'UTLA Protest Against Principal' photo (c) 2014, Clotee Allochuku - license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Here are some recent important posts and articles on educational policy issues:

Of course, the big news this week was the awful Vergara decision. Here are some good pieces that have come out and that I’m adding to California Court Rules It’s All The Teachers’ Fault, which is where I’ve been collecting post-court-decision analyses. You can also find a lot of background info at The Best Resources On California Court Case Attacking Teacher’s Rights (I used the photo to illustrate this post because of LA Supt Deasy’s public support of the ruling):

AFT’s Weingarten smacks Arne Duncan about his praise for Vergara decision is from The Washington Post.
Tenure Is Not the Problem is by Richard Kahlenberg.

Taking On Teacher Tenure Backfires is by Jesse Rothstein and appeared in The New York Times.

Fuzzy Math: The guesstimate that struck down California’s teacher tenure laws. is from Slate.

“Strict scrutiny” of Vergara ruling a setback for California teachers is by David B. Cohen.

A silver lining in the Vergara decision? is from The Washington Post.

Why that ruling against teacher tenure won’t help your schoolchildren appeared in The LA Times.

Here’s a great video response from National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel:

Here are posts on other policy topics:

Is Teacher Attrition Actually Increasing? is from The Shanker Blog.

Unions and the Concept of ‘Adult Interests’ is from Ed Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning Why Teachers Unions Are Important.

The VA and VAM is by Gene Glass.

Morality, Validity, and the Design of Instructionally Sensitive Tests is by David Berliner and appeared in Ed Week. Here’s an excerpt:

A consensus is that outside of school factors account for about 60% of the variance in student test scores, while schools account for about 20% of that variance (Haertel, 2013; Borman and Dowling, 2012; Coleman et al., 1966). Further, about half of the variance accounted for by schools is attributed to teachers. So, on tests that may be insensitive to instruction, teachers appear to account for about 10% of the variance we see in student achievement test scores (American Statistical Association, 2014). Thus outside-of-school factors appear 6 times more powerful than teachers in effecting student achievement.

I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn What Impact A Teacher & Outside Factors Have On Student Achievement.

Gates Foundation urges delay in using tests for teacher evaluation
is from The Washington Post.