Central Valley Education
Coalition

July 6, 2015
The Honorable Carol Liu, Chair
California State Senate Education Committee
State Capitol, Room 5097
Sacramento, CA 95814
SUBJECT:

AB 575 (O’DONNELL) TEACHERS: BEST PRACTICES TEACHER EVALUATION
SYSTEM: ADMINISTRATOR EVALUATION
OPPOSE - AS AMENDED JUNE 2, 2015

Dear Senator Liu:
On behalf of the California Chamber of Commerce and the below-listed local education agencies and statewide
organizations, we write in continued OPPOSITION to AB 575 (O’Donnell), which seeks to replace the state’s
existing teacher evaluation framework (the Stull Act) with one that, among other things, would be entirely subject to
collective bargaining and take away management’s existing authority to unilaterally establish criteria for measuring
student progress and teacher effectiveness. While we believe there are ways existing law could be improved, AB
575 seeks to completely rewrite it, and would actually make it harder for school districts to prioritize student
achievement and provide support to developing teachers.
Currently, only the conditions and benefits of employment – including evaluation procedures – are required to be
collectively bargained. Under the terms of AB 575, however, academic and student progress issues would become
inextricably linked with financial matters and other employment conditions subject to bargaining. This would
dramatically increase the complexity of contract negotiations and the frequency of impasse by giving unions the
power to negotiate items related to teacher effectiveness including:
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Acceptable levels of overall job performance
The standards by which student progress would be measured
Acceptable rates of student progress
Whether teachers must be able to narrow achievement gaps to be deemed highly effective
How standardized test results, if used, would be weighted against other measures of student progress
The extent to which teachers could be held accountable for their classroom environments
What support, if any, would be provided to struggling teachers
Whether more senior teachers would be evaluated at all

In addition, AB 575 also eliminates the authority of school district governing boards and county supervisors to
unilaterally establish standards for student achievement as it relates to teacher effectiveness. This is arguably one
of the most fundamental policy decisions school management teams are empowered to make, and it is essential to
their mission to ensure that all students receive a quality education. As such, it is absolutely critical that they retain

 July 6, 2015
Page 2
the sole authority to determine the standards and criteria for job performance and student achievement so they
cannot be pressured to negotiate away the significance of student progress as an indicator of teacher
effectiveness, or their responsibility to provide professional development and support to struggling teachers.
Beyond these two issues, which are the most serious, there are many other provisions that are also of concern to
us. Even to the extent that AB 575 does address some areas we think could use improvement including the
frequency of teacher evaluations, the number of performance levels used to categorize teachers during evaluation,
and the use of multiple measures to evaluate student progress, it does not address any of these issues in a way we
can support. At the same time, it so fundamentally changes the state framework for teacher evaluation systems that
we cannot easily suggest a few amendments that would resolve our concerns.
For these reasons and more, we OPPOSE AB 575 (O’Donnell) and urge you to vote “NO” when it comes before
you in committee.
Sincerely,

Mira Morton, Policy Advocate
California Chamber of Commerce
On behalf of:
Association of California School Administrators
Brea Chamber of Commerce
California Association of School Business Officials
California Association of Suburban Schools
California County Superintendent Educational Services Association
California School Boards Association
Camarillo Chamber of Commerce
Central Valley Education Coalition
Chambers of Commerce Alliance of Ventura & Santa Barbara Counties
Children Now
EdVoice
Fullerton Chamber of Commerce
Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce
Kern County Superintendent of Schools
Los Angeles Unified School District
Orange County Office of Education
Riverside County Superintendent of Schools
San Joaquin County Office of Education
Small School Districts Association
Southwest California Legislative Council
Students First
The Education Trust – West
Valley Industry and Commerce Association
cc:

Members, Senate Education Committee
Cathy McBride, Office of the Governor
The Honorable Patrick O’Donnell
Lenin Del Castillo, Senate Education Committee
Roger Mackensen, Senate Republican Caucus
Senate Office of Floor Analyses