Topic: Rulings

Lawsuit settlement ends use of value-added evaluations for Houston teachers

Publish Date: October 11, 2017

In another huge victory for the right of teachers to be fairly evaluated, Houston ISD agreed, in a settlement of a federal lawsuit brought by seven Houston teachers and our local union-- the Houston Federation of Teachers--not to use value-added scores to terminate a teacher as long as the teacher is unable to independently test or challenge the score. The most significant blow in this lawsuit was...

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Multi-Factor University of Texas Admission Policy Upheld; Court Deadlocks in Immigration Case

Publish Date: June 23, 2016

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, today welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s four-to-three decision upholding the admissions policy of the University of Texas against a constitutional challenge. Weingarten said: “The AFT, as the nation’s largest union of faculty and a longtime champion of racial equity, joins with our allies in celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision to affirm...

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Putting Some Teeth into the Texas Paperwork Reduction Act

Publish Date: August 18, 2015

The Education Code has contained a so-called Paperwork Reduction Act pretty much in its current form since 2003, but the law has not always lived up to its stated intent to “limit redundant requests for information and the number and length of written reports that a classroom teacher is required to prepare.” Hence we are pleased to report that a...

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