Lawmakers in January passed legislation to make California eligible for a chunk of the more than $4 billion 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.
"We can at least have a conversation about what (an evaluation system) should look like," said Pat Mazzulli, president of the Fontana Teachers Association. "We find it objectionable, but if that's what's going to happen, we want to have that conversation."
The effort to link student achievement and teacher performance comes at a time when school districts nationwide have been battered by budget cuts. Thus, the billions of dollars provided under Race to the Top couldn't come at a better time.
But that money will only be available to districts that make the required changes.
The Fontana Teachers Association is one of the more cooperative unions in the area. It signed onto a memo from the Fontana Unified School District to the state indicating