The new group will be known as 50CAN, but StudentsFirst state chapters will retain their names (except in Pennsylvania, where their work overlapped).

While both organizations have focused on state-level change — working to expand charter schools, for instance, and overhaul teacher tenure laws — the merger reflects the increased importance of state policy-making in the era ushered in by the Every Student Succeeds Act.

“It’s going to mean that there are more local leaders learning and growing from each other under one roof,” said Marc Porter Magee, the founder and CEO of 50CAN, who will now serve as CEO of the combined organizations. “It marries the best of grassroots local leadership with the sophistication of professional campaigns.”

Jim Blew, president of Sacramento-based StudentsFirst, will become a senior advisor to 50CAN, tasked with integrating StudentsFirst’s lobbying and political campaign efforts with 50CAN’s networks of state policy activists. He will report to Porter Magee.

Blew dismissed the suggestion that the merger signaled any kind of defeat.

“A lot of the battle is played out at the state level in state capitols,” Blew said. “By combining the 50CAN skill set with our skill set in lobbying elections, we’re going to have a lot stronger of an effort in a lot of states.”

Local initiatives have been 50CAN’s bailiwick since it was formed in Connecticut in 2005 as ConnCAN. It became a national organization in January 2011.

Just a month earlier, the  influential and controversial reform activist Michelle Rhee, past chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools, announced on Oprah that she was creating StudentsFirst to advance reform nationally to be an “interest group solely for kids.”

Rhee’s take-no-prisoners style and efforts at wide-ranging reform made her famous in the world of education — some would say infamous — a status heightened by her appearance in the pro-reform documentary Waiting for Superman and on a Time magazine cover holding a broom with the headline, “How to Fix America’s Schools.”

Her notoriety helped StudentsFirst raise tens of millions of dollars, while still falling short of its lofty $1 billion goal, and fundraising tailed off over time.

Although Rhee stepped down from her post at StudentsFirst in 2014, Porter Magee said Rhee will continue to provide the group with strategic guidance.

“Michelle has not only left a really strong legacy in D.C. that kids are still benefiting from and (Chancellor Kaya) Henderson has built upon in a strong way, but she started a national conversation when she started StudentsFirst around education,” he said. “We want to keep that momentum going.”

The new 50CAN will run advocacy and lobbying campaigns in at least 11 states, including support for expanding charter school opportunities in Camden and Newark, N.J., and reducing suspensions in Minnesota.

StudentsFirst New York, which has been autonomous for several years, will not be affected by the merger.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, which restrains the federal role in education, is re-centering education policy-making in the states — making 50CAN’s efforts to strengthen state campaigns that much more timely, Blew said.

Blew also noted that the merger will prompt staff cuts as well as changes to 50CAN’s board of directors.

“With a country as large and diverse as our own, there’s never going to be a one-size-fits-all solution,” Porter Magee said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have an excellent American education system. The way we’re going to get there is states innovating and leading.”

This article was published in partnership with The74Million.org.

On its Facebook page, UTLA posted a link to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) online petition that calls for Time to “apologize to America’s teachers for the misleading and hyperbolic attack on your November 3 cover.”

The cover in question is for a story about the impact of Vergara v. California, the case in which a judge earlier this year struck down California’s decades-old laws regarding teacher tenure, firings and layoffs.

The Time article, which features a gavel about to smash an apple on the cover, is headlined, “Rotten Apples: It’s nearly impossible to fire a bad teacher; some tech millionaires may have found a way to change that,” and is a look at the history of the case and the wealthy group of tech executives who have helped support it. The article has been available online since Friday and is scheduled to hit news stands in print form on Nov. 3.

But it is not the article that the AFT finds fault with. It’s the cover, which the AFT says “is particularly disappointing because the articles inside the magazine present a much more balanced view of the issue. But for millions of Americans, all they’ll see is the cover and a misleading attack on teachers.”

So far, over 60,000 people have signed the petition, according to the AFT’s Facebook page. The AFT has over 1.5 million members.

AFT President Randi Weingarten also posted a response to the story on Time’s website, saying, “America’s teachers aren’t rotten apples, as Time’s cover suggests, that need to be smashed by Silicon Valley millionaires with no experience in education.”

Teacher unions in California and nationally have lined up against the Vergara ruling. The defendants — the state, the California Federation of Teachers and the California Teachers Association — have appealed the ruling, which will not set any precedent until an appeals court rules on the case.

The anger over the cover also caught the attention of the Washington Post, which pointed out it is not the first time Time has enraged teacher unions with a cover.

In 2008, its cover also drew condemnation from teacher unions when it showed then-D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee standing in a classroom while holding a broom, with the headline, “How To Fix America’s Schools” and a subhead, “Michelle Rhee is the head of Washington, D.C., schools. Her battle against bad teachers has earned her admirers and enemies — and could transform public education.”

Her efforts in D.C. ended in 2010, when she resigned.

Ellie Herman

Ellie Herman is a writer and English teacher, who taught Drama, Advanced Drama, Creative Writing, English 11 and 9th grade composition at Animo Pat Brown Charter High School in south Los Angeles. A career union member, she is now immersed in a year-long journey, spending time in teachers’ classrooms at schools across the socioeconomic spectrum in L.A. to learn how to become a better teacher.

“The only way I’m going to get better at teaching is to watch real teachers in action–not to mock bad teachers, but to closely observe good ones and learn from them,” she says at Gatsby in LA, her blog, where she is chronicling her experiences.

Ellie joins us at LA School Report as a guest commentator, with periodic observations of public education in Los Angeles. Her first appears today.

Jovan Agee

In a sign of its growing presence in California, StudentsFirst, the nationwide education reform organization headed by Michelle Rhee, announced today the hiring of Jovan Agee as the organization’s California State Director.

Agee, who served eight years as the director of political and legislative affairs of UDW/AFSCME Local 3930, a homecare providers union, will be responsible for leading the organization’s California team in its efforts to enact StudentsFirst policy agendas in Sacramento.

In a post on the StudentsFirst blog, Agee wrote, “Some people may find it strange that I am working for StudentsFirst, given my professional background…it may appear that I have ‘switched sides.'”

He added: “I don’t see it that way. As State Director, I will make efforts to work with teachers’ unions, associations representing administrators and school boards. But to be clear: I firmly believe that, at times, what is best for the student may conflict with what ultimately is best for these organizations.”

Agee has also served since 2009 as the Political Committee Chair Northern California for the California Democratic Party’s African American Caucus.

Previous Post: Rhee and Friends Urge Union Teachers to Get Active on Reform

Michelle Rhee, last night in Los Angeles

Michelle Rhee, the former Chancellor of Washington, D.C. public schools and a lightning rod for education reform, played to her audience of LA area teachers during a panel discussion last night at the Los Angeles Central Library, telling them that teachers need to be part of any debate about reform.

“I definitely think that teachers have felt excluded from the [reform] conversation,” said Rhee, founder of StudentsFirst, a reform group. “Most of the teachers that I’ve talked to say that they feel like the reforms are being done to them instead of with them. And I think that’s why we had to elevate the teacher voice and bring them into these policy debates.”

Just how might that happen?

Another panelist, former Washington, D.C. teachers’ union president George Parker, urged reform-minded teachers to “get active,” chiding union teachers who support reform mandates for not participating in the process and making their voices heard.

“In my union, there were more reform minded teachers than non-reform minded,” he said, pointing out that teachers “who support the status quo and don’t want to see things change” are more likely the ones who turn out to vote on the big issues.

“Reform minded teachers have to be able to stop hiding,” he said. “Those teachers have to unite within their union to create the kind of change that’s necessary and to begin to change [their] union internally.”

“Remember,” he said, “union leaders are elected politicians, and if you’re voting then [they’re] listening.”

While many in the audience of about 200 cheered the panelists’ calls for “immediate change” and greater “school choice,” teachers’ union members were having none of it.

Standing outside the library wearing red UTLA tee shirts, they handed out fliers that read: “Tell Michelle Rhee and her billionaire friends that public education deserves better than their anti-teacher, anti-student, market-based “solutions.”

And on it goes.

Previous Posts: Rhee Joining Town Hall Meeting with Teachers in LA, Video: Teachers Union Roars Back, StudentsFirst Strategist Emphasizes Collaboration, Rhee Pens New Book, Hires New Staff

Michelle Rhee

A panel of education reformers, including StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee, is holding a town hall meeting later today in Los Angeles, where they will take questions from an audience of area educators.

As the first of three such events around the country this month, the session is billed as a chance to set aside polarizing rhetoric surrounding many school reform discussions — not to mention, Rhee — to engage in a more productive conversation with educators about how to improve the nation’s schools.

The event will be moderated by former LAUSD President Genethia Hudley-Hayes. UTLA President Warren Fletcher, who was invited to join the panel, is not expected to attend.

Jessica Ng, a spokeswoman for the event, said organizers received over 400 requests for approximately 200 seats in the audience. The panel appears next in Birmingham, Ala. on Sept. 12 and in Philadelphia on Sept. 16.

School Boards Join Movement Against Out-of-School Suspensions
The National School Boards Association has labeled the use of out-of-school suspensions a “crisis” in a new report. EdWeek

Baldwin Park School District Wins #1 Spot in Closing the Achievement Gap
Recently we reported on two schools in the Baldwin Park school district that have unique programs: a high school that helps teenage parents stay in school, and an elementary school where teaching a dual language immersion program is yielding top results. KPCC

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti Engage in Acrimonious Debate
Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti blasted one another with a torrent of allegations Wednesday night in the most acrimonious debate of the Los Angeles mayor’s race. LA Times

Frustrated Parents Fought to Reclaim Their Kids’ Destiny—And It Worked
The parents of children attending the 24th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles made history this week. And, in doing so, the use of ‘Parent Trigger’ legislation to ensure parents have a seat at the education decision-making table for their children has gone mainstream. TakePart Op-Ed

Voters Favor Extra Funds for Poor Students but Not English Learners
A majority of Californians support Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to provide additional funding to districts with more low-income and English learner students, according to a newly released poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. EdSource

Students Rally to Support Adult Education Programs
A group of adult education students held a rally Wednesday to demand greater funding for adult education programs. LA Times

New RTTT Competition Announced, Targets Early Learning
The majority of the Obama administration’s remaining 2013 Race to the Top funds – some $370 million – will be available for states looking to develop successful early learning programs for children, according to an announcement Tuesday. SI&A Cabinet Report

Education Advocate Michelle Rhee Fends Off Accusations
Michelle Rhee, head of a group that advocates using student test scores to evaluate teachers, fends off accusations that she failed to pursue evidence of cheating when she ran the D.C. school system. LA Times

Study: Charters Get Less Funding Than Traditional Public Schools
Public charter schools received significantly less funding than traditional public schools in five cities, including the District, between 2007 and 2011, according to a new study released Wednesday. WaPo

CA Legislature Kills Bill to Shield Identities of Armed Teachers
A bill pushed by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly to train and shield armed “school marshals” failed to make it out of the Assembly Education Committee today after a 5-1 vote. Sac Bee

CTA Goes Hollywood on Teacher Dismissal Bills
An adage in politics is that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.  Not so for the California Teachers Association, California’s most powerful political special interest. Their mantra seems to be more like, “If you can’t beat ’em, just overtake ’em.” OC Register Column
See also: SD Union-Tribune Editorial

What’s Really Scandalous About the School Testing Scandal
Even if we eliminate all the cheating, what remains is a broken system built on the dangerous misconception that testing is a proxy for actual teaching and learning. Time

What Will New Evaluation Systems Cost?
The cost of new teacher-evaluation systems is likely to vary based on how states and districts choose to establish student-growth measures for all teachers, according to an analysis from a researcher at the Value-Added Research Center. EdWeek

More Teachers Group Students by Ability
After being condemned as discriminatory in the 1990s, grouping students by academic ability seems to be back in vogue with a new generation of teachers, according to an analysis of federal teacher data. EdWeek

Migrant Program Offers  Lessons for Reaching Latino Preschoolers
Long before President Obama triggered a new national interest in universal preschool earlier this year, a Central Valley-based Head Start program for children of migrant workers has been breaking down barriers that have kept Latino families out of early learning programs. EdSource

Brown’s K-12 Online Agenda Faces Legislative Scrutiny
Gov. Jerry Brown drew national attention earlier this year with his embrace of online learning programs and technology-based instruction. But his plan to rewrite the rules surrounding independent study and allow school districts to collect state attendance funding for asynchronous online instruction may be facing challenges in the Legislature. SI&A Cabinet Report

How to Build a Progressive Education Movement
If proponents of progressive education want to become a credible alternative to the education-testing movement, we need to do the hard work of building a robust movement and persuading mainstream America that there is another path forward. EdWeek Commentary

Public School Reformer Michelle Rhee Sends Child to Private School: Should We Care?
America’s best-known and most controversial education reformer, Michelle Rhee, 43, doesn’t want the public to know where her two daughters go to school. Are they attending public or private? Should we even care? SF Chronicle

Do Cops With Guns Mean Safer Schools?
Leslie Mendoza, now 17, says she felt like she was entering a prison every time she entered her magnet public high school in Los Angeles. Police would even search students’ backpacks and pockets when they came to school late. Daily Beast

Report: Cheating on Standardized Tests in 75 Percent of U.S. States
The National Center for Fair & Open Testing issued a report Thursday that tallies cases of cheating on standardized tests in 37 states across the country, including notable cases in Southern California. KPCC

SBE Allows Higher Student/Teacher Ratio for Online Charter Schools
California’s State Board of Education approved waiver requests this month increasing the pupil-to-teacher ratio for independent study students at several online charter schools. SI&A Cabinet Report

Michelle Rhee, ‘a Public School Parent’?
In the course of reporting a story about Michelle Rhee, the controversial former District of Columbia chancellor seeking to take her brand of education reform to statehouses across the country, the Los Angeles Times asked her spokeswoman a simple question: Do Rhee’s children attend public or private school? LA Times

From the Lunch Line to the Stage: LA Cafeteria Worker Featured in New Play
A new play that tackles healthy eating in schools by following the life of a lunch lady opens tonight. Among the performers is a Los Angeles Unified School District cafeteria worker who will take to the stage for the first time at age 58. KPCC

Inland Empire School District Repeats as Finalist for Academic Prize
The Corona-Norco Unified School District was named as a finalist Thursday for the prestigious Broad Prize, which honors academic excellence by minority and low-income students in urban districts across the nation. LA Times

Intern Teachers: Special Ttraining Is Needed to Teach English Learners
magine your family transplanted to a new country. Neither you nor your children speak the local language; the education system functions entirely differently. Who do you want teaching your child: a teacher who knows how to teach both academic subjects and the new language to non-native speakers, or a teacher with little to no training in either?  San Jose Mercury Sun Opinion

California Schools Chief Strikes Tone of Optimism in Annual Address in Lawndale
In a speech addressing the state of education, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Thursday celebrated a recent wave of voter-approved taxes that are expected to stabilize a dire education budget, and touted other initiatives that would bring still more tax dollars to public schools. Long Beach Press-Telegram

California Needs to Fill Teachers’ Pension Gap
Last week the Legislative Analyst’s Office told the Legislature it needs to get serious about closing a $73 billion shortfall in the California State Teachers’ Retirement System over the next 30 years.  What would getting serious about closing that gap mean? Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Editorial

Head Start Programs Across the State Cut Services, Children
As the federal sequestration budget cuts kick in, Head Start providers across California are struggling to decide how to absorb the shortfall without hurting children. EdSource

O.C. Olympians Raise the Bar for L.A. Kids
Peter Vidmar, 51, is among dozens of Olympians who regularly visit Los Angeles schools to inspire kids, and maybe cajole them, to perform well on the California Physical Fitness test. O.C. Register

Michelle Rhee Hires Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez
As Michelle Rhee pushes her controversial brand of education reform in California’s capital, she has tapped one of the town’s most influential power brokers, Fabian Nunez, to guide her strategy. LA Times

A New Play About…LAUSD School Lunch?
The play’s high school may be fictional, but the story stuff that comprises it is anything but. Howard spent the better part of a year traveling to various high schools throughout the LAUSD, speaking to both students as well as food service professionals. LA Weekly

California’s New Taxes Are Paying for Pensions
Last November, California politicians persuaded voters to support a proposed seven-year, $50 billion tax increase, largely on the vow that the money would go to public education. Now, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office has announced that the California State Teachers’ Retirement System requires an extra $4.5 billion a year for 30 years — $135 billion — and that the money will have to come from some combination of school districts and the state. Bloomberg Opinion

Boys’ Volleyball: A Proud Coach at Van Nuys High
The Van Nuys High boys’ volleyball team just returned from a trip to Hawaii to play in the prestigious Iolani tournament that included nationally ranked Punohou. LA Times

Calif., Texas, and N.C. Districts Tapped As Broad Prize Finalists
The four finalists for the 2013 Broad Prize in Urban Education are the Corona-Norco and San Diego school districts in California, the Houston Independent School District, and the school system in Cumberland County, N.C. EdWeek

Schools Need Local Funding Control
Gov. Jerry Brown is providing a historic opportunity to realize the equity, transparency and local control that our public schools need. LA Daily News Opinion

Bringing Babies to the Classroom to Teach Empathy, Prevent Bullying
Roots of Empathy, first started in 1996 in Toronto and introduced into U.S. schools in 2007, aims to build more peaceful and caring societies by increasing the level of empathy in children. In the last six years, the program has spread to California, New York and other parts of Washington. PBS NewsHour

Hold Districts Accountable for Restoring Funding for the Arts
A well-rounded education that includes the arts is essential to prepare California students for college and careers. Further, the skills students gain in the arts – imagination, creativity and innovation – are essential for success in the California economy, no matter the industry or sector. EdSource Commentary

Family Members of Accident Victims Sue LAUSD
The Los Angeles Unified School District is being sued by family members of a man who was killed and a young girl who was injured when they were struck by a hit-and-run driver outside a Watts school last year. City News Service

U.S. Ed Department Agrees to Review 9 Districts’ Plan for NCLB Waiver
The nine California districts seeking a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Law have got their foot in the door. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it has accepted their waiver application and will treat it as they would an application from other states, with a formal review. EdSource

Bill Clinton Picks Wendy Greuel as L.A.’s Next Mayor
When a city’s schools fail the city fails. The next generation of L.A.’s job creators will create jobs in cities other than Los Angeles. The next Mayor of Los Angeles is going to have his or her hands full. LA Daily News Column

Miramonte Plaintiffs Want 2013 Trial; LAUSD’s 2014 Trial Request Rejected
The families of students allegedly abused at Miramonte Elementary School are pressing ahead with their demand for a trial. There was a court organizing session Tuesday as they move toward a trial. ABC LA

Banned Youth Football League Brings Concerns to County Board
Parents and players from the East L.A. Bobcats, a youth football league banned from county parks after gang-affiliated adult fans got in a fight that led to a fatal stabbing, called on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to allow the children to return to Salazar Park. LA Times

Congress Tweaks State Special Education Spending Mandates
States that run afoul of federal rules for special education funding will be punished—though not forever—under a technical, but important tweak to state maintenance of effort under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. EdWeek

Why We Can’t Threaten Our Way to Better Schools
While NCLB’s punitive approach has been softened to some extent by the Obama administration, the law’s philosophy has not. Diminished funding, school closings, turnarounds, takeovers, vouchers and the privatization of schools proliferate in a contemporary wave of reforms taking urban districts by storm. Hechinger Report Opinion

California Schools Chief to Deliver Annual Address in Lawndale
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson will deliver his annual “State of the State of California Education” address Thursday at the Centinela Valley Center for the Arts auditorium in Lawndale. Daily Breeze

Speakers at the conference include education advocate and StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee, CCSA President Jed Wallace, and Congressman George Miller.  TFA alum Brian Johnson is slated to MC the awards dinner. For full event details, click here.

L.A. Votes: Greuel Fights Back 
With the clock ticking down to election day, the Los Angeles mayor’s race is getting testy. LA Times

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy Seeks No Child Left Behind Waivers
With California unable to get a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law, LAUSD and nine other districts have launched an effort to create their own data-based accountability systems — and have more freedom in how to spend tens of millions in federal dollars. LA Daily News

More Students Taking and Passing Advanced Placement Exams
More students in the Los Angeles Unified School District took and passed an Advanced Placement exam last year, reflecting a rise in success on the college-level tests in California and nationwide. LA Times
See also LADN

L.A. Unified Set for Funding Boost Under New State Formula
After five years of crippling budget cuts, the Los Angeles Unified School District would receive an estimated $820 more per student over the next two years under Gov. Jerry  Brown’s proposed new funding formula. LA Times

In California, Thousands of Teachers Missing Needed Credentials
The last time Charlie Parker took a social studies class, he was a teenager with an Afro and Jimmy Carter was president of the United States. Yet here he was, standing at the front of a classroom, trying to teach dozens of high schoolers subjects that never appealed to him when he learned them more than 30 years ago. CA Watch

State Releases District Breakdowns Under School Funding Formula
Districts and charter schools now know how they’d make out under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Local Control Funding Formula, his plan for sweeping school finance reform. EdSource

Thousands of Children Could Lose Head Start Services Under Sequestration
Just one week after promising to inject funds into early childhood education in his State of the Union address, President Obama is warning that the Head Start program will instead face cuts if lawmakers fail to reach a compromise over the budget. KPCC

California Schools Flunk Education Group’s Ratings
California is sorely lacking when it comes to school reform, failing to adopt policies to limit teacher tenure and use student test scores in teacher evaluations, according to a rating of states issued Monday by a high-profile education advocacy group. LA Times

Policymakers React to StudentsFirst’s ‘F’ for California
David Plank, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education, an education research and policy group, questions the basis of Rhee’s criteria. Reactions to the report card from legislators were mixed. EdSource

Teacher Evaluation Law Will Be Taken on Again
Breakthrough agreements in two California school districts and a much anticipated report on improving teacher effectiveness have raised expectations that it might actually be possible to amend or rewrite the state’s outdated and ineffective state law on teacher evaluations in a way that can work for both unions and school districts. EdSource

Extra Police at LAUSD Campuses Criticized by One Group
Students returned to school Monday with an increased presence of Los Angeles police officers on elementary and middle school campuses, although one group says the move sends the wrong message. LA Times

New Statewide Test to Be Proposed Tuesday
California’s top educator will unveil his proposal for a new statewide test at a press conference on Tuesday. Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Brown’s Budget Expected to Aid Schools’ Energy Efficiency
When Gov. Jerry Brown releases his budget proposal Thursday, he will include his plans for $500 million in new spending on energy efficiency and related programs. Much of that money is expected to be earmarked for retrofitting schools to help lower utility bills. LA Times

Unfinished Agenda on School Discipline
A California assemblyman is once again trying to curb expulsions and suspensions for what’s known as “willful defiance,” when kids act out or misbehave in class or during school activities. EdSource

One Year Cap on Teacher Prep Programs up for Debate
Growing demands on teacher preparation programs to cover all the necessary topics and issues needed to produce world-class educators have drawn new attention to the state law that restricts the training time to just one year. SI&A Cabinet Report

Michelle Rhee

StudentsFirst, an education advocacy group headed by former Washington Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, released a education policies report Monday that gave 11 states, including California, failing grades. Not many other states fared much better—no states received A’s, and nearly 90 percent of states scored lower than a C grade. Rhee and former NYC superintendent Joel Klein followed up with an op-ed on CNN.com (States’ education laws aren’t making the grade).

Not all state education policy leaders are disappointed with their low grades, however. In the New York Times, California’s Chief Deputy Superintendent Richard Zeiger said the state’s F rating was a “badge of honor.” Zieger “flat-out disagree[s]” with the methods StudentsFirst endorse to improve schools—such as limiting teacher tenure, using student progress results in teacher evaluations, and expanding school choice through charters. (See: StudentsFirst Issues Low Ratings on School Policies). “This is an organization that frankly makes its living by asserting that schools are failing,” Zeiger is quoted saying in the article. “I would have been surprised if we had got anything else.”

In response, Rhee issued a statement:  “Does [Zeiger] consider it a badge of honor that California’s education policies rank 41st in the nation? Or perhaps he considers it a badge of honor that children are going into underperforming classrooms every day in California without a way to choose a better school option? Maybe he’s proud that great teachers in California aren’t paid adequately and are often laid off based on seniority, not effectiveness.”

Previously, Rhee has criticized California’s lack of a state law requiring the use of student achievement in measuring teachers, an issue that played a part in the Obama Administration’s recent rejection of a waiver request for California. Rhee has also criticized the tentative agreement between UTLA and LAUSD over teacher evaluations, which includes student achievement but leaves several key details unknown and is set for a rank-and-file vote next week.

Previous posts: Reformer Calls For Stronger State Evaluation Law, Voices Urge “No” Vote On Evaluation, Looming Vote On Teacher Evaluations.

Former DC schools superintendent Michelle Rhee, center, with LAUSD superintendent John Deasy, right, in 2011

Read below for the full statement from Rhee, who is now head of the Sacramento-based StudentsFirst school reform advocacy organization.  As you may recall, efforts to strengthen state teacher evaluation laws were stymied last year.

Full statement from Rhee:

While the agreement between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the United Teachers of Los Angeles regarding use of student performance in teacher evaluations brought the two sides together, it still falls short in many ways. Unfortunately, it creates uncertainty over how students’ academic progress and test scores will be used to determine how well teachers are doing and contains no guarantee they will be used at all.

The agreement illustrates that California is in dire need of a strong statewide policy governing teachers’ performance evaluations.

StudentsFirst strongly believes that no district can accurately measure how well its teachers are doing without considering the performance of their students along with other important measures like classroom observations and parent/student feedback. That’s common sense. California parents are looking to Sacramento to put students first and take up this issue to develop a strong statewide policy governing teacher evaluations.

Previous posts: Questions About Teacher Evaluation Deal,  LAUSD Approves Teacher Grading Deal

Sacramento-based StudentsFirst (headed by Michelle Rhee) has given $500,000 to oppose Proposal 2, a Michigan state constitutional amendment codifying collective bargaining rights that has been backed by labor groups, according to Michigan Live. (StudentsFirst PAC donates $500,000 to campaign against union-backed Proposal 2.)

These kinds of splits between Democrat-affiliated education reform groups, elected officials, and teachers unions are still relatively few, but can no longer be considered rare.  Other examples include Mayor Villaraigosa’s support for the parent trigger and President Obama’s refusal to support the striking teachers in Chicago.

• Lots of Parent Revolution coverage, including pieces from the AP, Reuters, the LA Times, the Wall St. Journal and the The Washington Post. RiShawn Biddle posts as well at Dropout Nation.

• Scott Graham filed a lawsuit against former superintendent Ramon Cortines, “accusing him of making repeated unwanted sexual advances.” Graham has apparantly turned down $200,000 (plus lifetime health benefits!) settlement offered by LAUSD. City News Service.

• Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space, died yesterday at 61. In addition to being an astronaut, the Encino-born Ride also worked to “inspire young people, especially girls, to become interested in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.” Curriculum Matters