Opponents of the teacher tenure laws have taken to a new
tactic. Instead of trying to adopt new laws via the legislative process, the
battle is now being moved to the courtroom. Fifteen year old Beatriz Vergara is
one of nine students who have filed a lawsuit that would challenge the
employment protections currently afforded teacher in California. The outcome of
this case could have nationwide implications. Verger gave courtroom testimony
in which she stated that “three of her teachers in middle school failed to
teach or discipline students properly.” While teacher quality has been a hot
button issue in recent years, using students as pawns to change the ways
teachers are dismissed represent a new wrinkle. The fact that such a suit was
allowed to proceed got the courtroom tells us that there will be significant repercussions
whatever the outcome. If successful, other states, like Wisconsin and New
Jersey, may also take a new look at how teacher performance impacts student
achievement.
According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal,
much of the funding for the suit is being provided by entrepreneur, David
Welch, who is the founder of the Students Matter a non-profit advocacy group. One of the items at issue how teacher
seniority impacts layoffs, and how the best teachers, who don’t have the
security of tenure, get laid off first. At the present time there are 20 states
that require teacher performance evidence to be considered in tenure decisions.
In the Vergara case, Governor Jerry Brown and the state Board
of Education are the defendants. I hope that this information will help readers
to keep a “heads up” on the outcome of this case and to monitor what happens in
your own state.
c.2014 J. Margolis
No comments:
Post a Comment