Parents of children in the Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD” or “District”), backed by the advocacy group EdVoice, filed suit in the Los Angeles Superior Court on October 31, 2011 seeking to compel the District to abide by Education Code section 44660 et seq., commonly known as the Stull Act.
The Stull Act was enacted in 1971 and requires teachers to be evaluated relative to students’ progress towards locally determined standards. In 1999 the Stull Act was expanded to require evaluation of teachers relative to students’ progress towards state adopted academic content standards as measured by state assessments.
The suit alleges that the District never obeyed the Stull Act’s mandate; it alleges that certificated employee unions, “in collusion with the District’s governing boards and superintendents . . . made it impossible for the District to lawfully evaluate certificated personnel and indentify and require specific corrective action to retain, transfer, suspend, or dismiss unsatisfactory personnel based, in part, on evidence which demonstrates whether or not students are learning.” The suit further states that “the adults’ collective employment and political interests are turning the childrens’ opportunity to learn and their fundamental right to basic educational equality in the public schools on its head.”
Hearing on the suit is scheduled for November 21.
The complaint can be accessed here.
Meghan Covert Russell
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