"One battle over a federal education grant program ended last month in Sacramento. Another will begin this spring in hundreds of school districts up and down the state.
Lawmakers in January passed legislation to make California eligible for a chunk of the more than $4billion Race to the Top grant program. But if local districts want to see any of that money, they'll have to reach an agreement with local teachers unions to start judging teachers based, in part, on student test scores.
Teachers' unions have historically opposed any move to link teacher evaluations to student performance, and observers are pessimistic that many unions will go along this time.
'It's not reflective of the teacher's teaching skills because you have to understand that students are different and there are different types of learners,' said Tyra Weis, president of Associated Pomona Teachers."
