After week two of the Vergara v. California trial, and the plaintiff are still up to the stand stating their case. During the week, the plaintiff’s arguments were centered around the testimonies of an administrator who was forced by law to fire an effective teacher, a teacher who was fired because of the teacher tenure statutes, and a more expert witnesses corroborating the correlation between student success in the classroom and teacher effectiveness, according to the Students Matter website.

New Arguments

The plaintiff introduced a new angle to their argument and said that ineffective teachers in the public education system impacted low-income and minority students and widened the achievement gap further by way of the "Dance of the Lemons," the idea of moving an ineffective teacher to a low-performing school elsewhere.

By doing so, “a[n ineffective] teacher can exist without parent pressure at a lower end school,” according to Mark Douglas, the assistant superintendent of personnel services in Fullerton. This alleviates pressure off the school and the teacher, but inadvertently is putting weight on the low-income, minority students who live and attend said schools, according to the plaintiff.

The "Dance of the Lemons" occurs because of the lengthy and difficult processes required to fire an ineffective teacher. In a trickle-down effect, low-income, minority students get hurt.

Important Players

Jonathan Raymond: Former superintendent of Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) told the story about his son’s teacher who he had to lay off due to the LIFO statute, according to the Students Matter Twitter account.

Dr. Mark Douglas: Assistant Superintendent in Fullerton who gave testimony of participating in the "Dance of the Lemons."

Dr. Thomas Kane: Harvard professor expert witness showed the evidence and studies that supported the idea that 1.) student achievement is directly related to teacher effectiveness and 2.) that in the LAUSD, ineffective teachers are more commonly assigned to low-performing schools.

Defendant Response

The California Teacher’s Association (CTA) has posted a lot more information about their platform on their website. Here are some of the main arguments of their case against the plaintiff, most alluding to the meritlessness and misdirection of the plaintiff's case.

• “If upheld, it will make it harder to attract and retain quality teachers in our schools,” according to the California Teachers Association.
• “Simply put, this lawsuit highlights the wrong problems, proposes the wrong solutions, and follows the wrong process.”
• “The real needs facing our students today are adequate resources, smaller class sizes, parental involvement and quality teacher training.”

 

Reach Staff Reporter Katie Chen here. Follow her on Twitter here.