California could lose out on millions of federal education dollars unless legislators change a law that prevents it from using student test scores to measure teachers' performance, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is expected to announce in a speech today.
California has among the worst records of any state in collecting and using data to evaluate teachers and schools.
Moreover, a 2006 law that created a teacher database explicitly prohibited the use of student test scores to hold teachers accountable on a statewide basis, although it did not mention local districts.
Only a few of the state's nearly 1,000 districts evaluate teachers by using their students' scores, though a dozen more are considering such moves, according to state officials. Los Angeles Unified, the state's largest, does not grade teachers based on student performance.
Data-driven school reform is a major focus of the Obama administration's education policies.
Duncan, who has repeatedly chastised states with similar laws, plans to withhold some economic stimulus money from those states, according to an advance text of his speech to be given today at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington.
Money from the administration's Race to the Top fund, about $4.35 billion, is intended to help states boost reform efforts at a time when most are facing severe budget cutbacks.
That money, a fraction of the nearly $100 billion provided for education through the economic stimulus bill, will be granted competitively in large chunks to a few states.
In recent public appearances, Duncan singled out California's law as "ridiculous" and "mind-boggling," saying that it prevents the state from identifying which of the state's 300,000 teachers are effective and which are not.
"No one in California can tell you which teacher is in which category," Duncan said at one meeting of education officials. "Something is wrong with that picture."
If Duncan stands firm on his position, state legislators may have to renegotiate the sensitive issue with the state's powerful teachers unions, which are concerned that their local collective bargaining agreements would be trumped by state law.
"We would have some very serious discussions with the Legislature" if they tried to rewrite the 2006 legislation, said David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Assn.
