California Teachers Unions Fighting Waiver Accountability Measures

The Sacramento (CA) Bee (3/30, Kalb) reports that the Sacramento City Unified School District, which is one of the California CORE districts granted a NCLB waiver, “has begun ranking campuses and sending educators to other schools to coach their colleagues” at low-performing schools. However, the Sacramento City Teachers Association “objects to a promise that Sacramento City Unified and seven other districts made to link student test scores to teacher evaluations” and is fighting the accountability plan. The piece notes that the California Teachers Association “has been providing support to the SCTA,” and quotes state union President Dean Vogel saying, “We have been really, really clear in California ever since (federal grant competition) Race to the Top that we did not believe using student test scores to evaluate teachers was a good idea.”