Resources
Fact Sheets
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Vergara v. California Fact Sheet: Legal Claims and Harm of State Laws to Students
This fact sheet provides a comprehensive overview as well as the summaries of specific legal claims brought forward in the upcoming Vergara v. California (CA).
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“US K-12 Fact Base: Excerpts from the McKinsey Report to the Gates Foundation.” McKinsey and Co. (May 2008).
This study details the effects of teacher preparedness and the school leadership and managerial environment on student achievement, and includes information on the process of teacher education and management.
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Current Notable Education Cases
This compilation outlines all current proceedings on education reform in the United States, including information about the parties, legal claims, and status of the case.
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California Schools by the Numbers
This overview of the public school system in the state of California, includes key statistics describing student performance, teacher effectiveness and evaluations, and the layoff and removal processes. It is an effective introduction to the antiquated and ineffective system in California.
Teacher Effectiveness
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“Teacher Quality Roadmap: Improving Policies and Practices in Oakland Unified School District.” National Council on Teacher Quality (March 2013).
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“2012 State Teacher Policy Yearbook.” National Council on Teacher Quality (January 2013).
This report sets out to answer the question: What are states doing to ensure that they are systematically preparing classroom-ready new teachers? California received a D grade for its teacher preparedness policy, placing it among the worst in the nation.
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“Human Capital Diagnostic: Los Angeles Unified School District.” Strategic Data Project (November 2012).
This report evaluates the Los Angeles Unified School District in five areas. Among its conclusions, it finds that first-year teachers are assigned to students who begin the year academically behind other students, teachers with advanced degrees do not have higher effects on student outcomes than their colleagues, and teachers who were laid off in 2008-09 and 2009-10 had similar average teacher effects as their colleagues who were not laid off.
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âState of the States: Teacher Effectiveness Policies.â National Council on Teacher Quality (November 2012).
This report gives an overview of all state policies regarding teacher effectiveness, and concludes there are overall positive trends in state policy to improve educational outcomes. Some of these policy improvements include the incorporation of student achievement as a significant factor in evaluations, the use of a differentiated rating system, and the inclusion of classroom observations when assessing effectiveness. The report also reveals, however, that California, however, has not made progress in these policy areas and therefore received a failing grade (F) for 2012.
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Roseberg, Sarah and Elena Silva. “Trending Towards Reform: Teachers Speak on Unions and the Future of the Profession.” Education Sector (July 2012).
This report polls a large sample of unionized teachers to document attitude shifts between 2007 and 2011. It navigates through particular areas like the role of unions, pay, evaluation, and tenure, and shows the vast majority of teachers say unions are either essential (46 percent) or important (40 percent), these numbers have shifted some over the years, with a notable decrease in the number who say unions are absolutely essential (down from 54 percent in 2007). 71 percent say that despite having the strength of their unions behind them, rank-and-file teachers usually have very little control over what goes on in their schools.
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“Teacher Quality Roadmap.” National Council on Teacher Quality (June 2011).
This analysis describes best practices in the field for improving teacher quality through discussion of teacher assignment, evaluations, tenure, compensation, and work scheduling. Its key findings apply specifically to the Los Angeles Unified School District, but it contains applicable lessons and recommendations broken down by locale for school districts of other sizes and locations.
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Rivkin, Steven G., Eric A. Hanushek, and John F. Kain. “Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement.” Econometrica (March 2005).
This academic study on the impact of schools and teacher on student performance concludes that teacher quality matters significantly in student achievement, particularly in math and reading. Yet, it also notes that little student achievement variation is explained by class size or observable teacher characteristics (such as education or experience).
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“Empowering Effective Teachers: Strategies for Implementing Reforms” Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (February 2010).
This report collects strategic implementation recommendations drawn from data collected at national sample of ten schools. In their analysis, the authors suggest more rigorous processes in deciding tenure, differentiated compensation for teachers, and better compensation for teachers placed in priority schools.
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Klein, Joel. “The Failure of American Schools.” Atlantic Magazine (June 2011).
This feature piece describes the declining quality of American schools by discussing issues related to objective student performance, teacher effectiveness, unions, politicians, and bureaucrats. In his analysis, the author draws comparisons to Finnish and Norwegian education models.
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“Getting Down to Facts: Five Years Later.” Policy Analysis for California (May 2012).
This policy analysis compares Californiaâs educational governance between 2007 and 2011 in areas such as simplicity, transparency, flexibility, equity, and finance. It finds that individual districts are making progress but some statewide policies remain burdensome and complex. It offers several areas of action for school management organizations to explore, including the increased and improved use of data to drive system-wide decision-making.
This feature piece describes the declining quality of American schools by discussing issues related to objective student performance, teacher effectiveness, unions, politicians, and bureaucrats. In his analysis, the author draws comparisons to Finnish and Norwegian education models.
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Chetty, Raj, John N. Friedman, and Jonah E. Rockoff. “The Long-term Impacts of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood.” National Bureau of Economic Research (December 2011).
This study shows that students assigned to high value-added teachers outperform their peers in many dimensions, and test score impacts are helpful in identifying such teachers. It also demonstrates that replacing a teacher whose value-added score is in the bottom 5% with an average teacher would increase the present value of studentsâ lifetime income by more than $250,000 for the average classroom.
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Buddin, Richard. “Measuring Teacher and School Effectiveness At Improving Student Achievement In Los Angeles Elementary Schools.” The Los Angeles Times (May 2011).
This data-heavy study concludes that there are large differences in teacher effectiveness as measured by âvalue-methodsâ designed to show whether or not schools and teachers improve student learning.
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Kane, Thomas J., and Douglas O. Staiger. “Estimating Teacher Impacts on Student Achievement: An Experimental Evaluation.” National Bureau of Economic Research (December 2008).
This study reveals that value-added models are able to generate unbiased and reasonably accurate predictions of the causal short-term impact of a teacher on student test scores.
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California Department of Education. “Framework for a Comprehensive Education Data System in California.” McKinsey & Company (December 2008).
This report is based on research conducted by McKinsey & Company and evaluates education reform policies, identifies professional development best practices for teachers, and provides recommendations to improve education policy for students and teachers. The report includes 10 outlines of specific recommendations within the area of educational data management and application.
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“2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook: National Summary.” National Council on Teacher Quality (2011).
In this report, each state receives an overall grade for its teacher quality policies based on five âsub-gradesâ in each of five core organizing goal areas: 1) Delivering well-prepared teachers, 2) Expanding the pool of teachers, 3) Identifying effective teachers, 4) Retaining effective teachers and 5) Exiting ineffective teachers. Of all 50 states, California was ranked lowest in progress since 2009, and received a D+ for 2011.
Teacher Layoff Process
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“The Irreplaceables: Understanding the Real Retention Crisis in America’s Urban Schools.” The New Teacher Project (2012).
This report spells out the very low likelihood that schools will be able to replace high quality teachers upon their dismissal under a seniority-based layoff system. It also presents the case that schools that practice smart retention practices improve the quality of their instructional teams. The âsmart retentionâ action areas the report offers include making retention of good teachers a top priority, strengthening the teaching profession through higher expectations. Concrete ways schools can retain effective teachers are discussed in detail within these two areas.
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Tucker, Jill. “S.F. teacher layoffs threaten improving schools.” San Francisco Chronicle. May 13, 2012.
This short news article describes the crippling impact of seniority rules on the teacher layoff process at one school in San Francisco.
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“The Case Against Quality-Blind Teacher Layoffs: Why Layoff Policies that Ignore Teacher Quality Need to End Now.” The New Teacher Project (February 2011).
This report summarizes and analyzes two recent studies that demonstrate that more than 80 percent of seniority-based layoffs would result in better teachers leaving classrooms and worse teachers staying. It includes an explanation of how seniority-based layoffs hurt schools serving poor students the most. It also cites data to show how many teachers agree that multiple factorsânot just seniorityâshould be considered in the layoff process.
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The Legislative Analyst’s Office. “A Review of the Teacher Layoff Process in California.” (May 22, 2012).
This document provides an overview of the existing layoff process in California, and takes steps to evaluate how well the process works. It concludes with recommendations for improving procedural effectiveness.
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Boyd, Donald J., Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James H. Wyckoff. “Teacher Layoffs: An Empirical Illustration of Seniority vs. Measures of Effectiveness.” The Urban Institute (July 2010).
This study uses a simulation to compare value-added evaluations supports the conclusion that developing fair and rigorous measures of teacher effectiveness are likely to increase educational outcomes.
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Sepe, Cristina and Marguerite Roza. “The Disproportionate Impact of Seniority-Based Layoffs on Poor, Minority Students.” Center on Reinventing Public Education (May 20, 2010).
This report analyzes the impact of massive seniority-based layoffsâ disproportionate effect on newer teachers in poorer, high-minority communities. Using national examples from districts including LAUSD, the report also includes information about how seniority-based layoffs exacerbate the number of people who lose their jobs because districts have to layoff more teachers with low salaries to meet budgetary demands.
Teacher Evaluations
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“Improving Teacher Evaluation in California.” The Education Trust-West and Teach Plus (2011).
This report details the current flaws in teacher evaluation systems nationally. It spotlights new models of teacher evaluation in California, and ways teachers themselves can advocate for change at the school, district, and state levels.
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“Great Expectations: Teachers’ Views on Elevating the Teaching Profession.” Teach Plus (November 2012).
This summary comes from a 2012 survey examining new teacher and veteran teacher attitudes on a number of issues within three thematic areas: working conditions, standards and accountability, and teacher effectiveness and evaluation.
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Darling-Hammond, Linda. “Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching.” Center for American Progress (October 2010).
This report takes a new approach to the question of how to measure teacher effectiveness by describing the ways in which assessments of teacher performance for licensing and certification can both reflect and predict teachersâ success.
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“Evaluating Teachers: The Important Role of Value-Added.” Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings (November 2010).
This report discusses the reliability of value-added metrics, and though it suggests early feedback is promising, it includes suggestions to make the process of using student improvement data more accurate.
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“Teacher Evaluation in Tennessee: A Report on Year 1 Implementation.” Tennessee Department of Education (July 2012).
This case study looks at the effectiveness of Tennesseeâs recent policy change to become one of the first states in the country to implement a comprehensive, student outcomes-based, statewide educator evaluation system. It shows that The 2011-12 school year saw tremendous progress for public education in Tennessee, as measured by the most significant outcome: student achievement. Test scores improved, in aggregate, at a faster rate than any previously measured year. Furthermore, administrators have consistently noted that having school-wide value-added scores has led to increased collaboration among teachers and a higher emphasis on academic standards in all subjects.
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“Breaking the Stalemate: LA Teachers Take on Teacher Evaluation.” Educators 4 Excellence (June 2012).
This research lists suggestions for teacher evaluations including the formulation of a feedback system to incorporate information from teachers, students, and parents.
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Gordon, Robert, Thomas J. Kane, Douglas O. Staiger. “Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job.” The Hamilton Project (April 2006).
This proposal aims to improve average teacher effectiveness through specific action to increase the inflow of new teachers. It also suggests that districts improve the overall quality of teachers and educational outcomes by requiring minimum demonstrated competency on the job and by altering the distribution of high-performing teachers.
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Weingarten, Randy. “The Role of Teachers in School Improvement: Lessons from the Field.” Harvard Law and Policy Review (Vol. 6 2012).
This law review article focuses on two approaches as to how to best improve teaching and learning in public schools: Dictate and Dismiss, which focuses on poor teacher performance as the problem, and Collaborate and Develop, which focuses on teacher involvement and development as well as labor-management cooperation. It compares these two approaches and puts them in the broader context of national reform trends and international policy.
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Felch, Jason, Jason Song, and Doug Smith. “Who’s teaching L.A.’s kids?: A Times analysis, using data largely ignored by LAUSD, looks at which educators help students learn, and which hold them back.” The Los Angeles Times (April 2010).
This news piece on the impact of teacher quality on student outcomes uses a case study from the San Fernando Valley in California to layout its argument. Some of the points the article raises include the idea that teachers have three times as much influence on students’ academic development as the school they attend, as well as the finding that even though teachers are paid more for experience, education and training, none of these factors has much bearing on whether they improved their students’ performance.
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“State of the States: Trends and Early Lessons on Teacher Evaluation and Effectiveness Policies.” National Council on Teacher Quality (October 2011).
This report provides a landscape of the teacher evaluation policy across all states, and includes in-depth analysis of states with some of the most ambitious teacher effectiveness policy. In addition, it details state policy using a set of early observations on the development and implementation of performance-based teacher evaluations.
Equal Access to Effective Teaching
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“At A Crossroads: A Comprehensive Picture of How African-American Youth Fare in Los Angeles County Schools.” The Education Trust-West. February 2013.
This report examines the demographics of Los Angeles County Schools, specifically African-American academic outcomes and non-academic outcomes. It paints a clear picture of the failures of the system, replete with troubling statistics including: â63 percent of African-American students graduate from high school in four yearsâ and â1 in 5 African-American middle school and high school students are proficient in Algebra I.â
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Smith, Nelson. “The Louisiana Recovery School District: Lessons from the Buckeye State.” Thomas B. Fordham Institute (January 2012).
This exploration of a new type of school management and control scheme called the Recovery School District Model (Louisiana) looks at its potential applicability in Ohio.
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“Effective Teaching as a Civil Right.” Annenberg Institute for School Reform (Fall 2011).
This selection of papers covers a variety of topics including race- and income-based disparities in access to effective teaching, human capital strategies in schools, best practices in identifying individual teacher performance, and effective teaching as a civil right.
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“Learning Denied: The Case for Equitable Access to Effective Teaching in California’s Largest School District.” The Education Trust-West (January 2012).
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“Great Teachers for Every Child: A Matter of Social Justice.” Students First (May 2012).
This report synthesizes research and analysis of Californiaâs schools and explains how the stateâs bureaucratic seniority-based layoff policy disproportionately impacts low-income and minority communitiesâparticularly African-Americans and Latinos. It also addresses the impact of the state budget crisis on teacher layoffs under Californiaâs seniority-based policy.
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Sanders, William L. and June C. Rivers. “Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student Academic Achievement.” University of Tennessee, ValueâAdded Research and Assessment Center (November 1996).
This report on the Tennessee value-Added Assessment Systemâs achieves two purposes: first, it reaffirms the new schemeâs ability to deliver efficient and effective feedback on individual teachersâ influence on the rate of academic growth. Second, it concludes that differences in student achievement of 50 percentile points were observed as a result of teacher sequence after only three years, and the effects of teachers on students achievement are both additive and cumulative with little evidence of compensatory effects.
Polls
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“Statewide Survery: Californians and Education.” Public Policy Institute of California, April 17, 2013.
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“Coming to the Rational Middle: A Conversation about Unionism and Reform with 60 Teachers and Education Stakeholders.” (July 2012).
This poll measures attitudes on the relative strength of local education reform strategies, district leadership, union leadership, and district/management and union collaboration obstacles through Southern California.
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Bushaw, William J. and Shane J. Lopez. “Betting on Teachers: The 43rd annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Publicâs Attitudes Toward the Public Schools.” Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup (July 2012).
This national poll measures public attitudes towards public schools in areas such as teaching as a career, unions, salaries, layoffs, quality teaching, and school choice. The poll reveals that About half of Americans believe teacher unions are hurting public education. It also reveals that many believe management should listen to the principalâs evaluation of the teacher over the rule of âlast hired-ďŹrst ďŹredâ when making decisions about layoffs.
Teacher Hiring Process
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“Increasing the Odds: How Good Policies Can Yield Better Teachers.” National Council on Teacher Quality (October 2004).
Research and perspective on the effectiveness of certain traits (masterâs degrees, experience, education courses, traditional certification, teacherâs race, subject area knowledge, teachersâ level of literacy, selectivity of college, and âsoft attributesâ) on teacher effectiveness. Among its findings: âEducation courses taken before teaching have little impact on teacher effectiveness. Advanced degrees do not make teachers more effective. Shows that a few years of experience make a teacher more effective; after that itâs unclear. Matching a teacherâs race with a studentâs race may be advisableâprovided race does not override other important considerations. The teacher attributes that matter the most are the hardest to measure.â
Teacher Tenure
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“Earned, Not Given: Transforming Teacher Tenure.” Communities for Teaching Excellence (May 2012).
This brief describes the tenure system as it applies to public school teachers. It also includes concise recommendations for tenure reform, starting with a reframing of the tenure approval process to be âa real evaluation of teacher quality and a deliberate decision about whether a probationary teacher should be granted this statusâand the additional due process rights tenure bringsâin a school system.â