A 40-Year Shame

Larry Sand with an update on the lawsuit in CA to force the state (and the unions) to follow the long-standing law saying student achievement must be part of every teacher's evaluation:

For nearly 40 years, the Los Angeles Unified School District has broken the law—and nobody seemed to notice. Now a group of parents and students are taking the district to court. On November 1, a half-dozen anonymous families working with EdVoice, a reform advocacy group in Sacramento, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the LAUSD, district superintendent John Deasy, and United Teachers Los Angeles. The lawsuit in essence accuses the district and the union of a gross dereliction of duty. According to the parents' complaint, the district and the union have violated the children's "fundamental right to basic educational equality and opportunity" by failing to comply with a section of the California Education Code known as the Stull Act. Under the 1971 law, a school district must include student achievement as part of a teacher's evaluation. Los Angeles Unified has never done so: the teachers union wouldn't allow it.

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A 40-Year Shame

A lawsuit against Los Angeles Unified School District could shake up how California evaluates teachers.

19 January 2012

Larry Sand

www.city-journal.org/2012/cjc0119ls.html