EdSource and the California Teachers Association conducted the online survey and released the results today.

Fewer than a third of the teachers said their districts have clear definitions of college and career readiness, according to the survey results. The survey is the first of its kind to ask for teacher attitudes and preparedness about college and career readiness for their students, which is part of the goals of the new Common Core State Standards.

“The survey demonstrates that from the teachers’ perspective, test scores are far less important than students developing the critical thinking skills they will need to succeed in college and the workplace,” said EdSource executive director Louis Freedberg. “But it is worrisome that less than a third of teachers say their districts have clear definitions of college and career readiness, and half say that college and career readiness is not fully integrated into the preparation they are receiving to implement the Common Core.”

CTA president Eric Heins added, “The survey shows that teachers support high standards for all students and clearly see a need for additional support around career readiness and creating more opportunities for students who don’t go onto college so they have the skills for 21st Century jobs.”

Respondents included only union teachers, who routinely oppose statewide tests as the chief criteria for measuring students’ academic achievement.

Among the randomly-selected teachers, nearly three-fourths say they are either “very satisfied” or “fairly satisfied” with their jobs. The survey indicates that nearly nine out of ten teachers support the Common Core, although nearly half support it with reservations.

The teachers said they needed more programs that link high school instruction with career-technical courses.

The survey saw differences in teacher attitudes depending on the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students in the schools they teach. About 58 percent of teachers in schools where one-in-four of their students are eligible for free or reduced lunches believe that college and career readiness is a “very realistic” goal.  But just 20 percent of teachers in schools where three-out-of-four students qualify for federally subsidized meals have similar attitudes.

EdSource is a nonprofit, non-partisan reporting and research organization whose mission is to inform policymakers and the public on key education challenges. CTA is the state’s largest professional employee’s organization, representing 325,000 teachers, counselors, librarians and other certified non-supervisory personnel.

The poll was conducted with support from The James Irvine Foundation.

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Judge Rolf Treu

Just in case Judge Rolf Treu might have missed anything during the two months of Vergara v. California, a battle over teacher employment protections that concluded last month, the parties filed their post-trial briefs yesterday, each making one last effort to influence Judge Treu’s decision.

At issue are five state laws that govern tenure, dismissal and seniority. Defendants want to keep them. Plaintiffs want them struck down. He now has 90 days to decide who wins.

Each side echoed the same themes from closing arguments:

“In two months of trial, Plaintiffs proved that the Challenged Statutes are creating vast and unjustified inequalities in the educational opportunities being afforded to students across California,” lawyers for the nine student-plaintiffs wrote.

“It is remarkable that after a month of testimony from twenty-two different witnesses, Plaintiffs have been unable to answer the most basic questions surrounding their theory that the Challenged Statutes cause the hiring and retention of ‘grossly ineffective’ teachers in California public schools,” said lawyers for the state.

“After a lengthy trial, Plaintiffs are entirely unable to prove their unprecedented equal protection claims,” said lawyers for the intervenors — the California Teachers Association (CTA) and the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) — who joined the state in defense.

The entire 30-plus page filings can be found here (plaintiffs), here (defense) and here (intervenors).

Elizabeth Vergara, at the press conference

As lawyers in the Vergara v. California case made their closing arguments inside the court room for the benefit of an audience of one – Judge Rolf Treu – their dueling press conferences held outside were directed at a statewide audience, to be broadcast by a number of television cameras.

The state defense team got their side of the story out first at an early morning event with the message that state laws that offer employment protections for public school teachers help California public schools “keep the American dream alive.”

Dean Vogel, president of the California Teachers Association, did not mince words.

“Outstanding teachers, award winning school administrators and the best education policy experts in the country have made it absolutely clear that the plaintiffs in this case are absolutely wrong,” he said.

Kindergarten teacher Erica Jones agreed, despite having been a victim of one of the statute’s that the plaintiffs are hoping Treu strikes down. The Last In, First Out law, or LIFO, ensures teachers with seniority are spared from the lay-off guillotine in times of district-wide reductions.

Jones said she was laid off in March 2009 as a new teacher. “I did not get this pink slip because of ineffective teachers or effective teachers,” she said. “I got this pink slip because my school and the district was incredibly under-funded.”

With no hard feelings, Jones added, “Seniority was merely an organized way to distribute the pink slips.”

Jeff Seymour, a former El Monte Superintendent who had testified for the defense, said existing laws provide stability in schools and lead to a collegial atmosphere, one in which teachers are willing to collaborate

“If we took away these vital supports, I believe that would tear that team approach apart and we would revert to almost a ‘Hunger Games’ mentality,” he said.

The plaintiffs’ press conference, held midday, before the defense presented its closing, was better attended with people from the courtroom who were there intentionally and some who “just followed the crowd,” as one person said.

They also had twice as many speakers, including one of the girls whose name — Vergara — has become short-hand for the case.

Sixteen year-old Elizabeth Vergara, self-consciously addressed the crowd — though at not quite five feet, she was hard to see over the podium.

“I never thought I’d be talking to this many reporters,” she said nervously.

Vergara says she became involved in the lawsuit because she wants to have “good teachers who inspire us.”

“But right now we’re kids and we can’t do this alone,” she said.

She went on: “It was scary telling my story to a judge but I’m glad I did. And I’m glad about my sister Beatriz and the other plaintiff’s [were able to] tell their stories, too.

Being a part of this case has given me an opportunity to stand up for my education.”

Marcellus McRae, who had just ended a one-hour, fairly note-free presentation in front of Judge Treu, took the opportunity to repeat a refrain he said inside the courtroom: “You can’t make sense out of nonsense.”

The money man behind the student plaintiffs in the lawsuit, David Welch, founder of Students Matter, a nonprofit organization, spoke briefly saying, the nine-students who have become the face of the landmark suit are surrogates for all of the children in California, everyone of whom deserves access to high quality teaching.

Russlynn Ali, a Students Matter board member and former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, said the case could have national implications.

“It’s important not just for California,” she said. “The ramifications will ripple far outside of our border. This has started a robust and needed conversation.”

Gov. Jerry Brown

Governor Jerry Brown is facing rising opposition to a bill designed to make it easier to fire teachers accused of abusing students. Critics say it doesn’t, and that could make it harder for him to justify signing it into law. The deadline for consideration is Sunday.

Over the last few weeks, school district superintendents, education groups and newspaper editorial boards across the state have expressed their concerns, pointing out what they perceive as numerous shortcomings in the measure, AB 375, authored by Joan Buchanan, a Bay Area Democrat.

Richard Carranza, Superintendent of San Francisco Unified, wrote in SF Gate, “This bill is a classic case of good intentions to protect student safety gone awry” and pleaded with the governor to veto the bill.

In a commentary for the Modesto Bee, Cindy Marks, President of the California School Boards Association, called AB 375 “deeply flawed,” saying, “I’m unaware of any school board or superintendent who has taken a position in support of the bill. It appears no one who has investigated and removed a teacher believes AB 375 is good for schools.”

Other opponents, including Students First, EdVoice and the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee concluded that the final version of AB 375 got so watered down by the time it reached the governor’s desk that the process for getting rid of teachers who may be a threat to student safety may actually be more onerous.

Their advice to Gov. Brown: A complete do-over; veto AB 375 until lawmakers can draft a better, more effective version.

Opponents of the bill say its most egregious problems are it would place a seven-month limit on the time a district has to bring a case against a teacher, a process that usually takes more than twice that long. It also prohibits the use of evidence more than four years old. It makes it more difficult to add or change charges if new information is uncovered during investigations, and it limits to five the number of witness who can testify against an accused to teacher.

In the 2012 Miramonte sex abuse scandal, in which teacher Mark Berndt was accused of lewd acts against 23 children at the Los Angeles elementary school, that would have been devastating, said state Senator Bob Huff, a Republican representing parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino Counties who voted against AB 375.

“This bill would have shut out the voices of Mark Berdnt’s victims,” he said in a speech on the senate floor. “Anyone who molests children should have no right to exclude the voices of their victims.  How can we stand here in good conscience and say that is good for students?”

Instead, he said, a bill should limit witnesses only in cases dealing with teachers being dismissed for insufficient performance.

Buchanan, whose bill is backed by the California Teachers Association as well as UTLA, told EdSource “that the opponents are spreading misinformation and waging a campaign ‘not based on facts but emotion.’”

Assembly member Das Williams, who represents Santa Barbara, agrees.

“The truth is that AB 375 is faster. It is better than the current system and it will cost less money,” he told LA School Report.

Williams said he hopes Gov. Brown approves the bill.

“I understand why people would want the bill to be even stronger but I don’t understand how vetoing the bill and having nothing is better,” Williams said. “I think that the system we have right now is obviously flawed, and we do need to take some action and this is the action that we have before us.”

There’s nothing to stop the legislature from making it better in the future, he added.

Previous Posts: Brown Urged to Veto Weakened Teacher Dismissal Bill*; Teacher Dismissal Bill: No Added Concern for Predators; LA Unified Blames ‘Cumbersome’ Law for Dismissal Delay

Assembly member Joan Buchanan

The teacher dismissal bill awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown‘s signature includes no specific language for streamlining the process of removing teachers for sexual and physical abuse, which had been the focus of earlier bills. The final version simply creates protocols to govern any dismissal case.

Brown has until Oct. 13 to sign it.

Assembly Bill 375, which passed both houses of the legislature last week, grew out of other bills, more narrowly written, that focused on teachers who posed threats to children. Those efforts, opposed by teachers unions, evolved into a wider bill that creates overall procedures with deadlines when none were in place before, prompting some lawmakers were characterizing as too long, too expensive and too cumbersome.

Sponsored by Joan Buchanan, a northern California Democrat and new chair of the Assembly’s education committee, the final version has the strong support of the unions, in part, for maintaining a three-member panel that decides a case — two teachers and an administrative law judge — and for loosening the eligibility requirements for teachers to serve on the panel.

But critics of the bill before Brown argue that it betrays the purpose of the original legislation, denying districts an explicit pathway to removing teachers accused of immoral and illegal behavior.

“For me, I see no benefit in the bill,” John Deasy, the LA Unified superintendent, told LA School Report, referring AB 375. “It neither strengthened nor weakened the current law. In other words it does not help. I look for legislation that makes it easier for districts to dismiss teaches who harm students quickly and cost effectively.”

Bill Lucia, CEO of Ed Voice, a grassroots nonprofit group, is urging Brown to veto the new law, calling it “unsafe for children” and saying it would increase “the likelihood that perpetrators will negotiate a buyout and a hall pass to inflict child abuse again in another California public school.”

Buchanan’s bill evolved from SB 1530, which was introduced last year and never made it out of an Assembly committee, thanks to a two Democrats voting against it and four abstaining — as well as heavy lobbying by the California Teachers Association.

The bill would have given school boards the authority to suspend without pay a teacher or administrator who is notified of dismissal for conduct involving sex abuse, drugs or violence toward children. It would also have given school boards, not a panel — the final authority over dismissals.

One Assembly member who abstained from the voting was Betsy Butler, who was narrowly defeated last year by Richard Bloom, the former mayor of Santa Monica.

Running as an underdog, Bloom had blasted Butler’s abstention, telling LA School Report last year: “I’ve never done that in 13 years of being a public official. I think it’s our responsibility as elected officials to register our opinions and have discourse on them. That’s what public discourse is about.”

But this time, Assemblyman Bloom abstained from AB 375, which had been held up in committee, only to resurface and reach the Assembly floor last week in the final legislative session, a time lawmakers usually scramble to approve bills before the deadline.

“AB 375 was significantly amended and passed out of one committee, then moved on to another committee where, a day before the Assembly and Senate votes, it received a favorable vote,” said Bloom. “While advocates for the measure were certainly prepared, there was virtually no time for school boards, community activists, or anyone other than insiders to evaluate and comment on the reformulated bill.”

Bloom said he scrambled to do his own research and found mixed assessments, with some calling the measure a “modest step forward,” while others told him that “limits on depositions, time constraints on investigations and other factors, would make it harder, not easier, to discipline those accused of heinous acts like child molestation.”

In the end, Bloom simply didn’t feel comfortable voting one way or the other.

“Given that neither I nor my staff had the time to independently evaluate these conflicting views I decided that I could not support the bill, but was not comfortable, at that point, in voting “No'” he said. “My abstention had the same effect as a “no” vote.

“I remain concerned that the legislature has unwittingly passed a bill that would make it more difficult to discipline a teacher like Mark Berndt.  I think that result, if accurate, is unconscionable.“

Berndt is a former third grade teacher who is awaiting trial on charges that he molested more than 20 students over five years.

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The bill awaiting Brown’s signature has unambiguously good news for a certain category of teachers in California public schools: It codifies compliance with a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision that being a member of the Communist party cannot be grounds for dismissal.

Previous posts: Richard Bloom Criticizes Betsy Butler For SB 1530 Vote; Assemblymember Bloom Opposes Teacher Dismissal Bill; Teacher Dismissal Bill Blocked Over Seven-Month Time Limit

Currently, only teachers get to vote for conversion. But the change in the law is winning support not only from the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), but also, according to a press release, the California Federation of Teachers (CFT).

It’s not everyday that those two line up on the same side of things.

AB917, which has been approved by both houses of the legislature and needs one last “concurrence” vote by the Assembly, would require charters to have a majority of all school employees – not just teachers — approve conversion.

“School workers bring a different perspective to the charter school process,” said Hilda Guzman, a Health Care Advocate at The Accelerated School, in a press release sent out by SEIU local 99. “We understand that students need quality services outside the classroom to support their success in the classroom. As an employee, I have knowledge about school operations that a parent or a teacher would not have.”

According to the CCSA, of the 1,063 charter schools in California, about 200 were formed through conversion. As an example, Locke High School, an underperforming school in south Los Angeles, was turned over to Green Dot in 2007 via the signature gathering process.

So why would CFT support it? Perhaps the the union believes AB917 would slow down the charter conversion process because so many more signatures would be required.

Indeed, Eric Premack, the Executive Director for the California Charter Schools Development Center, a non-profit that provides advocacy, training and leadership development for California charter schools, said he thinks the bill will make it “significantly more difficult” for schools to convert to charters.

“I think that classified employee labor groups will use it to block charters,” said Premack.

A spokesman for CFT called the bill “inclusive, involving all school employees, both certificated and classified as potential signatories on a charter petition at the school site where they work.” As a result, the email said, the workers “deserve to have their voices heard when their workplace is being considered for charter status.”

The CCSA said in a press release that the bill “creates a more substantive role for classified employees without adding any new burden on the charter school petitioners.”

The larger teachers union, California Teachers Association, is neutral on the bill.

Previous posts: Charter & District School Alternatives; Don’t Forget The “Teacher” Trigger; Local 99, LAUSD’s “Other” Labor Union

Courtni Pugh, the head of the SEIU local 99, which represents service workers in LAUSD, came in at #59. The paper writes: “When you think of labor politics and clout, you think of Courtni Pugh, the executive director of SEIU Local 99 who also served as SEIU’s state political director, a major gig in a state where the powerful union is embroiled in battles, and not always with outsiders.”

Maria Elena Durazo, who heads the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, an umbrella group for LA unions that includes UTLA, was ranked #9, three spots higher than last year.

Previous posts: Report: CA Teachers 6th Most Powerful; Local 99, LAUSD’s “Other” Labor Union; Big Labor Leader Gets Big Profile

What was particularly notable about the bill’s failure was the absence of the majority of the Committee’s members during the hearing and the vote.

Last week, the members had deadlocked 4-4 on the legislation, dubbed SB 441, with one abstention. This week, only three out of nine senators — Senators Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad), Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar), and Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) — voted “yes.”

The other six members of the Committee sat silently when their names were called. (Watch video of the roll call here, around the 2:59 time mark.)

The bill’s defeat comes as disappointing news to the bill’s supporters, which included education reform group StudentsFirst and LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, who has been pushing to improve the teacher evaluation system in LAUSD.

Deasy had sent a letter to SB 441’s sponsor, Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), expressing his support for the bill on April 17: “This bill will allow us to continue making refinements on the work we have been engaged in over the last four years and build upon the successes we have experienced,” Deasy wrote. (Read the full letter here.)

The empty seats at the Senate Education Committee’s May 1 hearing on SB 441. via Twitter

A bill known as SB 441 that proposes changes to California’s rules on teacher evaluations is being considered a second time today by the Senate Committee on Education today — but eight out of nine of the Committee’s members have been absent from the meeting.

Scheduling might explain at least in part of the reason why only Senator Carol Liu is present at the hearing. This is a particularly busy day in Sacramento, as the deadline for the policy committees to report fiscal bills to the Fiscal Committee is Friday, May 3.

But another possible explanation might be the controversy surrounding the proposal, which pits the state teachers unions, who oppose the proposal, against reform advocacy groups like StudentsFirst, who support it.

A week ago, the Education Committee deadlocked on the evaluation bill, which is sponsored by Senator Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), after a contentious hearing. But it decided to schedule the bill for a second hearing on Wednesday, May 1.

StudentsFirst has ratcheted up its support for SB 441 in the days leading up to the second hearing, taking out a full-page ad in the Sacramento Bee and playing radio ads on a local Sacramento station to urge approval of the measure. The group also rallied its followers with mass emails, asking them to show up at the SB 441 hearing, or to call their senators and implore them to support improving teacher evaluation measures.

The California Teachers Association has hardened its stance against the bill since last week, writing in a post on its website that SB 441 “would do nothing to provide [teachers] with the useful and effective feedback that would help them become even better teachers.”

The CTA also said the bill would “limit evaluations to four measurements,” but it did not mention that current law only offer two grades to teachers: satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Although eight of the Education Committee’s senators are absent from the hearing, the roll call for the meeting is being held off, so they should have until the end of the day today to cast their votes on the evaluation bill, if they decide to do so.

If not enough Senators are present, or if the vote is a tie between those for and against, the bill will be effectively killed.  We’ll let you know as soon as any votes or decisions are made.

Previous posts: Committee Deadlocks on Teacher Evaluation Bill; Union Re-Launches Deasy Evaluation Effort; Union Tells Teachers How to Protest Evaluations

LAUSD Supt. John Deasy Faces Performance Evaluation by Teachers Union
Barely two weeks after delivering a stinging no-confidence vote on the leadership of Superintendent John Deasy, the teachers union announced it will do a first-ever “performance evaluation” of the Los Angeles Unified chief. Daily News
See also: LA School Report

Voters Can’t Let LAUSD Seat Be Bought: Elect Monica Ratliff
For a glimpse of what’s wrong with politics in Los Angeles, look no further than the campaign to fill an open seat in the LAUSD’s northeast San Fernando Valley district. LA Daily News Editorial

Lawsuit Targets Union Fees Collected from Nonmember Teachers
A conservative organization has joined with a group of California teachers in an effort to overturn laws that allow teacher unions to collect fees from those who don’t want to be members. Los Angeles Times
See also: Bloomberg, AP

StudentsFirst Rallies Troops for California Teacher Evaluation Bill
StudentsFirst, the Sacramento-based education advocacy group headed by school reform crusader (and wife of Sacramento major Kevin Johnson) Michelle Rhee, has launched a major blitz in advance of a hearing today on Senate Bill 441, a union-opposed teacher evaluation bill that was granted reconsideration after registering a 4-4 committee vote last week, with Democrats and Republicans on both sides. The Tribune

Bill Would Overhaul Student Testing in California
A key hearing is set today for consideration of what may prove to be landmark legislation that would replace the state’s existing statewide student performance testing program with one that is designed to be taken online and is also aligned with the new common core curriculum standards. SI&A Cabinet Report

UCLA Preschool and the California Science Center Museum Help Turn Kids Into ‘Pre-Scientists’
University Village and the other two UCLA preschools are among a few in Southern California to offer science-based learning. The vocabulary and experimentation may give kids a head start in later grades. KPCC

L.A. Ninth-Grader Whips up Winning Breakfast Recipe
Her nephew likes fruit. Her brother likes eggs. And so Guadalupe Gonzales, a ninth-grader at Panorama High School in Los Angeles, put the two ingredients together in a dish that was named the top winner Tuesday in L.A. Unified’s first annual breakfast recipe contest. LA Times

Civil Rights Groups Oppose No Child Left Behind Waiver for LAUSD
A coalition of civil rights groups is opposing efforts by Los Angeles Unified and eight other school districts to get a waiver from a federal law requiring that all students be proficient in English and math by 2014. Daily News

L.A. County Rejects School Districts’ Bid to Avoid Voting Rights Suits
Los Angeles County officials rejected a bid Tuesday from several Santa Clarita Valley school districts and a water district hoping to consolidate elections and avoid the kind of voting rights lawsuits that other local governments have been hit with. LA Times

The Messy Complications of Breakfast in the Classroom
The Los Angeles Unified School District is in a period of tremendous upheaval that, it’s hoped, will result in better education for its students. With so much changing and so much at stake, of course there are more than a few daggers drawn. But when the teachers union and district administration can’t even get together over feeding hungry kids, something sick is going on. LA Times Opinion

Pre-K Funding is Delivered Another Blow
California state funding per child fell by more than than $400 compared with the previous year, and only 41% of 4-year-olds were served by public pre-K programs and Head Start in the 2011-12 school year, the institute reported. LAT

Washington and Sacramento Must End Cold War on Education
It is too late for California to get more than the sliver of Race to the Top funds it has already received. But the administration’s rejection of California’s NCLB waiver request is too important an issue to accept without further urgent efforts on both sides to reach a resolution. EdSource (opinion)

Walton Foundation Gives $8 Million to StudentsFirst
A foundation associated with the Wal-Mart family fortune has expanded its support for the education advocacy group run by former District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. LA Times

Granada Hills Honored for Record Three-Peat As Academic Decathlon Champs
To raucous cheers and the skirl of the school’s bagpipers, the nine-member Academic Decathlon team from Granada Hills Charter High School was celebrated Monday for winning its third consecutive national championship – the first such achievement for a California campus. LA Daily News

New Science Standards Hard Sell at Cash-Strapped Sylmar High School
Ronald Hitchcock has been teaching science at Sylmar High School for more than a decade. He’s seen a lot of changes, but perhaps nothing has hit the school harder than the news last fall that it lost a $3.5 million QEIA grant.  “We’re pretty cash strapped right now,” he said. KPCC

Positive School Climate Boosts Test Scores, Study Says
It’s the million-dollar question or, given the size of the California education budget, the $50-billion-dollar question: What makes extraordinarily successful schools different from other schools? The answer: school climate, according to a new study from WestEd. EdSource

Attack on School Reformers Rings Hollow
This time, the powerful teachers’ unions went too far. At this month’s California Democratic Convention, a resolution attacking education reform movements was approved by delegates. It was sponsored by the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers and the California Faculty Association. O.C. Register Editorial

Bill Seeks to Limit School Police in Discipline Matters
As the national debate grows louder over deploying police in schools, the largest state in the union ­– California – is considering a bill that would require schools to set “clear guidelines” defining the role of school police and limit their involvement in disciplinary matters. CA Watch

School Discipline Survey Finds Challenges in Making Changes
Many school districts are changing their codes of conduct in a way that limits the use of out-of-school suspension and expulsion and defines the role of law enforcement in school. But the resources—human and financial—needed to make those changes don’t always match what districts can muster. EdWeek

New National Goals Set for Teaching Profession
A blueprint for improving the teaching profession nationally calls for more emphasis on quality preparation programs, higher standards for entry into the profession and better compensation for both classroom educators and school administrators. SI&A Cabinet Report

Senator Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) sponsored the teacher evaluation bill.

A proposed bill known as SB 441 that would tighten teacher evaluation rules statewide narrowly failed to pass the Senate Education Committee Wednesday — but it’s not completely dead yet.

After hearing impassioned testimony from parents, teachers, and union representatives, the Committee deadlocked 4-4 over approval of the legislation.

But the Committee also voted to reconsider the bill later in an amended form, leaving the door open for a return to the issue.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Ron Calderon (D- Montebello), described the measure as “modest” in its scope.

Just before the hearing, his Chief of Staff, Rocky Rushing, told LA School Report that the evaluation bill is Calderon’s “attempt to modify the evaluation process and to provide better feedback for teachers to allow them to become better educators.”

The main change the bill would make is to update current evaluation law, which grades teachers on two grade levels, satisfactory and unsatisfactory. Calderon’s bill would create four grade levels, to be decided by school districts.

The bill would also require teachers who have taught more than 10 years to be evaluated at least once every three years. Current law only requires veteran teacher reviews every five years. (Read the bill’s text here.)

During the hearing, a stream of supporters — many of them teachers and parents from the Los Angeles area — spoke before the Committee on Wednesday, urging its members to pass the evaluation bill.

One LA-area teacher told the Committee he supported the bill because he had a more “comprehensive evaluation working at Blockbuster than I do as a public school teacher in California.”

Amy Baker, a LAUSD parent, criticized the state for making “no effort to improve our broken teacher evaluation system” and asked the committee to pass the bill because it was “a modest step in the right direction.”

CTA representative Patricia Rucker admitted that her union is unsatisfied with the current teacher evaluation system, but she insisted that Calderon’s bill “does not fix it.”

Lynne Faulks, representing the CFT and UTLA, said her unions oppose the proposal because it “fails to address central issues, such as developing teacher effectiveness and ensuring measurements are effective and fair.”

Calderon defended his intentions, saying, “Nowhere do I say, in this bill or in my remarks, that I’m putting targets on teachers’ backs… We want to give teachers a tool to deal with changes and become successful.”

The debate continued with both sides arguing their technical points, and committee members seemed torn between both sides.

Eventually they voted the bill down, 4-4, with an agreement to hear the bill later, after it’s amended.

Senators Bob Huff, Mark Wyland, Ben Hueso and Lou Correa voted in support; Bill Monning, Hannah-Beth Jackson, Carol Liu, and Loni Hancock voted against the bill; and Marty Block abstained.

Previous posts: Union Tells Teachers How to Protest Evaluations; Deasy Requests Changes to Teacher Dismissal Bill; Union & District Clarify Positions on Teacher Evaluation

“That’s how CTA infamously killed a [2012] law to fire sex-pervert teachers, SB 1530,” LA Weekly writer Matthew Mullins wrote. “A badly watered-down version, AB 375, is alive — because CTA backs it,”

What the LA Weekly didn’t note was that the “badly watered-down” bill moving through the state legislature was amended last week or that LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy has proposed several further changes to make sure that districts have a stronger role in the dismissal process and that teachers who review dismissal cases can be removed if necessary.

In an April 19 letter sent to the bill’s sponsor, Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo), Deasy takes note of the School Board’s recent vote in support of her bill’s intent — and then suggests seveal amendments to strengthen it.

Deasy’s key suggestions include giving districts more discretion on dismissing teachers and loosening eligibility requirements for the people who review dismissal cases on the Commission on Professional Competence. (Read the full letter here.)

In particular, LAUSD wants a bigger role for school districts who employ teachers accused of sexual misconduct. A previous teacher dismissal bill, SB 10, would have given school boards the final decision on dismissals.

In particular, Zazueta says Deasy wants to be sure the teacher dismissal legislation make it easier to find the teachers who serve on the professional competence review panel.

Current law (and the new bill) have limited, very specific requirements about what kind of teachers can review misconduct cases. “Time and time again the biggest hurdle and delay is finding these people. We feel they could improve that and make it easier,” Zazueta said.

LAUSD isn’t the only one looking to modify the Buchanan proposal.  Other education advocates remain skeptical of the bill even if they still haven’t concluded whether they support it or not — in part because it’s already being amended in Sacramento.

“At face value, some amendments to the bill seem like they’re working on our concerns,” EdVoice CEO Bill Lucia told LA School Report, referring to a series of amendments that were adopted last week.  “But we still have concerns, so I can’t say at all whether we’re leaning toward support.”

Previous posts: Assemblymember Bloom Opposes Teacher Dismissal Bill; Mixed Reactions to New Teacher Dismissal Bill; Teacher Misconduct Proposal Wins Unexpected Support

So it’s all the more striking that editorial page writer Karin Klein took to the newspaper’s pages yesterday to denounce the fiery anti-reform rhetoric at last weekend’s California Democratic Convention:

“Real Democrats clearly aren’t allowed to disagree with the California Teachers Assn,” wrote Klein, who pens many of the editorial page’s education opinions.

“[But] how well were disadvantaged students doing before reform? What was the CTA doing for them? Yes, it lobbied for more money, and schools do need more money; unfortunately, it didn’t lobby for that money to be spent in effective ways that would have to prove their educational worth.”

Senator Bob Huff

A bill sponsored by State Senator Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) that would expand the current “parent trigger” law to include more of California’s lowest performing schools was scheduled for a hearing by the Assembly Education Committee earlier today.

The current 2010 version of the law has a cap limiting parent trigger takeovers to 75 schools in the state, notes SI&A Cabinet Report.

But the Huff proposal, SB 452, is facing heavy opposition from the state’s largest teachers union, the California Teachers Association. CTA spokesperson Frank Wells told LA School Report that expanding parent trigger “in its current form is a bad idea because the law is deeply flawed.”

“The places where we’ve seen [parent trigger] implemented, we’ve seen major division created among parents,” Wells said, pointing to the parent trigger process at Adelanto and Compton as examples.

When asked about reports of parent trigger success, as seen during the recent trigger overhaul at 24th Street Elementary in LAUSD, Wells responded, “I think we need to see final outcome there. I don’t know if there were conflicts or allegations of misrepresentation.”

Given opposition from CTA, the Huff effort to expand the parent trigger faces an uphill climb.  “Unfortunately, whatever the CTA says seems to go with education policies in California,” said Huff’s Communications Director Bill Bird.

“Conditions in the Capitol are significantly different today than four years ago,” notes SI&A Cabinet Report, alluding to a time when Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was still in office and hard-charting reformers included Democrats such as Gloria Romero.

Closer to home, the LAUSD School Board approved the parent trigger agreement for 24th Street Elementary School yesterday, 5-1 (with Board member Steve Zimmer abstaining).  United Teachers of Los Angeles officials were present during the Board meeting but did not speak out for or against the decision.

Over the weekend, the California Democratic Convention declined to provide exhibition space to Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst or her husband’s Stand Up nonprofit (citing space constraints), gave CTA president Dean Vogel time to deliver this fiery anti-reform speech, and passed this anti-reform resolution. Via LA Times and CTA blog.

Fabian Nunez, strategic consultant to StudentsFirst

The Sacramento-based school advocacy group StudentsFirst recently hired Fabian Nunez in an effort to beef up its advocacy efforts in California.

In a telephone interview last week, Nunez gave LA School Report his take on education politics in Sacramento, recent shifts in union priorities after last year’s controversial debate over teacher dismissals, and his vision for higher-performing schools.

“We have to be able to have an impact at the end of the day,” said Nunez. “Making progress for students, finding ways to work with people.”

The fact that such a high-profile Democratic operative — whom the LA Times described as “one of the town’s most influential power brokers” —  would sign on with StudentsFirst is a sign of the reform advocacy group’s growing prominence in Sacramento.

Given the anti-StudentsFirst rhetoric on display at this past weekend’s California Democratic Convention, it’s clear that Nunez has his job cut out for him.

A former California Speaker and National Co-Chair of Hilary Clinton’s 2008 Presidential Campaign, Nunez has his early roots in Los Angeles.  He served as the political director for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor for four years, and he was the government affairs director for LAUSD for two years.

Nunez said he came to know StudentsFirst through Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, husband of StudentsFirst head Michelle Rhee. He decided to get involved in part because he is an admirer of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s efforts at school reform.

StudentsFirst has been “very successful” electing candidates, according to Nunez. “They’re a force to be reckoned with now. It’s not just ‘did you get the teachers union endorsement or not?'”

Nunez also said he admired the “serious infrastructure” that StudentsFirst has built up in California and nationwide.

Reactions to the news of his involvement have been mixed in Sacramento, said Nunez — partly due to strong feelings surrounding Rhee and also due to Nunez’s long relationship with the California Teachers Association (CTA), the largest teachers union in the state.

“My thinking has evolved,” he said about taking the new consulting gig.  “I don’t think we can continue to look at ed policy using the same playbook we’ve been using for the past ten years.”

As a strategic consultant, Nunez and his firm Mercury LLC will be focused on strategy and strategic execution rather than lobbying the statehouse.  The organization is also in the process of hiring a state director for California, Nunez said.

“Right now, we’re going against the current, but within the next four or five years there will be issues that people will work together on,” said Nunez.  “It happens every ten years or so.  We’re gong to have to make some fundamental changes.  The finger-pointing ultimately has to end.”

Greuel Vows School Reform as Garcetti Seeks End to ‘Division’
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel laid out her plans to improve public schools on Thursday, pushing for tougher evaluations of teachers and principals, while opponent Eric Garcetti secured endorsements from a handful of African American leaders. LA Times
See also: LA Daily News, LA School Report, LA Times Now, LA Weekly

Education Leaders Divulge What They Want From LA’s Next Mayor
There’s been a lot of talk about what the next mayor of Los Angeles should do for public education. KPCC talked to three leaders in the education field about what they expect from the city’s next leader. KPCC

Imagine That: Happy Ending to a ‘Parent Trigger’ Petition
The “parent trigger” movement underwent a maturation process in its latest campaign, a petition to restructure 24th Street Elementary in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Unlike in previous campaigns, there were no lawsuits against the district, no claims by parents that they had been duped into signing the petition. LA Times Op-Ed

Defiance No Reason to Suspend Students, Board President Says
Administrators in the Los Angeles Unified School District would no longer be allowed to suspend students for mouthing off or other acts of “willful defiance” under a groundbreaking school board resolution set to be proposed next week. LA Times
See also: LA School Report

Bill Makes It (a Tiny Bit) Easier to Fire Abusive Teachers
A bill that would have made it easier to fire teachers accused of molesting students or committing other serious crimes died in committee last summer – a victim of the most powerful force in state politics today: teachers unions. There’s a new version of the bill in the Legislature this year. Pasadena Star News Op-Ed

LAUSD Reform Agenda Gets High Marks From Civic Groups
A new coalition of civil rights groups, led by the United Way, released a poll today showing strong support for reforms taking place in Los Angeles Unified and calling for an even more aggressive approach to improving student achievement and increasing local control of neighborhood schools. LA Daily News

LAUSD Summer Enrichment Programs Reduced Again
The Los Angeles Unified School District announced today that funding limits are forcing it to reduce its summer enrichment programming, which includes academic, fitness and other enrichments like art, music and drama activities. KPCC
See also: LA Times

With Police in Schools, More Children in Court
As school districts across the country consider placing more police officers in schools, youth advocates and judges are raising alarm about what they have seen in the schools where officers are already stationed: a surge in criminal charges against children for misbehavior that many believe is better handled in the principal’s office. NY Times

APU to Hold First-Ever Spanish Language Spelling Bee for L.A. County High School Students
Native Spanish speakers and Spanish class students from throughout Los Angeles County will compete in the first-ever Spanish language spelling bee on at 2 p.m. Saturday at Azusa Civic Auditorium. LA Daily News

Students Matters‘ David Welch, third from the left, surrounded by his legal team

Last week, the California Teachers Association (CTA) and the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit Vergara v. State of California, which seeks to overturn five education laws in California (seniority-based layoffs, teacher tenure, and three dismissal statutes that make firing a teacher so onerous).

“This lawsuit is baseless and meritless, and hurts student learning,” said CTA President Dean E. Vogel in a blog post. “It is the latest attempt by corporate special interests and billionaires to push their education agenda on California public schools.”

However, an attorney for the eight plaintiffs Marcellus McRae, told LA School Report that if the judge does allow the two unions to intervene it could delay the start of the trial.

“We’re focused on keeping this trial date,” he said. “We don’t want it derailed.”

The suit is being bankrolled by Students Matter, which was founded by tech entrepreneur David Welch. They’ve hired a team of lawyers that includes the two Teds — Boutrous and Olson — who recently argued against the constitutionality of Proposition 8 in front of the United States Supreme Court.

If the judge agrees with the motion, the two state teachers unions will join the State of California and the LA Unified School District as defendants in the suit, currently slated for trial in January 2014.

Plaintiff’s lawyer McRae said that he worries more defendants could complicate and even widen the scope of the trial.

“What happens, invariably, is that the more players you have, the more voices you have, the more issues you have,” said McRae. “Each side tries to say what the case is actually about.”

Previous posts: Landmark Teacher Dismissal Case Gets a Court Date, Landmark Suit Inches Forward, School Reform In The Courts

Assemblymember Joan Buchanan

AB 375, a new bill meant to streamline teacher dismissals, could be headed for quick passage after clearing the State Assembly’s Education Committee with a 7 – 0 vote Thursday.

The bill’s chance at passing is undoubtedly aided by the announcement last week that the state’s largest teachers union, the California Teachers Association, was joining forces with Assemblymember Joan Buchanan and Senator Alex Padilla to support AB 375.

But the alliance of Padilla and Buchanan and the quick pace of action in the statehouse have left some observers confused and concerned. Is AB 375 a watered-down teacher dismissal bill? Or have the unions, legislators, and education advocates finally come to a working compromise that will help streamline the teacher dismissal process?

Edgar Zazueta, the director of government relations for LAUSD, praised AB 375 as a “step in the right direction.”

But he also expressed reservations.

“I think we’d argue that there’s more consideration to be done here. We thank [Buchanan] for moving in the right direction, but we think we could push envelope a little further,” Zazueta said.

LAUSD, StudentsFirst, EdVoice, and Democrats for Education Reform have expressed a mix of praise and concern.

To be sure, the CTA, Padilla, and Buchanan are unlikely allies.

The union vehemently opposed both of Padilla’s teacher dismissal bills (SB 10 and last year’s SB 1530), and when SB 1530 was up for vote in the Assembly last year, Buchanan helped kill the bill when she voted against it. Yet Padilla has shelved SB 10 and teamed up with Buchanan to help pass AB 375.

According to CTA spokesperson Frank Wells, the union supports AB 375 because the bill “does the things we wanted.” He cited how Buchanan’s bill leaves the final dismissal decision in the hands of a Commission on Professional Competence made up of two fellow teachers and an administrative law judge.

In SB 10, Padilla planned to limit the commission to having only an advisory role, instead giving the local school board the final decision on whether to fire a teacher. Padilla also wanted to exclude the teachers from the commission, reducing it to a lone judge. It was this plan to limit the commission to an advisory role that “was a major sticking point” for the CTA with SB 10, Wells said.

Reform-minded Gloria Romero, head of Democrats for Education Reform in California, is skeptical the bill will accomplish much. (Read her critical review of the CTA’s involvement with AB 375 in an O.C. Register column here.)

EdVoice and StudentsFirst praised Buchanan for lifting the statute of limitations on evidence that can be used against a teacher during the dismissal process. (Current law prohibits the use of evidence from more than four years ago.)

However, both groups said they are still reviewing the bill and deciding just what they think.

In a letter sent to Buchanan, EdVoice expressed specific concerns that AB 375 won’t effectively improve the dismissal process for teachers who have sexually or physically abused their students.

EdVoice CEO Bill Lucia told LA School Report that he has several issues with the bill. “There’s no question whatsoever that SB 10 was more streamlined than AB 375 in terms of dealing with people who are child predators on the payroll at taxpayers’ expense,” Lucia said.

Lucia’s main concern clashes directly with the CTA’s praise for AB 375: The bill maintains the current law that gives the Commission on Professional Competence the final dismissal decision for teachers accused of “immoral conduct” such as sexual and physical abuse.

“To maintain the same process for someone who can’t teach and for someone who is a child molester is unacceptable,” Lucia said. “That kind of behavior is criminal, not a matter of professional competence.”

Lucia also takes issue with AB 375’s revised timelines, which have been extended longer in some cases than the timelines SB 10 proposed. While SB 10 would have required hearings to begin 60 days after a teacher asked for it, AB 375 allows the hearing to start within six months; and while SB 10 required that the Commission reviewing the case to choose its three members within seven days, AB 375 extended the time to 45 days.

The CTA’s Frank Wells defended the new timelines: “Padilla’s bill may have had a shorter timeline, but it was less fair. We want to streamline process, but we also want to give people adequate time to prepare their cases.”

Both EdVoice and StudentsFirst say they’re in the process of carefully inspecting AB 375 and meeting with stakeholders, including parents, teachers, and community members, to decide whether or not AB 375 has enough force to merit their support. They expect to decide by the end of the month.

To read the full text of AB 375, go here; for SB 10, go here.

Previous posts: Lawmaker Supports Former Opponent’s Teacher Dismissal Bill; Report: Teacher Dismissals Costly, Lengthy; Commentary: Implications of a Bloom Win