In the wake of a crushing defeat for a landmark challenge to California’s teacher tenure laws, the battle for change has shifted from the courts to the state Legislature. While most parties agree that the inequities brought to light during the Vergara v. California trial must be righted, there’s a difference of opinion from those...

State lawmakers on Wednesday once again failed to amend teacher tenure laws, this time rejecting a bill that would have extended the probationary period from two to three years — even after the bill was stripped of its boldest language. The bill, AB 934, sponsored by Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord, was defeated 5-2, with two...

By Ben Austin Last month, my organization, Students Matter, issued its support of California’s AB 934 – a state bill that, though imperfect, honestly attempted to address the grave defaults in the state’s teacher tenure, dismissal and layoff laws challenged by the student plaintiffs in Vergara v. California. (A 2014 ruling in that case sided...

By Jenny Hontz  When LA School Report reported this week that 181 LAUSD staffers are currently being paid to sit around and do nothing while they are investigated for alleged misconduct, costing the district $15 million a year, school board members expressed surprise. The numbers are staggering, but it should be no surprise to anyone that...

The California Senate today approved an Assembly bill that suspends statewide testing while students acclimate to the new computer-based Common Core curriculum. The legislation now heads back to the Assembly for a final vote before it reaches Governor Jerry Brown for his signature. Sponsored by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and authored by...

LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy said today that he is uncomfortable with inconsistencies in the current version of Assembly Bill 484, which effectively kills the the state standardized tests, the so-called CSTs, and ushers in the new era of Common Core tests, to be taken on computers. “We had a unique opportunity in front of us...

A bill moving through the California State Assembly would suspend nearly all of the old standardized tests to free up money and student energy to “field test” the new computer-based Common Core assessments. But testing data from those field tests won’t be used for accountability purposes – they’ll simply be used as practice for students...