Playing a little catch-up today, but here’s some links to some reactions to the L.A. County Superior Court ruling on Vergara v. California:
RealClearEducation: “Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that began the desegregation of American schools, students of color and their families still find themselves in court, fighting for equal educational opportunity.
They just won another big victory.”
New York Times: “In his sharply worded 16-page ruling, Judge Treu compared the Vergara case to the historic desegregation battle of Brown v. Board of Education, saying that the earlier case addressed “a student’s fundamental right to equality of the educational experience,” and that this case involved applying that principle to the “quality of the educational experience.”
Wall St. Journal: “Research has pointed to teacher quality as the biggest in-school determinant for student performance. In recent years, many states have moved to simplify dismissal procedures for ineffective teachers and to encourage districts to consider teacher performance in layoff decisions rather than relying solely on seniority…Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers called it “a sad day for public education,” saying the decision focused on a small number of bad teachers, and “strips the hundreds of thousands of teachers who are doing a good job to any right to a voice.”
Students First: ” The journey towards this decision began in May 2012, when nine courageous public school students filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. They challenged several statutes that forced schools and districts to push out great teachers and retain ineffective ones—thus directly harming students. For instance, state law required that, in the unfortunate case of layoffs, the last teacher hired be the first teacher fired—regardless of the teacher’s effectiveness. Known as “last-in, first-out” (LIFO), this policy guarantees that great teachers will be taken away from the students who need them.”
Also see Andy Smarick, Andy Rotherham, Ben Riley, and Rick Hess.
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