Teachers' attorney says evals can include test scores this year
LAUSD and its teachers union agree on a timeline to start factoring student achievement into employee evaluations — if they can agree on how to do it.
By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/Nv1zlS
United Teachers Los Angeles has argued in the past that test scores are too unreliable for use in such high-stakes decisions as firing, tenure and merit pay. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times / July 24, 2012)
July 24, 2012, 9:58 p.m. :: In a potentially groundbreaking decision, Los Angeles teachers and administrators agreed with the school district for the first time to use student test scores as part of performance reviews beginning this school year.
But an attorney for United Teachers Los Angeles later said the commitment he made during a court hearing Tuesday was contingent on whether the union and L.A. Unified School District could successfully negotiate an agreement on exactly how such scores would be used in the teacher evaluations.
That drew criticism from an attorney who sought the pledge in a case he brought on behalf of Los Angeles parents, who successfully sued the district for violating a 41-year-old state law that requires evaluations to include measures of student achievement, such as test scores.
"This is exactly what we were concerned about — that [UTLA] would say one thing in court and change their position thereafter," said Scott Witlin, an attorney for the group of unidentified parents.
In the case, which could transform teacher evaluations in California, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ruled last month that L.A. Unified had violated the law, known as the Stull Act. The plaintiffs' attorneys had argued that the absence of a rigorous evaluation system that effectively identifies weak teachers for improvement or, if necessary, dismissal, deprives students of their constitutional right to educational equality.
In their agreement Tuesday, attorneys for the district and the unions representing teachers and administrators set Sept. 4 as the date to return to court with a progress report. They also agreed on a final deadline of Dec. 4 to show proof they had started using student achievement measures in performance reviews.
The teachers union's commitment to launch the new measures this year came after Witlin told the judge he believed all sides were dragging their feet on negotiating a new evaluation system.
UTLA attorney Jesus Quinonez sharply disagreed with Witlin, saying all parties were "very serious" about an agreement.
"Are you able to commit that what the district decides will be implemented for the purposes of teacher evaluations this school year?" Chalfant asked Quinonez.
"That's correct," Quinonez responded.
Under L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy, about 700 teachers and principals at about 100 schools are participating in a voluntary evaluation program that uses a measure based on student test scores known as "academic growth over time." The district plans to train all principals and teachers in the program this year but has not decided when to begin using it for all employees. Deasy has said he believes the district has the right to create a new performance review system without negotiations.
The teachers union has opposed the voluntary program, saying that evaluations must be decided at the bargaining table and that test scores are too unreliable for use in such high-stakes decisions as firing, tenure and merit pay. Earlier this year UTLA proposed an evaluation system that would use test scores to identify areas of student need but not to judge teachers' performance.
In his ruling last month, Chalfant did not specify what measures of student achievement should be used or how they should be included in performance reviews.
Bill Lucia, president of EdVoice, the Sacramento group that brought the lawsuit on behalf of the parents, said he was pleased by the day's progress in setting deadlines.
"Ultimately, the kids are going to benefit," he said. "They are going to have better assurances that they'll have effective teachers and school site leaders."
Tami Abdollah/KPCC
Lawyers for L.A. Unified, United Teachers Los Angeles, Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, and parents filing suit, were sent into the hallway to come up with a timeline for when the district must be in compliance with state law and include student test scores in teacher evaluations.
L.A. Unified must comply with a judge's ruling to include student test scores in teacher evaluations by Dec. 4, a bevy of attorneys representing the district, its unions, and parents agreed in court today.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant made his ruling in Doe vs. Deasy last month and asked the attorneys to agree on a compliance timeline. After multiple meetings and disagreements, Chalfant sent the attorneys into the hallway this afternoon to come to an agreement, or face him imposing one unilaterally.
L.A. Unified attorney Barry Green said the district and its unions agreed on a staggered timeline that included a check-in on progress Sept. 4 and a final "drop dead date where everything has to be in place" by Dec. 4.
"We can't just wave our wand and just implement, because we have the unions" to negotiate with, Green said in court today. "We have a gun to us that says we must do that."
Green said the district built into the proposed timeline the fact that parties may reach an impasse and would then need to go through a mediation and fact-finding process under the state's Public Employment Relations Board. "If it were up to us, it would be in place already," Green told Chalfant.
The suit was filed in November by the Sacramento-based nonprofit EdVoice on behalf of seven unnamed parents. The core of the brief centers on the 41-year-old “Stull Act,” which requires school districts to “evaluate and assess certificated employee performance as it reasonably relates to the progress of pupils” on district standards of expected achievement in each subject area at each grade level. The act was broadened in 1999 to require evaluation based on student progress on state standardized tests.
In his ruling, Chalfant left the details of how the district must comply with the "pupil progress requirement" primarily to its discretion. He said details such as the system of measurement, how that plays into a teacher's evaluation and how much it is weighted, may all require collective bargaining.
"You've got to do it, you have to consider pupil progress both based on CSTs [state standardized tests] and whatever assessments you want to rely on for district standards in evaluating teachers," Chalfant said last month. "Now how you go about doing that is a matter of your discretion, how you want to collectively bargain that is a matter to you and your unions."
Parties were generally pleased with the timeline agreed on in court today.
"The keys are that there's going to be time for the bargaining process to run its course in a reasonable and not unecessarily impractical or imposed way...and time for the parties to have meaningful good-faith negotiations," said United Teachers Los Angeles attorney Jesus Quinonez.
Quinonez said in court that the union believed it "very possible and very doable, ultimately" to have the new evaluation system in time for teacher evaluations at the end of the 2012-13 school year.
"The agreement is everybody will make their 'best efforts' to do what is necessary to abide by the judge's decision," said Judith Perez, president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles. "I'm happy about aspects of the decision, I'm glad the judge upheld collective bargaining."
Witlin called the outcome a "major victory": "We got committments from UTLA that whatever is agreed to is going to be implemented this school year."
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has closely watched the legal proceedings, publicly praising the judge's ruling last month. As speaker in the state Assembly, Villaraigosa sponsored the amendment that expanded the law to require evaluation based on student progress on state standardized tests. He also filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the suit.
"Anything that keeps the parties' feet to the fire is a victory," said Brian S. Currey, counsel to the mayor, who watched the proceedings in court today.
It is unclear how exactly the new system would be incorporated into the 2012-13 teacher evaluations as most of the discussions regarding the process occur at the start of the school year. L.A. Unified starts early, on Aug. 14, this year.
The proceedings also brought former state Sen. Gloria Romero to court. She helped co-found the Democrats for Education Reform. She was "very discouraged" by the conversation in court and the fact that attorneys had to be sent out into the hall to reach an agreement.
"Oh my God, it's going to take another 30 years to bring them into compliance with the law," Romero said. "It's all about delay...In the last six weeks, they've negotiated three days. That really tells the story. There is no sense of urgency."
Witlin said in court he was frustrated by the slow pace of negotiations and that the district and its unions have only sat down three or four times since the judge's June 12 ruling. But he said he "hoped they will actually come through" as agreed.
EdVoice president Bill Lucia said he was pleased with the decision and that ultimately it meant kids will be "more likely to have effective teachers and school leaders" because of it.
By Tami Abdollah | Pass / Fail 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/MWDhfy
Jordon Cooper/Flickr (Creative Commons-licensed)
Los Angeles Superior Court
More than a month after a judge ruled that L.A. Unified must include student test scores in teacher evaluations, legal wrangling over even a general timeline continues to stall efforts to bring the district in compliance with state law.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant made his ruling in Doe vs. Deasy last month and asked the district, its unions, and the attorney representing parents who brought the suit, to agree on a compliance timeline. Attorneys were to return to court with that timeline today; instead, in multiple court filings over the last six weeks, they continue to disagree over the broadest of details.
"That's 43 days ago, six weeks, where the district is not complying by the law," said Scott Witlin, the attorney who represented parents suing the district in the case. "There doesn't seem to be the requisite urgency to get the district into compliance with the law...Every year this doesn't get done it's another 50,000 kids who've never had their teachers properly evaluated."
After a 40-minute hearing in court this afternoon, the bevy of attorneys were told to go into the hallway and come up with an agreement; otherwise, Chalfant would make a decision unilaterally.
"If you don’t want to run the risk of me mis-recollecting how I ruled, then you should go reach an agreement now," Chalfant said.
The suit was filed in November by the Sacramento-based nonprofit EdVoice on behalf of seven unnamed parents. The core of the brief centers on the 41-year-old “Stull Act,” which requires school districts to “evaluate and assess certificated employee performance as it reasonably relates to the progress of pupils” on district standards of expected achievement in each subject area at each grade level. The act was broadened in 1999 to require evaluation based on student progress on state standardized tests.
In his ruling, Chalfant left the details of how the district must comply with the "pupil progress requirement" primarily to its discretion. He said details such as the system of measurement, how that plays into a teacher's evaluation and how much it is weighted, may all require collective bargaining.
"You've got to do it, you have to consider pupil progress both based on CSTs [state standardized tests] and whatever assessments you want to rely on for district standards in evaluating teachers," Chalfant said. "Now how you go about doing that is a matter of your discretion, how you want to collectively bargain that is a matter to you and your unions."
L.A. Unified attorney Barry Green said the district and its unions agreed on a staggered timeline that included a check-in on progress in September and a final "drop dead date where everything has to be in place" in December.
"We can't just wave our wand and just implement, because we have the unions" to negotiate with, Green said in court today. "We have a gun to us that says we must do that."
Green said the district built into the proposed timeline the fact that parties may reach an impasse and would then need to go through a mediation and fact-finding process under the state's Public Employment Relations Board.
Witlin said he was frustrated by the slow pace of negotiations and that the district and its unions have only sat down three or four times since the judge's June 12 ruling.
"What we've been told is there are lots of impediment to bargaining over this issue, people have vacations, there are travel plans, there are union conventions, well all that is well and good, but when you're not complying with the law you should be doing everything you can to get in compliance with the law," Witlin said.
Witlin said it looked less and less likely that the district would be abiding by the law this school year. He said the district and its unions should be meeting daily to work this out.
Judith Perez, president of the administrator's union, said with the early start of the school year in mid-August, it would be "impossible" to abide by the judge's ruling, which requires adequate training for teachers and administrators as well an understanding of the data and a system for how it should be used.
"We're talking two weeks, I would say that it is impossible to implement a fully-blown changed evaluation system in two weeks," Perez said. She said the union has been in negotiations with the district and has met thrice since the ruling and has four more meetings scheduled.
"We have every intention of reaching an agreement," Perez said.
United Teachers Los Angeles attorney Jesus Quinonez said in court today the union has met with the district four times to discuss implementation and has another seven meetings scheduled.
"There are a bunch of other elements of evaluation that have be addressed here and are being addressed in a very serious way," Quinonez said. He said the union intended to have a system in place in time for evaluations at the end of the 2012-13 school year.
"We could have filed an appeal the day after the judgment was issued and stay all of this. That is not the intent of UTLA. I can speak for UTLA...I can tell you this schedule we agreed to is going to go forward..That is very possible and very doable, ultimately."
this is the FULL SIZE survey report as released by the district>>
A just-released study of the initiative, conducted by the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, found that among the 3,000 students enrolled in the program, participants were, on average, more likely to graduate from high school, transition to a four-year college (rather than a two-year college), accumulate more college credits and persist in postsecondary education. They were also less likely to take basic skills courses in college.
Joanna Lin/California Watch Guadalupe Chavez, who will be in second grade this fall, eats a free summer lunch with friends at Cambridge Elementary School in Concord. 
