Source: EdSource
By: John Fensterwald
Date: April 28, 2015
The Legislature’s top Democrats have made a comprehensive rewrite of the law on teacher evaluations a priority this session. But a fundamental disagreement over granting teachers the power to negotiate all aspects of evaluations, including whether to use student test scores as a factor, could doom prospects for passage, as it has in the past.
A co-chair of the committee that created Torlakson’s report, Long Beach Unified Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser, said in an interview that he had met with O’Donnell, AB 575’s author, and supports the bill. Other supporters include the California state PTA and Public Advocates, a civil rights law firm. Public Advocates particularly likes the bills’ requirements that school boards seek parents’ and the community’s views on how teachers’ performance should be measured before the district adopts the criteria.
