Solvejg Wastvedt | MPR News
“A group of parents backed by a national nonprofit say Minnesota’s teacher tenure laws perpetuate the state’s academic achievement gap between white students and students of color.
The group on Thursday filed a lawsuit that challenges Minnesota laws that make it more difficult to fire teachers once they’ve been employed for more than three years. The suit was filed in Ramsey County district court.”
Motoko Rich | The New York Times
“Opening a new front in the assault on teacher tenure, a group of parents backed by wealthy philanthropists served notice to defendants on Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging Minnesota’s job protections for teachers, as well as the state’s rules governing which teachers are laid off as a result of budget cuts.
Similar to cases in California and New York, the plaintiffs, who are filing the lawsuit in district court in Ramsey County in St. Paul, argue that the state’s tenure and layoff laws disproportionately harm poor, minority children because, they say, the most ineffective teachers are more likely to be assigned to public schools with high concentrations of those children.”
Naomi Nix | The 74
“From California to New York, political and policy struggles between labor groups and education reform advocates over teacher tenure laws have slowly made their way through the courts.
The next battleground? Minnesota.
An education reform group initiated a lawsuit against the state Wednesday afternoon, alleging that its laws governing teacher tenure and dismissal violate children’s right to a quality education.”
Sonali Kohli | Los Angeles Times
“Headlines and talk shows across the country often feature parents worried about their children’s stressful workload or pulling their kids out of new standardized tests.
But an umbrella organization of civil rights groups contends that there is a huge population of people whose voices are missing when talking about the needs of schools. In a nationally representative survey of black and Latino parents in the U.S., the Leadership Conference Education Fund found that these parents care about having good teachers, more money for their schools and a more challenging curriculum for their students.”
Molly Hensley-Clancy | BuzzFeed News
“A New York City mother knew something was seriously wrong when the school called to say her eight-year old son had stabbed himself in the ear with a pencil. He had been bullied relentlessly for months, she said, and when she came to pick him up that day, he told her he had only wanted to make the insults stop. His leg was marked with visible bruises from a bully’s foot.
New York City public schools are bound by law to protect children from bullying by investigating and remediating acts of violence. But the mother said that never happened for her special-needs son. He lost sleep because of stress and anxiety for a half a year until he was finally moved to another class, away from the bully who had repeatedly hit, harassed, and chased him.”
Marc Porter Magee, Vallay Varro | Education Post
“Over the past two years, 1,300 people applied for just 10 spots in 50CAN’s Education Advocacy Fellowship. The extraordinary response is a reflection of the deep hunger in our country for better schools. People want to speak out, get involved and make a difference and we are proud to provide a platform for dedicated, principled individuals to do this work.
We’re also proud to work side by side with strong partners like StudentsFirst, who have been driving policy changes in states all across the country since their founding in 2010. Last week we announced that 50CAN and StudentsFirst are joining to create a new and better advocacy organization with deeper roots in the communities we serve.”
Mark Keierleber | The 74
“In an effort to strengthen state-level efforts across the country, the education reform organizations StudentsFirst and 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now (better known as 50CAN) are merging, 50CAN will announce today.
The new group will be known as 50CAN, but StudentsFirst state chapters will retain their names (except in Pennsylvania, where their work overlapped).
While both organizations have focused on state-level change — working to expand charter schools, for instance, and overhaul teacher tenure laws — the merger reflects the increased importance of state policy-making in the era ushered in by the Every Student Succeeds Act.”
Rossileny Linarez, Shalamar & Kashay Wood | The Bronx Chronicle
“Like a lot of parents in the Bronx, we worry about the quality of the schools in our neighborhoods and we wish we had better choices in where to send our kids to school. We believe in the value of education and we understand how important it is for our kids to get a solid foundation starting an early age. That’s why it’s so frustrating to watch our children struggle in chronically failing schools. Ours kids work so hard, but the system is letting them down. That’s why the system needs to change. We need more choice, including more charter schools, in the Bronx.”
Anita Abedian | The Village Voice
“For years, parents, teachers, and city officials have been arguing about how to end overcrowded classrooms, the absence of certified librarians, and the lack of basic resources in New York City’s public schools. As far back as 2008, then–City Councilmember Gale Brewer was talking about these problems. Brewer has since been elected Manhattan borough president. Yet not much has changed.
Now a group of students want to stop the demolition-by-neglect. Hoping to light a fire under the adults who have so far failed them, the high schoolers are staging a protest — on an actual stage, starting this Wednesday, March 23, at the Teachers College at Columbia University.”
Cami Anderson | The Wall Street Journal
“An appeal is under way of the landmark 2014 Vergara v. California ruling in favor of nine public-school students who courageously challenged state laws they said deprived them of a quality education. The ruling by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge struck down California’s teacher tenure, dismissal and ‘last in, first out’ layoff laws on grounds that they violate the equal protection clause of the state constitution and ‘disproportionately affect poor and/or minority students.’
Opening arguments in the appeal, which began Feb. 25, had me reflecting on the disheartening lessons I learned regarding teacher’s contracts and labor laws during the five years I served as superintendent of New York City’s Alternative High Schools and Programs (District 79).”