Press
May 15, 2012
Michelle Rhee, 'Parent Trigger' Supporters Are Behind Huge L.A. Lawsuit to Strip Teachers of Job Protection
By Simone Wilson
(From LA Weekly, May 15th 2012)
Update: Rhee herself and Parent Revolution didn't file the lawsuit -- they're just on the plaintiff's advisory board. Clarifications throughout.
California's teachers have long been protected by a series of state laws -- lobbied into existence by powerful teachers unions -- that make the ineffective ones almost impossible to fire.
Now, in the largest state lawsuit of kind, a new organization called Students Matter, advised by the key players behind the controversial "Parent Trigger" law, alleges in L.A. Superior Court that strict tenure and seniority rules are ruining the K-12 system:
"These laws force school administrators to grant new teachers 'permanent employment' after only 18 months on the job -- well before the teachers' effectiveness can be determined -- and force school administrators to keep teachers in the classroom long after they have demonstrated themselves to be grossly ineffective."
Spokespeople for both the California Teachers Association and United Teachers Los Angeles tell LA Weekly that they're still reviewing the lawsuit, and won't be commenting at this time.
But the suit is likely throwing union offices into a tizzy today. It would be a huge blow to their clients, and would essentially strip cushy union contracts of all that makes them so cush. Union executives have worked long and hard to make California's teachers so untouchable, and this legal attack seeks to unravel all their hard work. See: "LAUSD's Dance of the Lemons."
Suit seeks to overturn 'outdated' teacher job protections
(From The Los Angeles Times, May 15th 2012)
A nonprofit backed partly by organizations known for battling teachers unions has filed litigation challenging the constitutionality of California laws that make it more difficult to fire or lay off ineffective teachers.
The suit, filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court and announced Tuesday, takes aim at five California statutes that govern teacher tenure rules, seniority protections and the teacher dismissal process.
“A handful of outdated laws passed by the California Legislature are preventing school administrators from maintaining or improving the quality of our public educational system,” the lawsuit says.
The group behind the legal action is called Students Matter, a newly formed nonprofit that defines its mission as changing “outdated and harmful state laws that prevent the recruitment, support and retention of effective teachers.”
In its complaint, the suit contends that teachers can earn tenure protections too quickly -- in 18 months -- well before their fitness for long-term employment can be determined. The suit also seeks to invalidate the practice of laying off less-experienced teachers first, rather than keeping the best teachers. And the suit takes aim at a dismissal process that, it claims, is too costly, too lengthy and typically results in ineffective teachers holding on to their jobs.
Teacher unions have defended tenure, seniority and dismissal rules as important and frequently necessary job protections. They've insisted the problems in education lie elsewhere, such as in funding levels that have dropped in California.
Continue reading "Suit seeks to overturn 'outdated' teacher job protections"....
May 10, 2012
Parents understand an 'A,' but what about a 'yellow' on a school report card?
By Dave Murray
(From MLive, May 10th, 2012)
LANSING, MI - Parents might know what an A means when they see it on a report card, but what if their school was graded “blue?”
The state Education Department is backing away from its plan to grade schools using three colors -- red, yellow and green -- to one that would use five colors, saying it would be more helpful to parents.
But several education advocacy groups say the new plan is better than the “traffic light,” but still falls short of a report card system they said works well in other states and gives parents a clear indication of a school’s progress.
“We're glad to hear about the five categories -- a big improvement for the new public reporting system,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust -Midwest. “We still think parents intuitively understand an A to F system better than a color system. For example, what does "yellow" mean to a parent in terms of school quality?”
The color-coded plan also contradicts the recommendation from a new legislative education quality work group, which has called for a report card as one of several proposed reforms.
The ranking system is part of the state Education Department’s application to the federal government to waive No Child Left Behind requirements, which aimed for having all students become proficient in key subjects by 2014.
State is making changes to add clarity to school ratings system
By Lori Higgins
(From Detroit Free Press, May 10th, 2012)
Parents would get clearer information about the quality of schools under a change state officials are making to revamp the school report card system.
The Michigan Department of Education, as part of a request to waive some of the rules of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, had planned to create scorecards for each school that would assign green, yellow or red ratings based on how well the schools met academic goals.
But under that system, most schools would be rated yellow -- meaning they had met most of the goals, but not all. And a coalition of groups said in a letter to state Superintendent Mike Flanagan last week that most schools in urban areas such as Detroit would receive red ratings, meaning they hadn't met most or any of the goals.
"This ... would give parents little to no differentiated, understandable information by which to make high-quality, thoughtful school placement decisions for their children," the coalition said in the letter.
The state is listening. Flanagan said during a State Board of Education meeting Tuesday that, in response to feedback, the state will move to a five-tiered rating system, rather than a three-tiered system.
Two more colors would better delineate schools and districts, provide more clarity and "help parents make an informed choice," MDE spokeswoman Jan Ellis said.
Shaton Berry of Warren, president of the Michigan PTA, said a five-rating system might help with distinguishing "what the differences are" among schools.
Continue reading "State is making changes to add clarity to school ratings system "....
May 9, 2012
The UFT's latest junk lawsuit
Fighting school closures, the kids be damned
By Joe Williams
(From New York Daily News, May 9th, 2012)
It’s springtime in the city, which means that once again the leaves are budding, the Yankees are trying to figure out some pitching issues and the United Federation of Teachers is filing another questionable lawsuit seeking to block Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Dennis Walcott from managing the city’s 1.1 million-student public school system.
The annual rite of passage for the UFT’s lawyers shares the same goal that similar lawsuits have had in the last few years: to gum up City Hall’s push to simultaneously reduce the number of bad schools in the city while increasing the number of good schools available to families.
For the sake of public education in the city, this case needs to be tossed on the scrap heap alongside last year’s baseless UFT/NAACP suit, which sought to block the opening of many charter schools.
The new UFT lawsuit (the city’s principals union is also a plaintiff) seeks to stop the city from closing two dozen persistently failing public schools and from replacing up to half of the schools’ staff as part of sweeping turnaround efforts citywide.
But the ironies are thick — and reveal just how intellectually dishonest the union is prepared to be in order to stymie reform.
After months of unsuccessfully trying to halt the closures, after falsely complaining that the city’s sole education policy boils down to closing schools, the UFT’s lawyers are suddenly shifting gears.
The lawsuit filed Monday argues that what the city is doing isn’t actually closing schools at all, and therefore — based on the teachers’ contract — these schools ought to still be run according to a host of contractual rules and procedures that don’t give the chancellor power to do much of anything.
Continue reading "The UFT's latest junk lawsuit"....
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