Wall Street Journal: Calif. Assembly bill would not be genuine reform

California's School Head Fake

Sacramento tries to strip student performance from teacher evaluations.

 

Original editorial in The Wall Street Journal.

Covering the skulduggery in Sacramento is a full-time job, and sometimes it's hard to keep up, but we'll try. The latest example is an education bill that seeks to pre-empt a recent court order requiring that teachers be evaluated in part on student test scores. As always, the unions are getting the last word.

The school reform movement is sweeping the country as even many liberal Democrats seek to unite with parents against the union establishment. The Obama Administration has helped at the margin by making teacher accountability a factor in requests for more federal aid. Half of states now link teacher evaluations with student learning, and another half dozen are moving in that direction. Then there's California, which is doing a moon-walk on school reform.

To read the complete editorial, visit The Wall Street Journal.