Frederick Hess, American Enterprise Institute
September 2004
At the invitation of San Diego superintendent Alan Bersin, the Council of the Great City Schools and the American Enterprise Institute teamed up to conduct an ambitious review of Bersin-era reforms in the San Diego City Schools. This has yielded 18 draft papers, a swell conference in late September, and an article in Education Week. Some of the papers are outstanding, especially those by Julian Betts (dealing with choice and accountability), Michael Usdan (school board), and Joe Williams (teachers union). San Diego is a lively and complex place, and a momentous school board election is just weeks away, on which may hinge the fate of Bersin and his dynamic, multi-faceted reform endeavors. The papers will be revised before publication, but you can access the drafts here, local coverage here, and Lynn Olsen's excellent article here.
