Michelle Rhee's consultant introduces California ballot measure

A ballot measure submitted by a political consultant for education advocate Michelle Rhee seeks to remove seniority as a factor when California school districts lay off teachers, requiring that they instead base decisions on performance ratings. Performance, under the proposal, would be determined in part based on student test scores.

Those policy proposals have been at the core of Rhee's advocacy efforts as head of StudentsFirst, a national group headquartered in Sacramento. Rhee, who is married to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, has said she established the group to try to counter the influence that teachers unions have in decisions about public education. Unions generally reject the idea that teachers should be rated based on their students' test scores, and prefer contracts that call for the most recently hired teachers to be the first let go during layoffs.
The California ballot initiative was submitted Monday by Matt David, a political consultant to StudentsFirst. David was communications director to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and worked on the presidential campaigns of Republican Senator John McCain and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr.

David said he submitted the measure on his own behalf and that StudentsFirst has not yet endorsed it.

"I would hope to get their support on this, assuming the language isn't changed (by the attorney general)," David said. "But they haven't taken a position yet and I've advised other groups not to take a position until we get the language finalized."

StudentsFirst spokesman Francisco Castillo said the group has been in talks about advancing a ballot measure in California next year, but hasn't yet decided if this will be it.
"We're currently reviewing the language for this one, and we generally support the concepts behind it, but it's premature to say whether we will take a position on it right now," Castillo said.

The proposed initiative for California's 2014 ballot must receive a title and summary from the Attorney General's Office before proponents can begin gathering signatures from the public to qualify for the ballot.

The measure also would streamline the firing procedures for teachers convicted of sex crimes, setting up a possible conflict with another ballot measure recently proposed by an advocacy group called EdVoice, which generally shares StudentsFirst's anti-union approach to education.

StudentsFirst has been active in several states but has made little headway so far in California, where public employee unions hold big clout in the state Capitol. The organization recently hired labor lobbyist Jovan Agee, who previously represented the AFSCME union, to head up its California operation.

Students First pushed for a bill to add student test scores to teachers' performance evaluations earlier this year, but Senate Bill 441 died in its first committee.
The bill was carried by Sen. Ron Calderon, the Montebello Democrat whose office was raided this summer by the FBI. A sealed FBI affidavit made public by Al Jazeera America alleges Calderon accepted $88,000 in bribes from a hospital executive and an undercover agent posing as a movie studio owner.

In 2012, StudentsFirst pitched a bill in California that sought to remove seniority as a factor in teacher layoff procedures, instead basing layoffs largely on job performance, according to a confidential draft The Bee obtained last year. The bill also would have changed the teacher evaluation system so that at least half the ratings were based on student test scores.

Calderon's brother, Charles Calderon, who was an assemblyman at the time, said he was interested in introducing the bill, but ran out of time during the 2012 session.

StudentsFirst poured more than $1 million into legislative races in 2012, including support for Ian Calderon — the son of Charles Calderon and nephew of Ron Calderon — as well as Assembly candidates Cheryl Brown and Brian Johnson. All are Democrats who faced opponents backed by the California Teachers Association.

Ian Calderon and Brown won their races and now serve in the state Assembly.


Michelle Rhee at Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's State of the City address in January 2011. The Sacramento Bee/Bryan Patrick

via: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/12/michelle-rhee-pushing-california-ballot-measure-to-change-teacher-laws.html

California schools flunk education group's ratings

California is sorely lacking when it comes to school reform, failing to adopt policies to limit teacher tenure and use student test scores in teacher evaluations, according to a rating of states issued Monday by a high-profile education advocacy group.

California received an overall grade of F, ranking 41st nationally, from StudentsFirst, a Sacramento-based group run by Michelle Rhee, the former schools chancellor in Washington, D.C., whose outspoken views have polarized those who share her focus on improving the nation's schools.

Her group's "report card" concentrates "singularly on the education policies in place in each of our states," Rhee said in a statement. "And when we look solely at policy, it's clear that we have a long way to go toward improving our education system in America."

Critics said the ratings say more about Rhee's views than about the state of the nation's schools.

Eleven states received failing grades. California received its only high mark for being the birthplace of "parent trigger" laws, which allow parents, by petition, to replace the staff of a low-performing school or turn over the campus to an independently operated charter.

California's schools would benefit from a statewide teacher and principal evaluation system that incorporates student achievement as a significant factor, the report said.

Such value-added formulas measure a teacher's effect on a student's learning through standardized test scores, taking into account a student's past performance and such factors as race or poverty. Some experts and teacher unions are skeptical of the method, and those critics have had allies in Gov. Jerry Brown and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.

The California Department of Education had little use for Rhee's rating, with Deputy Supt. Richard Zeiger telling the New York Times that the F grade was a "badge of honor."

The department did not back down when the remark sparked some criticism.

"We're quite happy that California is moving in the opposite direction," said spokesman Paul Hefner. "We think that our schools are making incredible progress, given the enormous strains schools have been under in recent years."

Rhee's top-rated states are Louisiana and Florida; each earned a B-. No state earned an A.

Louisiana has been notable for converting many campuses to non-union charter schools. The state also allows lower-income students or those at poorly performing schools to receive public funds for private school. Florida requires 50% of a teacher's evaluation to be based on student performance. Parents are notified when children are placed with a teacher designated as unsatisfactory, the report said.

Rhee's system gives credit for aggressive state intervention as opposed to local control. Montana was among states receiving an F, in part for asserting "no authority to intervene when schools and districts are not meeting expectations."

The Rhee system gives no direct credit for actual student achievement or the level of spending on schools. Massachusetts, which is frequently lauded in both areas, received a D+ from Rhee's group.

Rhee rose to prominence as the head of schools in the District of Columbia, where she pressured educators to improve student achievement and fired many of them.

via LA Times