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Judge OKs Settlement Limiting Seniority
 Last Friday, a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge approved a settlement that will significantly limit the extent to which the Los Angeles Unified School District must take seniority into account when making layoff decisions. Under terms of the settlement agreement, up to 45 schools will be shielded from any teacher layoffs in exchange for the placement of a cap upon seniority-based layoffs. The settlement was occasioned by legal action brought against the LAUSD last year by a consortium of groups that included the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit charged both the state and the district with denying certain students equal access to public education. The plaintiff attorneys contended that the most junior teachers (in terms of seniority) are disproportionately clustered in the district's lowest-performing schools. These struggling schools are most likely to be situated in areas marked by a higher incidence of poverty. When faced with budget shortfalls, the prevailing practice of "last-hired, first-fired," established by collective bargaining agreements between the district and the teachers union tends to produce a lopsided number of pink slips delivered to teachers employed in such schools. The Los Angeles Times reports that the local teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, plans to appeal the decision. A tersely worded press release contains the following objection: " The settlement not only tramples the rights of teachers in our collective bargaining agreement; it also does grievous harm to student learning by causing widespread staff instability and leaving many low-performing schools with a higher concentration of less experienced teachers. In addition, the settlement does nothing to solve the systemic problems at hard-to-staff schools or address the inequities suffered by our most at-risk students." The UTLA announcement also painted an ominous tone for relations between the union and LAUSD's incoming superintendent, with the following declaration: "The settlement was the backroom work of soon-to-be superintendent John Deasy (who, by the way, just gave himself an $80,000 raise), Mayor Villaraigosa, the ACLU, and some School Board members." Newly installed State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson lost no time weighing in on the court's action. Mr. Torlakson, whose candidacy was strongly backed by the teachers unions, is reported to have filed a brief noting that districts already possess the discretion to employ factors other than seniority when making layoff decisions." The L.A. Times article references the paper's recent report on teacher effectiveness, which used the controversial value-added measurement methodology to label individual teachers effective or ineffective. The paper now reports that its investigation, "...found that seniority-based layoffs in the district had led to the dismissal of hundreds of highly effective teachers and fell hardest on schools in the city's poorest neighborhoods. Far fewer layoffs would be necessary if the decisions were based on performance rather than seniority." If the settlement survives legal appeals, it is probably safe to surmise that the distribution of teacher-seniority will change over the course of time, and that the need for an agreed-upon approach to the determination of teacher effectiveness in the short-term will be underscored. |
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Sparks of Change on the Garden State
 There can be little doubt that New Jersey has become a front line state in the school reform wars. Take a "blue" state with union roots that run strong and deep, add a take-no-prisoners Republican governor who's openly committed to the expansion of school choice options, and you're bound to see sparks. More thunder and lightning can be expected in the near term, as the Garden State's legislature takes up a proposal to initiate a corporate tax credit program designed to aid students enrolled in chronically underperforming schools located in thirteen districts throughout the state. As reported by the Center for Education Reform's CER Newswire, in New Jersey, "m ore money is spent on...public education per-pupil than anywhere in the US, with less results."
The proposed legislation has already drawn fire from the New Jersey Education Association. "This is a flat-out transfer of public funds to families who have already chosen private schools for their children," said NJEA President Barbara Keshishian. The legislation in question would permit at least 25 percent of the scholarship funds generated by the tax credits to enable students currently enrolled in private schools to remain where they are. In addition to helping students either remain in, or enter private schools, scholarship funds could be used to facilitate enrollment in public schools outside a student's district of residence. The initially proposed program would be authorized for five years, and could provide financial assistance to as many as 40,000 students.
In another development, a Garden State newspaper has released data showing that students in a majority of New Jersey charter school classes outperform their local public school counterparts on standardized tests in English and Math. The Star-Ledger reports that, "76 percent of charter school eighth grades outpaced performance in their districts in language arts, for example, as did 68 percent of fourth-grade classes in language arts, and 58 percent of fourth-grade classes in math. At the high school level, 69 percent of schools outperformed district classes in the language arts portion of the high school proficiency exam, and 54 percent outdid district classes in math."
On a sobering note, the test scores produced by children attending charter schools fell short of the state average at every grade level tested. As the paper reports, "At the Community Charter School of Paterson, for example, only 18.2 percent of fourth-graders passed language arts, and at the International Charter School of Trenton, the passing rate was 12.5 percent."
Nevertheless, Governor Christie is poised to expand the number of charters. "Last year New Jersey opened six charter schools," the governor recently said. "It's going to change significantly. Hopefully that movement will continue to grow." The governor has also made clear his intention to close failing "traditional" public schools, and to pursue policies that link teacher pay to student performance, saying, "Teaching can no longer be the only profession where you have no rewards for excellence and no consequences for failure to perform." |
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Quick Takes
 Green PowerNo, not that kind of green. I'm talking about green as in greenbacks. And the teachers unions appear to have plenty to spread around. If you had any doubt about it, the Education Intelligence Agency's Communique for the week of January 18, 2011 provides a listing of political contributions proferred by the National Education Association, the nation's largest teacher's union. What was the union's single largest grant in 2009-10? That would consist of a $2.125 contribution to support passage of Proposition 25 (permitting the California legislature to pass a budget with a simple majority in lieu of the previous 2/3 required vote) on last November's state ballot. All told, the various teachers unions spent a combined $4.7 million to pass the measure. As was mentioned in last week's E-Mailer, Governor Brown is certain to bank on the unions to help convince the public to extend a troika of increased taxes and fees that are set to expire this summer. Mr. Brown will propose to preserve hikes in the state sales tax, income tax, and motor vehicle fee for another five years. Should voters say "no," in a special election that will most likely be held in late spring, the state's public schools will face drastic funding cutbacks. A New Blog Worth BookmarkingYou'll want to be sure to direct your school's office/business manager and/or H.R. director to a new blog maintained by the law firm of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore. The firm's Labor & Employment Blog addresses " a wide variety of topics pertaining to legal challenges faced by California employers in all areas of labor relations and employment law." While not every entry will be applicable to the private school universe, many will be, and each article will be well researched, and presented in a manner that is accessible to lay readers. CAPSO has had frequent occasion to call upon the firm's services, and is pleased to note that a team of LCW attorneys will, once again, be presenting sessions at CAPSO's Triennial Convention. Near the Top
California's public schools may not be doing all that well when it comes to student achievement (more about that, next week), but when it comes to knowing how to spend money, the Golden State ranks near the top of the pack. A recent table prepared by the U.S. Department of Education ranks states by the percentage of federal stimulus funds that remain unspent. It shows that California received a total of $10.94 billion, of which all but $1.55 billion, or 14 percent, has currently been spent. That ties California for fourth place with New Jersey. Only Iowa, Nevada, and Arizona seem to know how to spend federal money faster. By contrast, the following states still have 50 percent, or more, of their stimulus funds left to spend - or to revert to the feds: Alaska, Delaware, Texas, Hawaii, and Tennessee. Washington, DC, also makes the "don't know how to spend it fast enough" list. EdWeek's Politics K-12 blog reports the story, here. |
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Random Thoughts
 One of my favorite sayings from the Talmud - the encyclopedic compilation of Jewish law and lore - is: "It is not incumbent upon you to complete the task. Yet, you are not free to desist from it." The task in question is the repair of an imperfect, broken world. The message is that the likelihood that we may not live long enough to see the achievement of the worthiest of goals must not serve as an excuse for our failure to contribute to, and hasten their realization. It is almost axiomatic that educators live by this principle. After all, their life's work consists of preparing future generations to "complete the task." Some voices in the ongoing debate over national education policy posit that teachers and schools are relatively powerless to transform the lives of students challenged by poverty and culture. Some argue that as a general rule, what a student is capable of learning and becoming is largely a function of the income his or her family earns, and the level of education his or her parents attained. The deck is stacked against these kids, so they say, and there's little that schools can do to make a difference. Teachers, and other educators obviously think otherwise. And the world is much the better for it.
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I am constantly asked how the economic downturn has impacted private schools. It is a question to which there is no simple response. On a statewide basis, enrollments are down. But the rate of attrition actually slowed in the past year, resulting in better numbers than I had personally projected. (Sometimes I'm happy to be wrong.) This was true even as California's housing market worsened and unemployment climbed. Why?
One explanation I've heard from a number of people on the "front lines" is that the challenges faced by our schools have galvanized commitment among parents and staff, alike. Unhappily, and despite the best efforts of countless schools to provide financial assistance, some families have found themselves forced to withdraw their children for purely economic reasons. At the same time, in reassessing their priorities, a great many families have come to appreciate anew that chief among their investments is the one they are making in their children's future. For many, the value obtained from a private school education has increased. Concommitantly, many faculty members have been reminded that their work is more than just a job, and have found themselves feeling called to serve, anew.
There is still a considerable degree of uncertainty and apprehension on the horizon. Sadly, some schools - even schools that have served their communities for more than a century - have closed. I suspect, however, that a great many private schools have been pressed to make adaptations they are now beginning to view as having strengthened their sustainability.
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I have it on good authority that newly-elected Speaker of the House John Boehner's first priority in the realm of education policy will be to resurrect Washington DC's currently moribund Opportunity Scholarship Program. A recent Education Week study ranked the District's public education system as 50th worst, overall, in the nation, awarding the system a grade of D+, and student achievement a grade of F. And this comes after Michelle Rhee's reforms. Which only goes to show that meaningful reform efforts require a prolonged period of adaptation if they are to produce lasting systemic change. Ron Reynolds |
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