Daily Beast/Vergara v. California: The Most Important Court Case You’ve Never Heard Of

[twa]

Should be interesting, kudos to those that care

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/vergara-v-california-the-most-important-court-case-you-ve-never-heard-of.html

You didn’t know that nine California kids were suing their state over substandard teaching at their public schools? You should—it’s an example to all who want equal access to education.

This school year, parents learned a tough lesson: The only force on behalf of the public interest is an interested public. And sometimes the students show us the way.

Nine public school children have been courageously taking on the government in California, where their right to a sound education is rooted in the Constitution. A judge’s decision is expected soon, and their lawsuit is being watched closely in education circles. Given the stakes, Vergara v. California—so named for one of the plaintiffs, student Beatriz Vergara—deserves even wider attention.

Win or lose, these students are reminding us of the activism that is born out of the inaction of our leaders and the frustration driven by inequity in education. Children and parents have resorted to acting on their own, finding inspiration in desperation.

Their fight stems from a basic belief that access to highly qualified teachers should be fair and widespread, that classroom safety is paramount, and that equity remains essential.

Vergara v. California takes aim at laws that go directly to the heart of a good education: the ability to have, keep, and respect good teachers and dismiss utterly failing ones. Specifically, the suit challenges California laws that create three sets of problems, all of them undermining a school’s ability to act in the best interest of students.

First, teachers are permitted to earn lifetime employment after a mere 18 months in class, well before their performance can be evaluated to merit such a guarantee. Second, the dismissal process for ineffective teachers is so cumbersome and costly that it rarely works as it should. And third, a “last-in, first-out” law gives priority to seniority over success in times of teacher layoffs.

The absurdity of that law was driven home when a Teacher of the Year in California was forced out during layoffs because others had more time on the job.

Vergara v. California is about equity. No school should have bad teachers—and the poorest schools, with mostly black and Latino student bodies, have a disproportionate share of them.

A comprehensive, three-year study that measured teacher effectiveness by tracking students’ test scores found that the Los Angeles Unified School District’s black and Latino students are two to three times as likely as their white or Asian peers to be taught by a teacher who rates as lower performing.

On the first day of the trial in January, one of the student plaintiffs, Brandon Debose Jr., summed up the case in life-changing terms.

“There were certain teachers that you knew, if you got stuck in their class, you wouldn’t learn a thing. That year would be a lost year,” he explained to reporters. “If we know how important education is, it makes no sense to me why we wouldn’t make sure that every kid has a good teacher every year.”

.

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The consequences of substandard teaching go far beyond whether college or a good job is in reach. They affect earning potential, with implications throughout a person’s life. Researchers at Harvard University found that replacing a less effective teacher with one of just average quality results in a lifetime gain of $50,000 per student and upward of $1.4 million for a typical classroom.

Students in schools across America tell stories similar to those of the Vergara plaintiffs, and their parents also want equity and safety. As groundbreaking as the suit is, it is also heartbreaking, as it highlights the burden on families who feel compelled to turn to the courts for the public education they pay for and have the right to expect.

...More @ link

[zoony]

Oh cool, more teacher bashing from the right.

What we need are vouchers and all the problems magically disappear

[twa]

Oh cool , more ignoring problems and deflection

Of course that is a option for the special.

add

for the interested ,this is not about vouchers but rather a decent PUBLIC education.

It is about improving the public school system(one I chose to put my kids thru)

Some of ya'll are in for a surprise with the Hispanic influx, they love and are very involved in their kids lives.

Si se puede ****

[Larry]

Tend to be skeptical of any article that spends like six paragraphs wrapping one side in a flag and patriotic music, before it will even mention what specific issue they're even talking about.

Or about articles that support themselves by carefully pointing out that teachers in the worst schools tend to have worse students.

However, as to the specific things they claim they're targeting? Looks to me like they've got some legitimate complaints. I think their claims of discrimination are hogwash. This might not be a case where a court should change things. But I might support the voters making some changes.

[Burgold]

The root of the problem you are talking about though is teacher recruitment. No one really wants to pay teachers what they are worth. They say they do, but they don't. Teachers are underpaid. So, how do you get and keep good teachers. Why did they lose me?

One strategy is to incentivise. Will you pay for my grad school or a portion of that? That's interesting to many students drowning in debt. Another is tenure. Okay, I will never make the big bucks, but I will have job stability. I will trust that I will be taken care of as long as I work. Will you as a parent back me up and do your job as it pertains to education... will you be an active participant or be absent from the process?

Schools should be able to fire lousy teachers, teachers who mail it in, or just can't teach. I have no problems with that. The question isn't as simple as what do you do with bad teachers, but why aren't people who would be dynamic and great teachers who would love the field staying away from the profession. Why is teaching a low rung option to many. Where have parents, the community, the schools, and the government failed in developing a culture or a set of incentives sufficient to develop the teaching roster we want?

You want to pay dirt cheap, fire teachers on a dime, disrespect them in the community (if you can't do, teach), place them increasingly in dangerous situations, not give them the supplies, equipment or infrastructure to succeed (so many crumbling, underfunded schools) and then blame it all on the teacher.

The lawsuit may have a point, but it is a part of a larger problem and a failure on a much larger scale.

[Mursilis]

 

You want to pay dirt cheap, fire teachers on a dime, disrespect them in the community (if you can't do, teach), place them increasingly in dangerous situations, not give them the supplies, equipment or infrastructure to succeed (so many crumbling, underfunded schools) and then blame it all on the teacher.

 

 

I for one do not blame teachers.  I have four kids in various public schools and for the most part, their teachers have been in the good to excellent range.  Rather, I blame parents - parenting these days is terrible.  Too many parents view school as little more than free daycare, and their kids act accordingly, being disruptive and unmotivated.  Teachers can't be expected to be miracle workers (although some are, to their immense credit); if parents aren't giving Junior the message that an education is important and you need to work hard at it, they can't blame the teacher if Junior is dumb as a brick and unprepared for life after graduation. 

[Dan T.]

Vergara in a headline and it's not Sofia?

 

Disappointing...

 

 

[Burgold]

And yes, Sophia could probably teach me a thing or two... I'd be a willing student too.

[Kilmer17]

News flash. Our schools suck.

But let's implement things that ensure they all suck the same

[twa]

replacing poor teachers drags down other schools?

[TheLongshot]

It would have been nice if the article had gotten to the point earlier, but whenever one of your best teachers gets let go because the system isn't working right, you need to fix the system.

[Kilmer17]

On a broad scale, the only solutions being offered to "Fix" schools, by those with the power to really accomplish change are all similar.  They all apply the idea that judging XXXX (students, teachers, schools, states etc etc) against each other is the way to figure out where the probelms lie.

 

Thats fundamentally flawed.  Its why NCLB fails.  Its why the Common Core is failing.  Its why standardized tests as a measure of anything fail.

 

Our nation is too large to try and manage schools on a macro level with macro ideas

[The Sisko]

replacing poor teachers drags down other schools?

Replacing them with what? Where's the huge pent up well of excellent teachers that can't find a job? As was mentioned previously, we pay teachers poorly and don't give them policies that empower them to do their jobs well. This sort of reminds me of the alleged nursing shortage. There's isn't one. There's just a severe shortage of nurses who want to do bedside care.

[Larry]

Replacing them with what? Where's the huge pent up well of excellent teachers that can't find a job? As was mentioned previously, we pay teachers poorly and don't give them policies that empower them to do their jobs well. This sort of reminds me of the alleged nursing shortage. There's isn't one. There's just a severe shortage of nurses who want to do bedside care.

I would add "at the wages they're offering".

But then, I'm always amazed at the number of people who seem to believe that the Free Market is the altar at which they worship, EXCEPT when the market is saying that you aren't paying your employees enough, at which time it's suddenly the fault of the lazy, greedy, employees trying to steal from their betters.

[twa]

Replacing them with what? Where's the huge pent up well of excellent teachers that can't find a job? As was mentioned previously, we pay teachers poorly and don't give them policies that empower them to do their jobs well. This sort of reminds me of the alleged nursing shortage. There's isn't one. There's just a severe shortage of nurses who want to do bedside care.

 

They are asking for simply competent ones,

 

the median here for HS is 56K, which ain't chicken feed 

[The Sisko]

Replace the word "excellent" in my prior post with competent and the point still stands. And for many, perhaps most the "not chicken feed" salary wouldn't be worth the headache, certainly not over the long term anyway.

[twa]

Replace the word "excellent" in my prior post with competent and the point still stands. And for many, perhaps most the "not chicken feed" salary wouldn't be worth the headache, certainly not over the long term anyway.

 

Why not allow them to be replaced and find out?

[Larry]

Why not allow them to be replaced and find out?

You believe that there's this vast supply of the teachers you want, who simply cannot get hired, because there aren't enough openings?

[The Sisko]

Why not allow them to be replaced and find out?

Have you ever seen a business lay off and/or buy out employees only to have to bring them back later? I could see a similar situation playing out. Of course the additional costs that might result wouldn't matter to you as long as those ebil teachers unions were gutted. As long as there's no political motive or anything.

[twa]

You believe that there's this vast supply of the teachers you want, who simply cannot get hired, because there aren't enough openings?

 

I'm willing to look  , are you willing to allow me to attempt to upgrade the kids education?  

[Larry]

I'm willing to look , are you willing to allow me to attempt to upgrade the kids education?

If there is such a reserve of unemployed, qualified, people, then all we need to do is to hire them through the normal hiring process.

Right?

[twa]

ya'll sure don't want to answer

[twa]

BAM

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/california-teacher-tenure-laws-ruled-unconstitutional.html?_r=0

“Substantial evidence presented makes it clear to this court that the challenged statutes disproportionately affect poor and/or minority students,” Judge Rolf M. Treu of Los Angeles Superior Court wrote in the ruling. “The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience.”

[The Sisko]

Hmmm, I wonder if they'd be as concerned about the plight of poor kids if the case had to do with reapportioning tax revenue to balance access to educational resources. Of COURSE they would, cuz that's what Scalito, Uncle Thomas and Co. are truly passionate about. [rolleyes]

What's certainly going to be interesting is whether this has any effect on student performance. Somebody put in a call to that vast pool of unemployed excellent teachers.

[twa]

Hmmm, I wonder if they'd be as concerned about the plight of poor kids if the case had to do with reapportioning tax revenue to balance access to educational resources. Of COURSE they would, cuz that's what Scalito, Uncle Thomas and Co. are truly passionate about. [rolleyes]

What's certainly going to be interesting is whether this has any effect on student performance. Somebody put in a call to that vast pool of unemployed excellent teachers.

 

hard to say, but there is certainly precedent on shifting money.(we call it Robin Hood here)

 

you do understand they were clearly putting the substandard teachers in the poor schools,while letting go qualified ones?

 

I sometimes wonder where some of ya'lls priorities are....where the Cali teachers union's is seems rather apparent

you will find the Hispanics don't roll over when it comes to the kids