Good day, CharterFolk.
This one was a fun one, I have to admit.
I had the chance to reconnect with my old boss, Alan Bersin, former Superintendent of San Diego City Schools and former Secretary of Education for the State of California.
The image from the YouTube video captures it well.
In addition to cracking one another up as we remembered various forms of mischief we made together, we had a serious and wide-ranging conversation about the future of urban school systems.
It’s also available on our website with a transcript.
You can find it at Spotify here, or at iTunes here.
An archive of all past CharterFolk Chats is available here.
As ever, Alan’s comments were as smart as hell, perceptive about what we need to confront, prescriptive about the challenge that teacher unions and school boards represent, and presumptive that we will summon the courage needed to advance the work.
A central frame of the conversation was his reaction to my recent post, what I got right as well as what I got wrong.
Alan was, as always, unhesitant in sharing strong views, including his belief that:
What we did demonstrate in San Diego is that you could reform an urban school district, but the asterisk is that the reform could not be sustained.
We also talked about the enormous positive changes underway in New Orleans and Indianapolis, and whether those examples are ones reform-minded superintendents should be embracing in other cities.
I shared with him some ideas from early CharterFolk posts as well, including a series in which I described Normal Street, the ironic name of San Diego Unified’s central office, as emblematic of what is happening to large urban school districts across the country.
Alan and I ended in a place of agreement. New work is needed to coalesce a shared vision for how urban school systems must evolve if they are to be prepared for the great changes coming to our Normal Streets.
My sense is that Alan’s perspective and his willingness to share candid reflections represent an important contribution to the national conversation.
Every hour I spend with Alan Bersin is an hour in which I learn a great deal. I trust you will find the same.
A final thank you to Alan.
On we go.