By RiShawn Biddle
(From Dropout Nation, June 11th, 2012)
Since last October, Dropout Nation has reported on the efforts of Southern California families led byactivist Alice Callaghan (with backing from the school reform group EdVoice) against the Los Angeles Unified School District, charging that the district had continually violated its obligations under the state’s Stull Act to adequately evaluate teachers and demanding the district to reform its teacher evaluation system. Since then, the Callaghan families have been joined by City of Angels Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (who has filed a friend-of-the-court brief also pushing for the district to fully comply with the Stull Act and revamp its teacher and principal performance management systems) and has gotten covert support from the district’s superintendent, John Deasy (who is engaged in his own battle with the American Federation of Teachers’ Tinseltown local over revamping how the district pays teachers and manages its performance).
By the end of this week, the Callaghan families may get some results. Today, L.A. Superior Court Judge James Chalfant handed down a preliminary ruling requiring the district to begin using student performance data in its teacher evaluations. Agreeing with the plaintiffs that L.A. Unified “does not currently comply” with California’s Stull Act an Chalfant is likely to grant their petition for declaratory relief, allowing the district to use the Golden State’s battery of standardized tests in determining how well its veteran and newly-hired instructors are doing in improving student achievement and providing kids with nurturing-yet-challenging learning environments. Chalfant also agreed with the Callaghan families that principals and other school leaders were subject to the Stull Act, meaning that the district had to evaluate their performance as well.
Read the full post here.