Fake Teacher Evaluation Racket Busted in Los Angeles

I didn't know this law existed – good for the LA parents for filing suit over it!

There is nothing new about unions bullying weak-kneed school districts, but this may be the mother of all abuses– for forty years, school districts and unions have collaborated to break the law in California. According to the Stull Act (Section 44660 of the state's education code), part of a teacher's evaluation is required to include a student achievement component, but this has not happened anywhere in the state. Last week, after consulting with EdVoice, a reform advocacy group in Sacramento, parents of some students in Los Angeles Unified School District sued the school district and the teachers union for what amounts to a dereliction of duty. While the lawsuit is aimed at LA, it will have state-wide ramifications.

Originally enacted in 1971, the Stull Act, named after State Senator John Stull, was amended in 1999 to include,

"The governing board of each school district shall evaluate and assess certificated employee performance as it reasonably relates to:

The progress of pupils toward the standards established pursuant to subdivision (a) and, if applicable, the state adopted academic content standards as measured by state adopted criterion referenced assessments…."

In other words, a part of a teacher's evaluation is supposed to be contingent on how well his students do on state mandated tests. This is hardly a radical notion, as half the states in the rest of the country now evaluate teachers in part by student performance on these tests.

But in California, what are laughingly referred to as "teacher evaluations" are anything but.  A "Stull" is typically a very rare and brief visit from a principal who helps plan the lesson they will observe and lets the teacher know exactly when the observation will be. And all the while, the teacher is prepping his kids to be at their absolute best when the principal steps into the classroom for the evaluation. Invariably everything goes swimmingly. So consistently good are the results of these Potemkin Village-style "evaluations" that over 99 percent of teachers get a satisfactory rating.

Teachers unions think that linking student performance to a teacher's evaluation is a grave injustice and have always fiercely opposed it.

In reality, holding a teacher accountable for student learning is about as unjust as holding a chef responsible for the food he cooks.

Still, the teachers unions' position is understandable because their unions have never demonstrated any real concern for students.

But what about the folks who sit at the other end of the bargaining table? What is the excuse for the school boards? Are they all that easily cowed by union bullies? Or are they part of a club that has forgotten their mission? Are they corrupt? Can they be ignorant of the law? Some or all of the above?

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Fake Teacher Evaluation Racket Busted in Los Angeles

By Larry Sand (Scribe) on November 8th, 2011

http://redcounty.com/content/fake-teacher-evaluation-racket-busted-los-angeles