Los Angeles Superintendent Austin Beutner, new to the education world, has defined himself by his first big hire. He selected Rebecca Kockler, the Louisiana Department of Education’s assistant superintendent for academic content to be his chief of staff. Like her boss, John White, Kockler is both TFA and Broadie. (For the initiated, that means they both got a little bit of teaching experience as recruits for Teach for America and are “graduates” of Eli Broad’s unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, whose “graduates” are taught top-down management, the value of closing schools and replacing them with private management, and other reformer tricks of the trade. John Thompson recently wrote a series of posts here about the dismal record of Broadies.)
Mercedes Schneider, researcher and high school teacher in Louisiana, reviews Kockler’s TFA career in TFA here, which was mysteriously absent from the LAUSD press release. Also unmentioned in the press release was her Broadie history. Mercedes knows more about the Louisiana Department of Education and its new chief of staff than LAUSD. To be fair to the person who wrote the press release, Mercedes notes that Kockler deleted her Linked In bio that describes her TFA history. But Mercedes has it.
Both the LAUSD press release and the Broad Center agree that Louisiana is one of the “fastest improving” states in the nation.
But is that true? Nope. Its NAEP scores declined significantly from 2015 to 2017.
What is especially irksome about the LAUSD press release linked above is that it refers to Louisiana’s academic standards as “a national model.” Who would look to a state that scrapes the very bottom of NAEP rankings as “a national model”? Maybe it is a model of how to fail while boasting of success. Maybe it is a model of Trumpian rhetoric that turns lemons into lemonade.
Consider this report in the New Orleans Advocate on 2017 NAEP.:
“In the latest snapshot of education achievement, scores for Louisiana public school fourth-graders plunged to or near the bottom of the nation in reading and math.
“In addition, eighth-graders finished 50th among the states and the District of Columbia in math and 48th in reading…
In 2015, fourth-graders finished 43rd in the U. S. in reading and 45th in math….
“But both scores dropped five points – to 212 and 229 out of 500 respectively – during tests administered to 2,700 students last year.
“That means fourth-grade math scores finished 51st while fourth-grade reading scores are 49th.
“The group that oversees the exams, the National Center for Education Statistics, said both drops are statistically significant.”
Why not tell the truth? Beutner hired the academic director of one of the lowest performing states in the nation, where NAEP scores fell in the latest assessment. He was impressed by her credentials in TFA, and she came highly recommended by his friend Eli Broad.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Maybe it is a model of Trumpian rhetoric that turns lemons into lemonade.
Good one.
Flat-out lies get under my skin. Mistakes I can understand. I make mistakes. I make typos. But lies? Lies that are easily revealed? Too much for me.
Yes – you can tell when someone is completely corrupt when they flat out lie. People who speak in error correct their mistakes. People who lie intentionally to deceive because a lie serves their purpose better than the truth should be called out.
It’s one of the reasons I despise Eva Moskowitz so much. I’ve never heard so many lies come out of an educator’s mouth. Her sit down interview with John Merrow and the expression on her face when he challenged her lies about how violent the African-American and Latino 5 year olds who win her lottery are (therefore “explaining” why her specially trained staff gives so many of them out of school suspensions) was very revealing. Sputtering through her lies when challenged on it.
I wish these ed reformers were challenged on their lies instead of having reporter-stenographers copying them down and then printing “the other side” as if there was no truth. Similar to how they reported Trump’s lies during the 2016 campaign.
The reason that we have these lying education reformers is the same reason we have Donald Trump. Years of the media reporting their lies without calling them out nor challenging them directly with the evidence so we can watch them sputter and squirm and look like the dishonest and greedy people that they are.
The NAACP can hold hearings and point out the problems, and the only response by ed reformers is to imply: “those African-American NAACP members are owned by the union and they would say anything to destroy charters as they are paid to do.” I have seen so many white ed reformers spouting that racist lie because it’s much easier to blame a child (if he isn’t white) than to stand up for the truth when your salary depends on the lie. Shameful bunch of folks.
It was amusing that during John Merrow’s interview with Eva on PBS, about suspending 5-year-old children, her neck and face got redder and redder.
Who can blame her for deleting her TFA bio from LinkedIn?
If I were a TFA alum, I would also be embarrassed by having worked for CFK (“Cash for Kopp”) and delete any reference to that fact.
“TFK”
Teach for Kopp
For Wendy’s pay
Yearly crop:
Four hundred K
“That means fourth-grade math scores finished 51st”
Now, now, they didnt finish 52nd!
The corporate ed. reformers have had absolute control for 13 years.
All the kids failing in Louisiana and especially New Orleans were taught by corporate ed. reform industry from DAY ONE of those kids’ schooling. Mind you, this is after those “reformers” promised they would deliver educational wonders if they were given this total control.
This manifest failure is on corporate ed reform, and no one else.
Additional failure on the part of so many politicians, union leaders/members, parents and school employees who have simply refused recognition of the behemoth coming.
Glad I’m retiring from LAUSD. Beutner rides the freight elevator at 333 S. Beaudry because he does not want to mingle with the unwashed and unwilling masses of people he’s in charge of. Let’s see how the Beatership works. Deasy had the same Beatership style. What fools. They believe their own press.
What are the ELA curriculum and “instructional materials” Beutner brags that Kockler implemented in Louisiana? In other words, what style or brand of jejune computerized test prep am I likely going to be forced to use (for a short time until I untangle myself from it) here in Los Angeles? Something scripted that even an undertrained, under-qualified, inexperienced TFAer could use? Something truly thoughtless and shallow?
Apparently it’s a secret. What we do know is that once this great curriculum was imposed, NAEP scores fell.
She was the one who wrote the GUIDEBOOKS that LA will be required to use by 2025, They are NOT researched based, or vetted in any way, and will not make public who actually wrote them….and she and John White have admitted there is no ‘good’ intervention materials out there…so all intervention students and summer school students will be taught with on level materials. How many drop outs does the LaDOE plan on accepting? The administration has said, they want all ‘for profit’ publishers out of Louisiana…I can go on…
For public school supporters in Los Angeles, this brings us back to Trump’s election. We knew then that he was a horrible choice, but I don’t think anyone could have anticipated how much worse things could get. As for Beutner, we had the same initial reaction and in less than 2 months, he showed his true colors.
You error in making the dismantling of the traditional public school system a Trump or Republican issue. The downside was put in place under Clinton’s watch and grew worse under Obama. Those charming people at CCSA, caprice Young, Broad dismantling California public schools are all strong Democrats or as one calls themself a proud ” leftist”. Making this partisan is a big mistake and creates more divisions. There is plenty of blame on both sides. This comes from 10 Years of research of education in politics.
Hiding their connections with Broad and TFA is standard operating procedure for graduates of the Broad Superintendents Academy. In Philadelphia Broad Superintendent Hite has never disclosed his Broad affiliation and the corporate media lets him get away with it. His agenda follows the standard Broad approach to education as a business and in need of privatization. Shouldn’t the public know this history?
This turns my stomach for the worse and makes me scowl.
LA completely under thumb of Broad what else is nu.
It’s kind of amusing how they all insist they’re bold “disruptors” and then they do the exact same things in each and every city they parachute into.
Of course she comes out of the ed reform pipeline. No other candidates were even considered. It’s an echo chamber. They hire and promote only fellow travelers.
I don’t think one can get a “big” job in education without strict adherence to “the movement”.
Here is a short of list of “disrupters” from history. History texts call them great conquerors. How can anyone be called “great” when all they did was cause the horrible deaths of thousands and millions of people and even more suffering for those that survived?
Napolian
Francisco Pizarro
Cyrus the Great
Julius Caesar
Attila the Hun
Alexander the Great
Genghis Khan
Hari Singh Nalwa
Just knowing these people want to be known as “disruptors” causes me to shudder considering how many people have been killed and civilizations destroyed because of history’s disruptors.
LAUSD has also dismantled their office of inspector office since April 2 top dogs left or didn’t have a contract renewed and 1 tenured inspector retired.
The foxes in the hen house will now be able to rob without impunity. Austin is a joke they brought him in to lead LA Times and was fired after 1 year for lack of performance.