A teacher in Los Angeles has a gripe about his superintendent, John Deasy: he says Deasy is an uninspiring technocrat, not an educator. He has no educational vision. The LAUSD board recently extended Deasy’s contract to 2016, despite the fiasco in which Deasy committed to spend $1 billion on iPads while laying off arts teachers, closing libraries, increasing class sizes, and neglecting school repairs.
The teacher, whose handle in the comments is Geronimo, writes:
“Here’s my major beef with Superintendent John Deasy (and obviously there were scores of runner ups):
“Deasy has no clue what a “meaningful” education is.
“I have rarely met as uninspiring an educator in all my years of teaching. Of course one can’t even call Deasy an “educator”. He is a CEO and it was for THOSE skills he was hired for–not his ability to actually teach a class.
“The education he prescribes is antithetical to an interesting, smart and stimulating learning that thrills kids and prepares them to become true critical thinker/citizens of this country. The pedagogy of Deasy (and what gets championed by the LA Times editorial board and the unending financial and political weight of Eli Broad and Bill Gates) is all about a notion of education as a metric that can be measured.
“To say that Pearson Testing owns our country’s corporate education values is an understatement.
“There would be no iPad controversy at all if it weren’t for Pearson’s self-interested involvement or the stated need that all kids are required to take the Common Core and standardized tests on a computer. The whole system becomes a self-fulling financial/pedagogical dynamo as the Dept. of Education begins to de facto “require” states to adapt their requirements or suffer starvation for the public education system.
“In one of last year’s closely watched school board races that pitted Monica Ratliff, a fifth grade teacher, against a staff member of then Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with absolutely zero education experience, Deasy, along with all those champions of Education Reform, chose to back Ratliff’s challenger with a million dollars worth of support. In terms of credentials and qualifications it was obvious the best choice.. Deasy, however, couldn’t care less who the Reform candidate was (it could have been a horse) and, even more disgustingly, the needs of the Valley district. He wanted an empty shell to uncritically support whatever he wanted.
“That race clearly demonstrated how much Deasy and his political supporters care and respect the notion of true education. The contempt for the parents, students and community they serve was appalling. Ratliff BARELY eked out a victory that was widely applauded by the anti-reform crowd as a hopeful sign that Big Money can be beaten. Deasy and Company are keenly intelligent political animals and have learned from that race how to win the next time around.
As I mentioned before, Deasy is not an educator. Nor is Arne Duncan. Nor is Ted Mitchell. Nor is Bill Gates. Nor is Eli Broad. Nor is Barack Obama. Nor is Pearson Testing.
“They are businessmen who have been instrumental in creating a two-tier system of education.
“Yes, yes, you hear them say how much they LOVE and BELIEVE in public education all the time. Bill Gates will tell the National Board that this weekend at their annual conference.
“They’re like the wife beater who claims to “love his wife” but has to hit her so she knows how much he loves her. That much! That much! THAT MUCH!
“NOW SHUT UP!
“And then they wonder why the woman doesn’t love them back. Why she trembles when he comes in the room screaming what has to be done to get things right! How they demand to be respected as King of the House and prescribe all the ways that the woman has to “win” his love by “simply” doing this…and this and this and then this!
“What’s so hard about doing that?!?!? he bellows.
“There is nothing “mutual” in the relationship between these people and the public school system. There is nothing mutual in how Deasy commands LAUSD and the teachers and students whom he is supposed to work FOR.
“So back to the notion of a meaningful education.
“Parents and students of LAUSD: You will not get a meaningful education under John Deasy. He was not hired for that purpose. He was hired to raise test scores that these groups alone DEFINE as being “educated.” It is NOTHING LIKE the education that their kids receive. THEIR KIDS get the MEANINGFUL education and if you saw their schools, their classrooms, their opportunities, it would make you weep seeing what true education is possible of granting.
“Tough luck, LAUSD. That door is closed for you.
“Their job is NOT to provide that sort of education for you and your kids.
“Their job is to make public schools profitable on many levels and get you through so they can check you off their “success” box.
“The problems of society that appear in the public schools are not their purview Their testing is not going to change the grotesque hurdles my students face in their lives nor the ubiquitous inequality of a system that favors the Gates’, Broads’, Duncans’, Obamas’ and Deasys’ of the world. The children of all of them are going to be just fine without the pedagogy they think is essential for the students of LAUSD.
“Has anyone EVER heard John Deasy give an inspirational speech about education? All his utterances are all technocratic in spirit and design. His vision is the very definition of uncreative. Lackluster. Miserly. Limp.
“I would NEVER EVER want my own kids in a classroom taught by John Deasy..
“The children of LAUSD deserve a superintendent who has their interests at heart.
“Instead, they have a man who tells them vis a vis his financial and political backers to shut up and prove your worth by bubbling the right answer that your teacher has done their job by instructing you how to get their right answer
“And then you get your diploma.
“Congratulations. You’re Officially Educated.
“Now come in here and clean up this mess, woman!”
This is the type of leadership you get when the Bill Gates mindset is allowed to prevail.
Glad to hear a parent telling it like he/she sees it.
Geronimo is not a parent, Joanna. He is a teacher who has gone through hell due to the short sightedness and vinditiveness of how LAUSD is run under John Deasy. And he is a terrific reporter of facts.
Deasy is an odd case though because he started the century out as the superintendent of a small town district in Rhode Island. He isn’t the typical business or military guy turned urban administrator. Not that the result is any better, I’m just saying it is weird.
But look further and you find he is Broad trained, and switched coasts after much controversy regarding the fact the he received a doctorate in one semester. There were accusations of him buying his degree, and the school dean where it came from ended up resigning under multiple indictments. More than just weird.
Deasy was awarded a doctorate from the University of Louisville with only 9 units and in 4 months. He hired his mentor there as a consultant and paid him about $380,000. This mentor is now in the Federal Pen doing time for theft of millions of dollars from the university. Quid pro quo…birds of feather????
Tom…Deasy’s only teaching gig was a couple of years, long ago, at a military school, and he is definitely of the military mindset. With his Broad business model training and his Gates/Broad connections, and his dictatorial bent, he has bullied his way into another 3 year contract at ever increasing costs to the district and to the taxpayers.
He does not hesitate to use mendacity and manipulation to get his way.
Deasey’s only teaching job was for 2 or 3 years at a military academy. He taught math. Maybe that’s why he is so fixated on numbers.
An aside….
Charlotte…would love to get together and share info. Please contact me at
joiningforces4ed@aol.com
There is a CSUN meeting coming up and our colleagues need to reconnoiter.
“…..committed to spending $1 billion on iPads while laying off arts teachers, closing libraries, increasing class sizes, and neglecting school repairs.”
What comes to mind is the power of collective kicking and screaming.
Sorry I am 3000 miles away.
Your comments about the master of the house are not only well-framed, but they are supported by some first-class scholarship.
If you have not done so, read George Lakoff’s writings about the “strict father household” as a deep metaphor for all that is valued by the policy-makers in power who are claim to be defending “the nation’s children” while blaming their teachers–a majority of them women–for their failure to be sufficiently rigorous in the up-bring of children. Metaphors We Live By is the title of one of his many books.
Very well done.
I’m afraid to say that I find our Secretary of Education similarly (un)inspiring.
Does Michelle Rhee count as an educator?
Deasy was our superintendent. He spent 100 million starting thirty six initiatives never completed which are now being undone by our present admin team. He was resume building and left, as I expected of anyone with 36 initiatives. One of his handouts from a meeting was put through Turnitin.com, and got 86% borrowed. Match book PhD.
Many of the things Deasy is doing in Los Angeles, he has done at other jobs. We need a complete vetting of Deasy’s job history and his actions to show that what he is doing is not in the best interests of our community. Until he and his senior staff is put under this scrutiny, we won’t get a clear picture of the devil that we have.
His senior staff is paid for by billionaires. they are not even district employees. Deasey was quoted in the LA Times as saying to them if they didn’t agree with his decisions they “should resign now”. Everyone who works at district headquarters whom I meet, when I mention his name, they visibly shrink inward and don’t even want to talk about him. I think he has them terrorized.
Paula..talk with some of the Santa Monica teachers who suffered under Deasy as their short term Supt. They were traumatized and remember well his destructive behaviors.
Deasy has been vetted repeatedly, but when you have Eli Broad as your ‘genie’ to grant your wishes in exchange for doing his bidding, then you are in the catbird seat.
And now, as reported in the LA Times this week, another weak BoE has added about $38,000 to his salary of $340,00 (plus tens of thousands more in costly added perks) for unused vacation days. Others in the system seem not to be able to cut this new lucrative deal to get cash in lieu of vacation days.
Many teachers and staff think this is one more instance of ‘dirty pool’ and some insist that this golden perk be offered to all employees of LAUSD. And many in our district think he is again padding his resume to be given the Arne Duncan job in DC to fulfill the Broad/Gates agenda for the takeover of public education by the corporatists.
Sadly, folks, in LA there seems little ablity to organize a mass demonstration, and the BoE often only allows speakers who are in agreement with them to make public comment. They stay secluded and insular, and are not responsive to their constituency. There seems not to be the will of the people to be heard in mass numbers, perhaps due to the diversity and vast area of this city and county.
The LA Times this week did a two day editorial diatribe lauding the virtues of Common Core…it is totally on the side of Deasy and Broad.
When the district headquarters was moved several years ago when Roy Romer was superintendent, the building that was purchased was selected purposely because it sat on an island of a square block with very expensive underground parking. The sidewalk surrounding the headquarters is narrow, therefore it is very difficult to hold mass rallies at the site. The teachers’ workload is so heavy now (and the atmosphere thick with fear) is that no one has the time or energy to protest. Deasey has everyone where he wants them unfortunately.
And yet, Charlotte, on Oct. 29 last year, United Way and Parent Revolution had the permission (and collusion) of the BoE to bring many busloads of what they termed to be “the public” to the regular meeting, even though these inner city folks were a paid and orchestrated group in support of Deasy. In addition to the many yellow school buses, there were police cars and many media vans, all parked in the red zone. These demonstrators and their corporate handlers took over the entire sidewalk and a large public area in front of the building for many hours, putting on a planned photo-op demonstration to make sure that the BoE gave Deasy a new 3 year contract that day.
It worked! It often does, when you have Broad and his henchman to organize and pay for this kind of demonstration. Deep pockets wins again!
Another instance of the Golden Rule. “He (or his friends) who has the gold makes the rules”.
Here is some more background information on Deasy:
http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/2011/03/john-deasy-broad-superintendents.html
well said and extremely insightful. Have you ever checked into his doctorate?
If Deasey is a “technocrat,” I don’t want to ride in anything built with his tech.
He is a puppet and Gates is the puppeteer.
I’m not sure that his job is even to raise test scores.
Rather it is to prove the failure of traditional public schools and funnel taxpayer money into various for-profit businesses as he did with the iPad fiasco.
If a career bureaucrat did a screw up like that, wouldn’t he be fired and tarred as incompetent the rest of his life?
Deasey wasn’t fired or even particularly tainted by that because it is exactly what his wealthy backers expect him to do. His “failure” was managing the PR about that purchasing decision, not the decision itself.
Don’t forget the label of “bully,” which by his actions towards teachers Deasy richly deserves. I’m a twice certified NBCT, with other awards, who loved teaching but ran screaming out the door earlier than I’d originally planned……and not because of the kids.
John Deasy is the definition of an edubully.
One of many pieces online that can be accessed re his firing of substitute teacher Patrena Shankling for doing her job very well—and him failing to do his at all. Plus Ms. Shankling speaking.
Link: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/14/local/la-me-0414-banks-20120414
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlIuF1em_Y0
And then, of course, he sets numerical goals for others [aka the undeserving and incompetent folks under him] but when it comes to meeting his own targets—
[start quote]
Deasy set ambitious and specific targets to measure progress in the nation’s second-largest school system — and in category after category, he failed to hit his marks, even though L.A. Unified maintained a long trend of gradual improvement.
He didn’t reach goals in eight of nine academic categories measured by test scores. He also slipped behind in his targets for boosting the graduation rate and in attendance for students and teachers. He shined, however, in two categories: reducing the number of instructional days lost to suspensions and in the percentage of students who feel safe at school. …
Roosevelt High School teacher Lisa Alva, a former Deasy supporter, said, however, that the superintendent has talked consistently about data, applying it to the fates of teachers and principals. Since he failed to meet his targets, he should possibly be put on probation, she said, and questioned whether his pay should also be docked in keeping with executive practices tying pay to performance.
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” Alva said. “If we’re going to be held to standards that include test data and all kinds of metrics, so should he.”
[end quote]
Link: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lausd-deasy-20131029,0,2199450,full.story#axzz2j57NzKVh
For those under him, that would be “you’re OUTTA here!” For someone who relies on who he knows rather than what he knows, it’s coddling and a guaranteed upgrade to his job contract.
And they say that apparatchiks went out with the old Soviet Union. Obviously they haven’t checked the ranks of the leaders of the “new civil rights movement” of our time.
😎
Eli Broad is his chief puppeteer. Gates after Eli.
Mike Dixon, you hit the nail on the head.
And educreator25, his questionable doctorate has been carefully scrutinized by endless educators…and always falls short of standard higher education practice.
All LAUSD teachers here, please contact me to talk about the up-coming education forum at CSUN being planned by a colleague. There will be a panel including a representative of Parent Revolution, possibly Ben Austin himself, and it would be of benefit for us to join forces in preparing questions for Q and A.
Reach me at
joiningforces4ed@aol.com
Please pass the word along to others in teacher jail and the many still in the classrooms living in the culture of fear so we can make a united front at this forum…and elsewhere.
I learned yesterday that the Parent Revolution panelist is Gabe Rose. He is far more charming and smooth and presentable than Ben Austin. Hard to realize that he is a prime and well paid snake oil salesman.
Also learned that there will be questions allowed from the floor, not in writing. So LA teachers and parents, please get in touch with me and we can assess together the questions we want to ask. This is a good opporutnity to make our voices heard.
joiningforce4ed@aol.com
What’s most ironic about Deasy is that he leads the parade of those calling for measurement and accountability. Yet, a year ago, when more than 90 percent of LAUSD teachers indicated they were dissatisfied with his performance, he said, “So effing what?”
In addition to being an uninspired corporate heck with a bad temper, he’s a hypocrite who doesn’t practice what he preaches.
Ummn, that’s “uninspired corporate HACK,” not “heck.” Although, now that I think about it, to heck with him.