 years. I have heard your cynical comments, “I just wait until another one arrives.” In short, you gear up for the next one to denigrate. And LAUSD and all other urban school districts have the same dismal academic results and teachers still continue to bash any leader that comes into place. I ask you, what are you doing that is so great and Brewer is doing so wrong? From the looks of things, your constant bickering over the years have not changed the bottom line, student achievement or a better working environment. Again, I beg the teachers and the press in LA and LAUSD to allow the current superintendent to do his job and all of you do yours. Let the politics go and perhaps if all who are involved would do what they are suppose to do, they would be totally shocked as to how our students would perform and finally teachers would gain the respect they so richly deserve. But as a reflection, it is my belief that when all chips were down, educators followed the old coined phrase, “When you cannot find a job, teach.” How many parents told their off to college children to take something in education just for the back up plan? You know what I am talking about. Remember, historically teachers could be anyone that the school districts found off the streets. In essence, teachers could be vagabonds and/or an older child who taught younger students. In addition, a teacher probably did not complete high school, yet alone college. And if you will remember from your educational classes, not too many colleges granted bachelor degrees until the beginning of the 20th century. Schools that prepared teachers were called Normal Schools and the training was at best a year or two and mediocre at that. They could not prepare teachers effectively for the recent 19th century immigrants who came to this country. Yes, teachers at that time too were suffering from the xenophobic attitudes that we continue to see in the 21st century in which so many teachers impose on our Latino and black students. And yes, even today, these teachers are still complaining about this problem of how these students are not capable of being educated or the worse, they fear them. They continue to disregard all the current research that has proven to be successful in teaching these students they claim are so hard to reach and yet fail to embrace or attend professional development classes that would improve their teaching skills to best serve their students. These students deserve the best education with teachers who are well prepared to do whatever is necessary to reach them; failure should not be an option. That is why you have a movement afoot in this country to recruit individuals who have proven themselves in other professions and are open-minded to change and are more optimistic and not jaded by the current establishment of educators. If educators do not begin to understand that they must do their jobs effectively in LAUSD or any other place for that matter, it really does not matter if you had JESUS, BUDDA or ALLAH leading you. You must do what you are contracted to do. One person, meaning the superintendent, cannot affect over 35, 000 people in a classroom if when the doors of your classroom closes, teachers do what they want anyway. Again, I ask, what are you doing and how are you holding yourselves accountable? I do believe that is part of Brewer’s plan, accountability. Are you just nervous because you have not been accountable for your work in the past? It is my understanding that LAUSD just recently had a national summit in which the main topic was how to best educate Latino and black students. The majority of this district is comprised of low performing students. (Read the test results and the success or failure of your graduates or the drop out rates). I think this was an extremely positive move by the district to have such a conference in order to move the district in a positive way to best serve this often overlooked student population that just so happens to be the vast majority of your students. If teachers’ embrace what was discussed at this conferences that has been researched and proven, they would find that their students would improve at enormous rates. Education is a strange institution. Again, nothing seems to change in it and when change comes, the entire educational community gets antsy and starts screaming. Teachers want to teach the same way they were taught and forget about the ever changing demographics in their classroom. They remain status quo and it appears that Brewer, his predecessors, and no doubt, the person who will replace him will still get the same venom from the press and the educators. Too many educators are quick to say that these interlopers cannot teach, or as the topic is for today in LA, the Admiral can’t lead. I have continued to read such descriptions as, “he is clueless, he is aloof, he is not listening, he is not a reformer, and mocking his admiral’s rank. The comments are nasty and endless, and really have no merit to his job performance. He is doing something; one year is not long enough for anyone, particularly the teachers in the classroom to see change. However, teachers in this district as well as the press have nothing else to do but to focus on this man’s person. I find that quite interesting. Again, if you are doing your job, then he could do his and make your lives better. I can’t imagine that he got as far in a clearly racist navy if he were not competent and a strong leader. The navy has yet to be inclusive with their higher ranking officers. Brewer obviously proved something to them and if you would give him a modicum of a chance, he may prove something to you as well and your lives would become richer for it. What constantly amazes me is the press and his many critics fail to realize that LAUSD has not been successful overall in the last 30- 40 years. You have had several superintendents and your results are still dismal. If teachers and principals were highly effectively in both urban and suburban districts, but particular urban schools, this country would not have to contend with No Child Left Behind, charter schools, and the flight of middle class families to private schools. I contend that if an educator does what he or she is suppose to do, he or she should not feel intimidated by some state’s basic assessment. In short, the student should be able to pass it with proficiency. Any job, be it professional or not, has to take some assessment as part of the job description. Did teachers in this state not have to take the Praxis or the CBEST? Maybe not. Many teachers probably escaped these mandates. Oh well... The CST is a mandated test put forth by the state. I keep hearing teachers in this district say they do not want to teach to the test or have a scripted lesson. Actually, teachers do not have to teach to the test. All they have to do is teach to the standards. Again, the test is not that difficult. I say again, if educators are doing what they were suppose to do, the students would be able to pass the assessments, I would not have to write this comment, and we would not have this continuous and insane dialogue about our current, past and future superintendents. I often told my urban students that I wanted them to have the same curriculum and exposure as my former suburban students or the students attending the elite private schools. Guess what, I did and they acted accordingly and met the challenge quite beautifully. I know this is long and as one commentator said that he thought that some other long comments came from LAUSDs “underlings” of Brewer. I am not that nor do I feel this man would refer to his staff as underlings, but anyway, I would like to close with saying that in order to move LAUSD or any other urban district forward, people who are assigned their jobs, must do them as best they can and keep themselves current in the best educational practices. If not, educators and the entire educational community will fail students again and America will lose its edge globally and economically. I do not think we want that. Life would be something else. A teacher who is fed up with educational practices and politics Posted on Friday, January 4, at 5:33 pm by Fed up teacher

What would Pete Carroll do? Posted on Saturday, January 5, at 9:54 pm by disgruntled

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Grief! Seems I've struck a nerve. Maybe truth hurts. The reality is teaching is a hard profession...if you care. Most people don't understand that because they have never taught or have done it for a few days, weeks, months or years. Or they've watched enough TV to think it's something they can do. It's a lot more than meets the eye and only an experienced teacher can really appreciate that. The day to day challenges of meeting students' needs is hard enough and, if you care, it's exceptionally demanding. I won't pretend to be an outstanding teacher. I think I do OK. My administration and my colleagues are pleased with me. I'm acknowledged as a hard worker and effective teacher, but there is always room for improvement and the mission of an educator puts natural psychological pressure (though a good one- with purpose) to always improve and do more because the stakes are high, I do impact the future of many young lives. That's important, it's something worth caring about. Most teachers, quite naturally, feel this way. But all that effort too often feels for naught because too many people cannot appreciate what is involved. All too many administrators forget the reality of the classroom and the challenges. Many escaped the classroom because they couldn't do it well, or even those that were good teachers tend to forget that reality. Administrators, unfortunately, all too often are intermediaries between the public and teachers and struggle with the reality of meeting all the disparate and sometimes conflicting interests. Having the strength of focus and mission necessary to accomplish the district's needs is not a task I underestimate, but I honestly don't see that kind of leadership from the present superintendent. For teachers (real ones, not the impersonators) how he has handled the payroll issue is weak, at best. Few people grasp the gravity of this debacle. The teachers' union should have done more, too, no doubt about it, but, regardless of who is responsible for its implementation, we are going on a year with this mess and they are just throwing more money at it. I can't even tell that the superintendent is that disgruntled. We should all be going after DeLoitte with a vengeance. Teachers' pay has been messed with and the response has been lackluster, at best. It's emblematic of the lack of respect the district has for teachers. They too often think teachers deserve anything that comes their way because they have not moved "up" and out of the classroom such as they have. Good teachers all to often think about getting out of the classroom. I've thought about it too much myself. The mission is a good one and important as I've said and I just keep hoping the situation, generally, will improve and teachers are respected and supported as would seem fit for the democratic and technologically advanced nation that we live in. For all the talk of incompetent teachers, the reality is that it is not that common. Definitely something should be done about it, but the teaching profession and all the good teachers (the majority) and the exceptional teachers suffer the negative characterization placed on all their good efforts. Teachers are there, on the front lines, and most of us know what is necessary to achieve academic and developmental success for our students, but we are typically disregarded by an entrenched bureaucracy that generates often dubious and unproven reforms and ignores some of the more elemental needs of teachers and students: adequate resources, parental and student accountability on attendance and discipline issues, and allowing teachers the time to collaborate and develop their own professional development instead of being subject to the whims of the academic mills that generate these dubious reforms. Sorry I won't be able to respond to any more attacks, but I'll be going back to the classroom tomorrow so I'll be too busy. As the kids might say: Peace. Out. Posted on Sunday, January 6, at 2:28 pm by VNHS Teacher

Happy New Year Patrick: FYI...Thought you might enjoy reading this article in the LA Watts Times. Click Here: Check out "Adult Education: The Answer to LA’s Education Crisis?" Best regards, Howard Ransom Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center (310) 628-3621 Posted on Sunday, January 6, at 3:53 pm by Howard Ransom

VNHS Teacher, I know that the human curiosity will lead you back to this forum in which technology has led. I must say, I appreicate your reflection and I also understand you anger concerning teachers as well as the payroll debacle. Believe it or not there are other school systems suffering the same situation that LAUSD is suffering in terms of the pay system. It is my belief and from what I have heard is that the payroll system was purchased on the cheap. In short, you don't buy a Chevy expecting it to be a Bentley. However, that was in essence what happened. In addition, the payroll system was not mocked tested before it was rolled out. Again, the administration should have run this current system with the old one before launching it to see where the problems existed. I think you are wrong that the current superintendent does not worry about this. He for God's sake is married to a teacher and comes from a long line of them. I suspect he could not attend family gatherings if he did not work extremely hard to get this straight. I suspsect that the entire process was not negotiated correctly and he is held accountable for it. I have met this man, and he is just as worried and concerned as anyone could be. His character is one of coolness- a trait I think is necessary for all that goes on in LAUSD.Anyway, there are more things involved that what the general population knows about all this. No one with a modicum of sense would not pay the biggest payroll. For you to feel that teachers are disrepsected in this district is something that has been created and well established before the current superintendent even entered. I have met this man, and all that you have stated in your post is on his agenda. You must realize that in order to make your life better, many other steps must be taken to get to you. Great school districts that run like clock work have a supportive central office and caring administrators and staff. Teachers should not have to be so political and discontent if things are going as they should. I do hope you will give the current superintendent a chance to do what he has to do to make your work situation better. Rome was not built in one day and Brewer or anyone else can't change an organizational structure that is broken and as bad as LAUSD is overnight. I know patience is a virtue but I do believe this man is aware of your concerns as well as the other teachers in the district. Hang in there; if this man stays, you will be totally surprised as to what can happen. Perhaps his methods of implementation are so different to this school system that many, such as yourself cannot determine that change is coming for the better. I do realize that change is difficult but if you stay the course and continue to be the great teacher you profess to be, it truly should not matter who your superintendent is. Again, I agree with the other poster in which they said, a true job of the superintendent is to meet and greet community, civic and business leaders as well as make the teachers' lives better. In this case, I do believe he has so much mess from the past in addition to trying to get teachers' lives bettter that unfortunately you can't see change yet. However, in my deepest of hearts I do believe you and all of us in LAUSD will. Like your students say, Peace Out. Good Luck in getting your students to proficiency. Do that and the educational community would not have to bother about reforms and anything else for that matter. Guess Again Posted on Sunday, January 6, at 5:27 pm by Guess Again

Guess Again. For the record, I only claimed to be an "OK" teacher although I do aspire to be much more. Nonetheless, I appreciate your elevation of my self-assessment. Good luck to you, too. Posted on Sunday, January 6, at 8:29 pm by VNHS Teacher

I do believe there is hope with the adult education program. I would love to monitor your continued progress. I will stay on the press for other positive comments. Rhonda Posted on Monday, January 7, at 3:22 am by Rhonda

--Mig 17:34, 14 January 2008 (UTC)