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“There are some of you ... you didn’t go to school here for high school because you didn’t think our high schools then were good enough to go to,” Brawley told the outdoor audience of more than 300.

In terms of increasing test scores, data support Brawley’s claims.

Stable leadership also could be a factor for Compton: Brawley joined the school system as superintendent in 2012 after leading school-turnaround efforts as a deputy superintendent in Adelanto.

“When I first got here,” Brawley said, “every surrounding district was kicking our tail, whether it was Lynwood, Paramount, L.A. Unified, Bellflower — you name it. They were all outperforming us. So we began literally bench-marking their performance so that our performance would become better. And we started establishing smart goals to produce better results.”

“We wanted Compton Unified to become one of the best districts that we could within the districts that we benchmark ourselves against,” Brawley said.