In the wake of a top-to-bottom review that harshly portrays the Los Angeles school system as inefficient and ineffective, Supt. David L. Brewer on Friday promised to quickly bring in outside experts, hire a chief academic officer and elevate almost all schools to academic success by 2013.
Using unsparing language, the sweeping analysis of the Los Angeles Unified School District by a consulting firm highlights serious shortcomings in instruction and fiscal management in the nation's second-largest district.
After becoming schools chief in November, retired Navy vice admiral Brewer called for the report to learn what was working and what wasn't, and to create a road map toward reforming the mammoth district with its roughly 78,000 employees, 700,000 students and $11-billion total annual budget.
The 115-page report -- based on previously conducted audits and analyses as well as interviews with more than 100 district employees -- describes an operation beset by an almost complete lack of accountability or consequences for poor performance, running from the most senior staff to school principals. Job descriptions are often unclear and evaluations rarely pegged to improved district performance, while communication among various corners of the organization is muddled or nonexistent, the report found.
"The most apparent and inhibiting deficit standing in the way of instructional coherence in LAUSD today is a lack of accountability," said the report by Florida-based Evergreen Solutions. "Currently, directives are given but few, if any, consequences are enforced for noncompliance."
Perhaps the overriding message in the report is that past recommendations, made in one study after another, have rarely moved from paper to reality. In an interview, Brewer promised that things would be different this time.
"We're going to set up a 21st century organization that is execution-oriented," he said. "The culture is going to change."
The first step, he said, is bringing in a temporary "transformation team" composed of outside experts who will be on the job by mid-May. Brewer said he will present his own 5-year strategic plan by June 30.
Brewer said he would initially focus on instruction "because that's our core mission. And the next thing is ... the budget. We have to make sure we get our finances and instruction properly aligned."
Permanent hires will include a chief instructional officer -- tacit acknowledgment that Brewer is not a career educator.
