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MARK D. ROSENBAUM (BAR NO. 59940) BROOKS M. ALLEN (BAR NO. 215357) DAVID SAPP (BAR NO. 264464) ACLU Foundation of Southern California 1313 W. 8th Street Los Angeles, California 90017 Telephone: 213.977.5220

CATHERINE E. LHAMON (BAR NO. 192751) LAURA FAER (BAR NO. 223846) HERNAN VERA (BARNO. 175149) Public Counsel 610 South Ardmore Avenue Los Angeles, California 90005 Telephone: 213.385.2977 ext. 142

JACK W. LONDEN (BAR NO. 85776) SEAN P. GATES (BAR NO. 186247) RYAN J. MALLOY (BAR NO. 253512) DALE K. LARSON (BAR NO. 266165) Morrison & Foerster LLP

555 West Fifth Street Los Angeles, California 90013-1024 Telephone: 213.892.5200 Facsimile: 213.892.5454

Attorneys for Plaintiffs

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

SHARAIL REED, a minor, by Victoria Wiggins, guardian ad litem; A Y ANA REYNOLDS, a minor, by Shanita Rogers, guardian ad litem; KENY ATTA JONES, a minor, by Shanita Rogers, guardian ad litem; CESAR LOGRONO, by Jorge Arnulfo Logrono Arias, guardian ad litem; VICTOR SANCHEZ, by Teresa Martinez, guardian ad litem; CONCEPCTONA MANUEL-FLORES, a minor, by Natividad Flores, guardian ad litem; LILIANE RODRIGUFl, a minor, by Gabriela Garcia, guardian ad litem; YAMILETT RIVAS, a minor, by Amparo Hemandez, guardian ad litem,

Plaintiffs,

v.

STATE OF CALIFORNIA; LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT,

Defendants. ------..... _----

Case No. BC 432420

[CLASS ACTION]

DECLARATION OF LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS' MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

.---.------.-.. --.-.. -.---.-.. -.--------~---.-.-------DECLARATION OF LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND

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I, LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND declare as follows:

2 1. The facts in this declaration are based on my own personal knowledge. This

3 declaration also represents my expert opinion based on my experience in my field and my review of

4 relevant literature, upon which experts in my field would reasonably rely in forming opinions, and

5 also of other declarations in this case, including declarations of Plaintiffs, and of teachers and

6 principals at Gompers, Markham and Liechty Middle Schools (Plaintiffs' Schools). I have also

7 reviewed the Complaint in this matter. If called to testify, I could testify competently to the facts and

8 expert opinions described in this declaration.

9 EDUCATIONAL AND EMPLOYMENT BACKGROUND

10 2. I currently serve as. the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford

II University, and as the Co-Director of both the School Redesign Network and the Stanford Center for

12 Opportunity Policy in Education at Stanford.

13 " .:l. I previously also served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education

14 Program. Prior to my tenure at Stanford University, I was the William F. Russell Professor in the

15 Foundations of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. There, I was the founding

16 Executive Director of the National Commission for Teaching and America's Future, the blue-ribbon

17 panel whose 1996 report What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, catalyzed major policy

18 changes across the United States to improve the quality of teacher education and teaching.

19 4. My research, teaching, and policy work focus on issues of teaching quality, school

20 reform, and educational equity. I have done extensive research on teacher recruitment, retention,

21 quality, and effectiveness. Among my more than 300 publications is The RighI to Learn, recipient of

22 the American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Book Award for 1998; Teaching as

23 the Learning Profession (co-edited with Gary Sykes), recipient of the National Staff Development

24 Council's Outstanding Book Award for 2000; Powerfit! Teacher Education: Lessonsfi'ol11 Ewmplary

25 Programs (Jossey-Bass, 2006); Preparing Teachersfor a Changing World: What Teachers Should

26 Learn and Be Able to Do (with John Bransford; Jossey-Bass, 2005), winner of the AACTE Pomeroy

27 Award; and The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our

28 Future (Teachers College Press, 2010).

1 DECLARATION OF LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND

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1 5. I received a BA magna cum laude from Yale University in 1973 and EdD (doctor of

2 Education) in Urban Education from Temple University in 1978, with dis.tinction. I am a member of

3 the National Academy of Education and have served as President of the American Educational

4 Research Association. A copy of my curriculum vitae detailing my credentials is attached hereto as

5 Exhibit A.

6 6. I have consulted and testified as an expert in a number of legal cases involving access

7 to public education, including Williams v. California, Case No. 312236, filed in 2000, and

8 Valenzuela v. California, et aI., Case No. CPF 06506050, filed in 2005. In the Williams case, I

9 submitted a report entitled Access to Quality Teaching: An Analysis a/Inequality in Cal(/ornia 's

10 Public Schools in support of Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Adjudication of the State's Duty to

11 Ensure Equal Access to the Instructional Materials for all California's Public School Students (the

12 Williams Report). I My Williams Report discussed extensively the research regarding the importance

13 of teacher's qualifications for the quality of student learning.

14 7. The Williams lawsuit was filed on May 17, 2000 and alleged that the State of

15 California was violating the California Constitution by failing to ensure that students in lower-income

16 school districts were receiving basic educational necessities enjoyed by other children across the

17 state. The Williams suit focused on inadequate learning facilities, the inequity in the distribution of

18 school supplies, and the unequal distribution of qualified teachers. My investigation and work on the

19 Williams case, along with evidence provided by other experts, administrators, teachers, and students,

20 confirmed what many educators already knew-that there was a vast disparity among schools and

21 school districts with respect to the number of teachers who were prepared and qualified to teach in

22 their subject areas. As one would expect, the schools suffering most from the lack of qualified

23 teacher were schools serving a majority of low-income and minority students. This was especially

24 true with respect to more difficult subjects, such as high school math, English, and science courses.

25 In addition, there was a significant problem with respect to English learners; students who were

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I A copy of my Williams Report is attached to this declaration as Exhibit B.

2 DECLARATION OF LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND

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1 trying very hard to learn the English language were being taught in many cases by teachers who were

2 not credentialed or trained to teach English learners.

3 8. According to Plaintiffs' Complaint and evidence in this case, for the 2009-2010 school

4 years, the Los Angeles Unified School District issued a large number of Reduction In Force ("RIF")

5 notices, and subsequently laid off significant numbers of teachers at Plaintiffs' middle schools -

6 Samuel Gompers Middle School and Markham Middle School in Watts, and John II. Liechty Middle

7 School in the Pico-Union and Westlake neighborhoods - that were disproportionately higher than

8 layoffs at other schools in the LAUSD and throughout the State. I also understand that on March 13,

9 2010, LAUSD sent additional RIF notices to these schools for the 2010-2011 school year. This

10 declaration is in support of Plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction seeking a Court Order

11 requiring LAUSD to withdraw the 2010 RIF notices to Plaintiffs' Schools and prohibiting any

12 teacher layoffs at Plaintiffs' school for the 2010-2011 school year.

13 9. I reference below several of my findings and conclusions in the Williams case because

14 of the similarity of concerns. At the time I prepared my Williams report, these determinations relied

15 upon my research and the research of other leading scholars in the field of effective teaching for

16 underperforming schools like those featured in this case. Those findings and conclusions havc been

17 consistently l'cinforced in thc intervening years, including the following:

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(a) California's public education system is ineffective, and ranks nationally among

the bottom states in average reading and mathematics achievement. (Ex. 13 at 3-4.)

(b) The performance of low-income students has been especially hard hit by thc

decline in school quality in California. (Ex. B at 3.)

(c) California has failed, and is failing, to provide equal educational opportunities

to all of its public schools students, primarily failing poor and minority students. (Ex. 13 at 2-

5.)

(d) The quality of teachers available to students is a critical clement in the

provision of educational opportunity. (Ex. B at 16.)

(e) At the time of my Williams Report, the number of underqualified teachers had

been rising steeply for over a decade and contributed to growing inequality in opportunity to

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learn by high-minority and low-income schools. Schools serving a majority of poor and

minority students were, and still are, several times more likely to have underqualified tcachers

as those in more affluent schools. (Ex. B at 4l.)

(f) Schools serving a majority of poor and minority students also invariably suffer

from excessively high teacher turnover. (Ex. B at 40-43.)

(g) High teacher turnover leads to a number of serious problems that negatively

affect educational opportunity. (Ex. B at 40-43.)

The State of California Has Failed to Provide Its Neediest Students The Resources They Need For Basic Educational Equality

10. In settling the Williams case in August 2004, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

acknowledged that California's public schools had not adequately educated the children of California

and that many of the students had not been given a fair opportunity to learn:

Today is a landmark day. Today is a great victory that we celebrate here for California's neglected students. And I am here to tell you that we will neglect our children no more. Five years ago, the State of California was sued for failing to provide the basic tools that our children need for equal and for quality education. Many schools have run-down classrooms, broken toilets, rats running around through the schools. They're not getting their equal education materials, reading materials, homework materials. They're not getting the same equal quality teachers. These kids were 110t getting the fair chance to sllcceed.

(Governor Schwarzenegger Aug. 13, 2004 Press Conference, video available at

http://www.photos.gov.ca.gov/essayI4.html (emphasis added).) A report released by the Rand

Corporation a year later in 2005 confirmed that children in California, especially those in poor

communities, have not been given a fair opportunity to learn:

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Despite the good intentions behind Proposition 98, the RAND report documents continuing inequalities in the resources -- both capital and human -- available to schools in poor communities with large concentrations of African-American and Latino students. The inequalities represent a moral -- and arguably a state constitutional -­problem. The issues are simple to understand. Is it fair that schools with our highest poverty students also have the poorest resources? Should schools that do not have sufficient resources to succeed be held accountable for goals that require success? Shouldn't all students havc a fair chance to succeed?

4 DECLARATION OF LINDA DARLlNG-I-IAMMOND

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(Stephen J. Carroll, et al., The RAND Corp., California's K-12 Public Schools: How Are nzey

Doing? at v. (2005) ("RAND Report").) While efforts have been made in the Courts and otherwise

over the past decade to try to level the educational playing field for all of California's public school

students, the continuing and substantial inequalities between the haves and have nots in California's

schools is well-documented and indisputable. A recent report on the effects of high teacher turnover

co-sponsored by the California Department of Education, for example, recognizes the ongoing

educational inequality in California's poorest schools and the harm caused to California's students by

underqualified teachers and high teacher turnover:

If California hopes to close the achievement gap between poor students and those from more resource-rich schools and families, it will need to solve its teacher shortage and reduce the high rates of teacher turnover, especially in high poverty schools.

* * * In high-poverty schools-where teacher turnover is especially high, where often the only replacements the school can find are substitute teachers, teachers with emergency permits, novice teachers, and those who are driven away just as quickly as the ones they've replaced-

. students pay dearly.

((Futernick, K. (2007). A possible dream: Retaining California's teachers so all students learn.

Sacramento: California State University. (the "CSU Teacher Turnover Report."), p. 1.) California's

Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O'Connell, described the CSU Teacher Turnover Report as

an "important new study [that] sheds light on how we might address a critical problem in California's

schools - the shortage of qualified teachers, particularly in our most challenging schools," adding:

"Students who suffer the most from this high turnover are often those in the greatest need of continuity, experience, and expertise in their educational lives. If California is going to close the achievement gap we must ensure that all students have skilled and knowledgeable teachers with the support and resources necessary to succeed.

See http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr07 /yr07re159 .asp.

The Quality Of Teachers Available To Students Is A Critical Element In The l>rovision Of Educational Opportunity.

11. Student achievement gains are much more influenced by the quality of their schools'

28 teachers than by any other school factor. Students who are assigned to several highly effective

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teachers in a row have significantly greater gains in achievement than those who are assigned to

several ineffective teachers in sequence. See Ex. B at 14. These influences can be quite large and

can also exert residual effects in later years. That is, having a high quality teacher in one year

increases learning not only in that year but also in subsequent years. The CSU Teacher Turnover

Report agrees that a qualified and effective teacher is the most important factor in educating OLlr

children: "The most valuable asset a student has is a well-prepared, knowledgeable, and caring

teacher." At the time of my Williams Report, however, the number of underqualified teachers had

been rising steeply for over a decade and contributed to growing inequality in opportunity to learn by

high-minority and low-income schools. Schools serving a majority of poor and minority students

were several times more likely to have underqualified teachers as those in more affluent schools.

Unfortunately, this is still true today.

Teacher Turnover Is Also A Persistent Problem In Schools Serving A Majority Of Poor And Minority Students.

12. High teacher turnover leads to a number of serious problems that negatively affect

15 educational opportunity. (Ex. B at 40-43.) High turnover creates continual hiring needs and

16 instability. Schools with high turnover often staff classrooms with a continuous string of short and

17 long-term substitute teachers, as well as inexperienced teachers. This contributes to the instability

18 students experience and to the low quality of instruction, since substitutes are frequently

19 underqualified and there is little curricular coherence when personnel are constantly changing.

20 13. High levels of turnover and staff instability create additional problems for schools

21 beyond the effects of individual teachers who may be weak. As a study by Stanford Research

22 International found in California, in the 'many low-income, high-minority schools with large shares

23 of inexperienced, underprepared teachers, high turnover drains both financial and human resources.

24 Schools that hire novices and short-term teachers who leave quickly must constantly pour money into

25 recruitment and professional support for new teachers, without reaping benefits from the investments.

26 Like filling a leaky bucket, these schools are forced to repeat this waste of energy and resources over

27 and over again. Other teachers, including the few who could serve as mentors, are stretched thin by

28 the needs of their colleagues as well as their students, increasing the chance they will burn out

6 DECLARATION OF LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND

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1 (Patrick Shields, Daniel Humphrey, M.E. Wechsler, L.M. Riel, J. Tiffany-Morales, K. Woodworth,

2 Viki Young, & T. Price, The status of the teaching profession 2001. Santa Cruz, CA: The Center for

3 the Future of Teaching and Learning, 2001). Scarce resources are wasted trying to re-teach the basics

4 each year to teachers who arrive with few tools and leave before they become skilled. Most

5 important, the constant staff churn consigns a large share of children in high-need, high-turnover

6 schools to a parade of relatively ineffective teachers, with all of the long-term costs of remediation,

7 grade retention, and dropping out experienced by the society at large.

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14. Teachers and administrators from high-turnover schools interviewed for the Williams

case noted that many classes are taught for a substantial part of the year without a permanent,

credentialed teacher. They repeatedly testified that little learning goes on in classrooms with

substitute teachers, as many substitutes in highly-impacted schools lack the content knowledge and

teaching skill for the class they teach and most focus only on classroom control or "babysitting."

Following are excerpts from some of that testimony:

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(The substitutes~ were not trained and, honestly, they weren't qualified for the job. When a substitute teacher works as a long-term teacher, say, three months at a time, there is a lot of time they spend just kind of doing busy work and baby-sitting with the kids because they don't really understand how to deliver curriculum or how to assess. They don't know that. One man who was there was a nice man, but he was an art teacher and he didn't really know what he was doing and they really suffered and I know they suffered because I taught them the following year and they lacked some basic skills they should have gotten when they were in his class (Malabed, v. 2, 310:23-311:13).

[In a case with multiple substitutes] Those kids were really suffering. They weren't learning for months .... I don't even remember there being somebody permanent in there, honestly. There may have been, but it seemed to me like when there was an adult in there, that they would be watching the non-educational films we talked about earlier or maybe doing textbook homework without any support from anybody who spoke Spanish or knew how to teach it (Safir, v. 2, 304:22-305:8). Teacher turnover at Bryant was very high. The first two years I was there, I think it was 50 percent both years ... And it was very hard on the school. It was very hard on the administration of the school because they took with them wisdom and practices that were not written down. It was very hard on the kids, this lack of continuity, and it was hard on the community to have new teachers coming and going all the time. That is why I became a mentor teacher in my second year there because I had to. There was so much turnover, it was my turn to be a big buddy and it was only my second year. It was tough. (Malabed, v. 2, 333:12-18; 334:22-335:7).

7 DECLARATION OF LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND

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[Regarding concerns about teacher turnover] ... (H)aving that many new teachers on the staff at any given time meant that there was less of a knowledge base. It meant that it was harder for families to be connected to the school because -- you know, their child might get a new teacher every year. It meant there was less cohesion on the staff. It meant that every year, we had to recover ground in professional development that had already been covered and try to catch people up to sort of where the school was heading (Salyer, v. 1, 141 :3-142:9.)

(I)t was a topic that was ... discussed at the lunch table about the fact we had a class that had had so many substitutes and had an uncredentialed teacher who was not able to handle the situation and ended up not returning and the kids were going to struggle and that the ... teachers who received them the next year would probably have a difficult time with those students because of what they had bccn through the prior year (Salyer, v. 1,167:21-168:15).

The CSU Teacher Turnover Report confirms the tremendous costs and negative

11 educational impact of excessive teacher turnover:

12 Researchers estimate that California spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually to recruit, screen, and prepare individuals who replace

13 pre-retirement teachers who leave the profession and teachers who transfer to other schools. Beyond dollars and cents, costs are nearly

14 incalculable in terms of the negative impact that the churning of teachers and loss of teacher experience has on the instructional

15 continuity of a school. The very fact that so many teachers flee certain types of schools should serve as an unambiguous signal that something

16 about these schools' work environment is wrong and needs to be fixed. The state will always require a sufficient quantity of new teachers, but a

17 strategy that merely replaces experienced leavers with novices is not only hugely expensive, it diminishes the collective wisdom and

18 expertise of the teaching force. This generates an intangible cost far greater than the millions of dollars spent annually to replace

19 teachers, and it is way too costly in terms of its impact on student learning.

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21 (CSU Teacher Turnover Report at 1.) (emphasis added.)

22 16. Beyond the obvious harm to the students directly affected by continually rotating

23 teachers, high teacher turnover attacks the very fabric of the educational institution and learning

24 environment:

25 But even when schools are able to find qualified replacements, sudden and frequent staffing changes create their own problems. The academic

26 and social environment suffers from a lack of consistency and coherence because new arrivals are unfamiliar with the school's

27 policies, its curriculum and instructional practices, even its students. And when staff members are unfamiliar with one another, it becomes

28 much harder to establish the kind of collaborative, mutually supportive

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professional environment that exists in most successful schools. Teacher turnover can become particularly disruptive when schools hire novice teachers as replacements. In a study that examined the effects of teacher turnover on urban elementary schools, one teacher reported:

Every time we lost a teacher, nine times out of ten it was a first­year teacher we had brought in. Well, the first year is always sheer chaos and you feel like you are not doing anything appropriately. So we would constantly be getting a set o{new teachers. Having perpetual chaos (Guin, 2004, p. 6).

According to the author of the study, Kacey Guin (2004), "[s]he went on to say that the constant stream of new teachers impaired her ability to do her job effectively. Time normally spent with her students was spent helping new colleagues acclimate to their new school environment" (p. 10). Turnover also places a heavy burden on school principals. Diverted from their critical role as the school's educational leader, they are forced to spend inordinate amounts of time hiring replacements and helping them adjust to their new environments.

CSU Teacher Turnover Report at 11-12. At some point the overall expertise in the school is

inadequate to support sound educational decision making or collegial learning. When thcre arc fcvvcr

people with training and experience, the "collective knowledge" of a school is weakened. Thcre are

few experienced personnel who know good practice, understand the school community, and can

diagnose students' needs and how to meet them. Even if there are some knowledgeable teachers on

staff, it is impossible for them to carry the load for the entire faculty. With a smaller pool of vetcran

teachers who can serve as mentors to beginners, there are few resources for novices to learn. Thc fcw ,

relatively experienced teachers left in a school are overburdened with leadership responsibilities, thus

contributing to their own "burn out." Ex. B at 44. In short, an effective and stable teacher force is

critical to providing equal educational opportunity to underserved schools and students. As

demonstrated by the statistics, and student, teacher and principal declarations, this is something that

Plaintiffs' Schools have never known.

17. The Williams settlement's implementing legislation includes provisions to assist local

school districts in California that have had difficulty attracting, retaining, or properly assigning

teachers. Cal. Educ. Code § 44511 (a)(l). To qualify for certain funds, school districts arc now

required to include in their "school action plan" a component that addresses having "highly qualified

teachers" in each school and provision of "appropriately credentialed teachers for English learncrs."

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DECLARATION OF LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND sf-2821068

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Cal. Educ. Code § 52055.625(b)(2). The remedial measures outlined in the Williams settlement will

take years to implement to begin to remedy the educational inequities suffered by the affected

children, however. In addition to the effects of the recent budget cuts, many of the programs once

enacted to support the recruitment, preparation, and retention of qualified teachers for high-need

schools have been discontinued over the last 5 years. As confirmed by the State's own reports, many

California schools, primarily those serving a majority of low-income and minority students, continue

to struggle for equivalent resources and for enough qualified teachers and, absent a change in state

policy, will continue to do so for some time. Plaintiffs' Schools in this case are just three of many

such schools where students are not getting the same basic quality of education enjoyed by their peers

in more affluent schools.

Plaintiffs' Schools Are Prime Examples Of The Poor and Minority Schools That The Statc Of California lIas Neglected And Continues To Neglect.

18. Samuel Gompers Middle School is located in Watts in South Central Los Angeles.

14 For the 2008-2009 school year, Gompers Middle School's enrollment was just over 1600 students.

15 Of these students, 29 percent were black and 71 percent were Latino. Just over one third of the

16 students were English language learners, and 76 percent of the students come from low-income

17 households.

18 19. Gompers is a chronically low performing school, having been on Program

19 Improvement status since 1997-1998, which means it has consistently failed to meet student

20 achievement goals for over a decade. On average; over the last five years, fewer than 15 percent of

21 students at Gompers performed at or above proficient on state achievement testing.

22 20. According to the LAUSD School Accountability Report Card Report (SARC Report),

23 Gompers severely lacked fully credentialed teachers. In 2006-2007, 40 percent of the teachers at

24 Gompers did not have full credentials, and in 2007-2008, that number was 48 percent. However,

25 recruitment efforts over the last couple of years have improved the situation, where the percentage or

26 teachers without full credentials decreased to 9 percent in 2008-2009. Information on teacher

27 credentials is not yet available for 2009-2010.

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DECLARATION or LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND 5f-282 1068

21. Teacher misassignments have similarly been a problematic area for Gompers. In

2 2007-2008, there were a total of 160 teacher misassignments, 83 of those in teachers of English

3 Learners. Again, Gompers' recruitment efforts reduced the total teacher misassignments to 100 in

4 2008-2009. However, after the RIF in 2009, the total teacher misassignments increased to 152.

5 22. Edwin Markham Middle School is located in Watts in South Central Los Angeles.

6 For the 2008-2009 year, Markham Middle School's enrollment was just over 1500 students. Of these

7 students, 27 percent were black and 72 percent were Latino. Just under one third of the students were

8 English language learners, and 82 percent of the students come from low-income households.

9 23. Like Gompers, Markham is a chronically low performing school, and has been on

10 Program Improvement status since 1997-1998. On average, over the last five years, fewer than

11 13 percent of its students performed at or above proficient on state achievement testing.

12 24. According to the SARC Report, there has been a substantial insufficiency in fully

13 credentialed teachers at Gompers as well. In 2006-2007,47 percent of the teachers at Markham did

14 not have fuli credentials, and in 2007-2008, that number was 36 percent. However, recruitment

15 efforts over the last couple of years have improved the situation, where the percentage of teachers

16 without full credentials decreased to 12 percent in 2008-2009. Information on teacher credentials is

17 not yet available for 2009-2010.

18 25. Teacher misassignments have similarly been a problematic area for Markham. In

19 2007-2008, there were a total of 147 teacher misassignments, 82 of those in teachers of English

20 Learners. Again, Markham's recruitment efforts reduced the total teacher misassignments to 112 in

21 2008-2009. However, after the RIF in 2009, the total teacher misassignmcnts nearly doubled to 216.

22 26. John H. Liechty Middle School, founded in 2007, serves students in the Pico-Union

23 and Westlake neighborhoods of Los Angeles. For the 2008-2009 year, Liechty Middle School's

24 enrollment was just over 1900 students. Of these students, 2 percent were black, 96 percent were

25 Latino, 1 percent were Filipino, and 1 percent were Asian / Pacific American. Approximately 42

26 percent of the students were English language learners, and 90 percent of the students come from

27 low-income households.

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1 27. In the first two years of its existence, about 24 percent of its students performed at or

2 above proficient on state achievement testing.

3 28. According to the SARC Report, in 2008-2009, 16 percent of the teachers at Liechty

4 did not have full credentials, which is substantially higher than the district wide average of 4 percent

5 Information on teacher credentials is not yet available for 2009-2010.

6 29. Teacher misassignments have also increases at Liechty since the RIF. In 2008-2009,

7 there were a total of 283 teacher misassignments, 35 of those in teachers of English Learncrs.

8 However, after the RIF in 2009, the total teacher misassignments increased to 317, and

9 misassignments in teachers of English Learners increased to 56.

10 30. Even before the layoffs last year, based on the statistics above, and the teacher and

11 principal declarations, these schools were woefully unprepared to provide their students the basic

12 educational opportunity they are entitled to under the California Constitution. That being said,

13 without sufficient support from the State, a committed core of teachers and administrators at these

14 schools developed their own initiatives to attract and retain effective teachers who wanted to teach at

15 their schools. For example, principal Timothy Sullivan explained these efforts in August 2008: "I

16 had my pick of the best young teachers in the nation, and I chose the ones who would share in our

17 vision, had state of the art training in reaching students like ours, and had shown success in their

18 education and training. Thirty-two current teachers took it upon themselves to form a hiring

19 committee to ensure that our students would be taught by individuals who genuinely wanted to teach

20 here and could succeed. We made sure to not accept any teachers who only wanted to be here

21 because they couldn't find a job anywhere else, and we were meticulous in ensuring that the teachers

22 we hired would stay for the long haul. We spent hundreds and hundreds of collective hours working

23 to put together a great staff of teachers." In addition, "[Markham] spent about $500,000 on

24 professional development for our new staff that year."

25 31. Principal Sonia Miller confirmed similar investment at Gompers: "I spen[t] $160,000

26 on one reading program, $95,000 on another reading program, $55,000 on yet another reading

27 program, $63,000 on a math program, $47,000 on another math program, and $150,000 on Saturday

28 school. I have even spent $360,000 on teaching coaches from UCLA to help my teachers."

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32. Liechty, only in existence since 2007, was built upon its Principal's "very progressive

2 vision of education, to try innovative ways of teaching that is inquiry-based and includes a lot of

3 professional development for teachers." (Vidal)

4 33. As demonstrated by the declarations of educators at Plaintiffs' Schools, these efforts

5 were showing progress. For example, Mr. Sullivan was encouraged by the progress at Markham:

6 "Our amazing staff were showing up every day for these kids... I reminded myself that as long as I

7 have a corps of dedicated teachers, we could do amazing things together ... In just a few months, it

8 was clear to me that we had already made progress."

9 34. Similarly, Ms. Miller felt the recruiting and training efforts at Gompers have helped

10 established the corps of teachers that Gompers needed: "Many of the teachers who received RIF

11 notices at our school this year are exceptional teachers, including some who are in the upper five

12 percent of our teachers. In fact, several of these teachers - Ms. Volic, Mr. Sandoval, and Ms. Talley

13 to name a few - are among the best teachers I have ever encountered in my career. .. These teachers

14 arc passionate about their work. Beyond being fantastic instructors, the teachers I am losing excelled

15 at developing strong relationships with students and their families."

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35. While teaching at Plaintiffs' Schools presented numerous challenges prior to the

layoffs, those challenges were being tackled head on by a seemingly dedicated group of teachers and

administrators who care about the students and education at these schools. Sadly, however, whatever

progress was being made in these schools has been destroyed by the massive teacher layoffs last year,

and threats of more to come.

The Massive Teacher Layoffs at Plaintiffs' Schools for the 2009/2010 School Year Have Greatly Exacerbated An Already Challenging And Largely Ineffective Learning Environment Rendering Effective Teaching And Learning Virtually Impossible.

36. Following the 2009 layoffs, and the recent second round of RIF notices, at these

24 schools, the declarations of the principals, teacher and student paint a vivid picture of schools in

25 complete disarray. The well-documented and obvious harms flowing from high numbers of

26 unprepared teacher and high teacher turnover described above are playing out in full force in

27 Plaintiffs' Schools.

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37. Students who are eager to learn now 110 longer have an environment that supports their

2 learning. Even getting the basic state-required content is a challenge. As reflected in the student

3 declarations, the students, particular those who have expressed a desire to learn and succeed, have

4 been largely devastated by the state of their classrooms after the RIF:

5 38. "Classes are different when a substitute teaches them because they don't explain the

6 work or give assignments. When we had substitutes, we don't get lectures and don't take

7 notes ... Most of the substitutes don't give worksheets or assignments. They don't even try to teach thc

8 material. When one substitute leaves and another comes in, the new substitute usually starts the

9 material over again, so we do the same assignments again and again. Sometimes, we jump to

10 something totally different without any explanation to how it connects to what we learned before,

11 which confuses me ... .If we do get assignments from subs, we never get them back with grades or

12 comments. We don't know if the they even look at the assignments." (Declaration of Reed)

13 39. "The history class was boring with the subs. When we have classes with subs, we get

14 the same assignments in class over and over again. All the subs would do is write on the board which

15 pages to read, and that's it. They never explained the assignment or talked about why what we were

16 learning was important, and they did not answer questions if we didn't understand the reading. We

17 never had homework assignments, and I do not remember ever getting an assignment that I did in

18 class back with comments or mark ups by the sub." (Declaration of Rodriguez)

19 40. "I have all As in my classes, and I am a really good student. I had never gotten a C on

20 my report card before this year. In my English class, one of the subs who had been teaching us for

21 only a few days gave me a C, and I don't know why I got that grade. It made me really sad and think

22 it is unfair that I received that low grade when I did everything I was asked to do in my English class.

23 I don't know how that sub could grade us on anything, because he had not assigned any graded work

24 or given us tests or quizzes before he gave us our grades. And the subs that were there before him

25 never gave us graded work either. If we did any work in class, we gave it to the subs, and then we

26 never saw it all again. The grades he gave us are kind of messed up because almost every student in

27 the class got the same grade, a C ... ( Declaration of Flores)

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41. "When you have a sub that doesn't know how to run a class, the kids act howcver thcy

2 want to because they don't understand yvhy they are in class. My classes with subs feel like there is a

3 lot of confusion in them. It's kind of weird because I've never had an experience like that before. It

4 doesn't feel like school because kids playa lot in the classes with the subs. But playing is for the

5 playground and not for class." (Declaration of Flores)

6 42. "1 had a substitute named Mr. Rideaux for my 8th grade history class, but I didn't learn

7 anything in his class. I wanted to learn history, but the class was out of control. I told my mom how

8 the class was, and she told me to change classes. I agreed. I wanted to give it a chance to improve, but

9 when it was clear that it would not get better, I switched to Mr. Hawkins's class .... Mr. Rideaux actcd

10 like he didn't care. He would give homework and quizzes, but he never chec~(ed them. He never

11 taught us anything and our class was a waste. It made me feel very bad to be in that class because my

12 friends in other classes knew more history than I did because they had real teachers. It made mc feel

13 horrible. I'm not a dumb kid, but when I have a teacher who docsn't know how to tcach or doesn't

14 carc about teaching us, it makes me feel dumb." (Declaration of Jimcnez-Nava)

15 43. "School is important to me because I need to get a good cducation .... The class taught

16 by thc substitutes was boring because I didn't learn anything from the substitutes. The subs would

17 just take stull out of the text book and tell us to answer questions at the end of thc section. When I

18 was in the class with subs, I never received any work that I completed back from the subs marked up

19 to let me know if! had gotten the questions right or wrong. The substitutes also didn't explain thc

20 material to us. We never had a classroom discussion or a lecture when we had substitutes. And thc

21 substitutes would give us the same material over and over again. The subs changed during the year,

22 and the new subs would start at the beginning of the book and give us assignments that we had

23 already read." (Declaration of Rivas)

24 44. However, the effects on learning goes beyond those students who have shown an

25 aptitUde in learning. The harm resulting from massive teacher turnover, despite the desperate

26 attempts to fill classrooms with bodies (as opposed to credentialed, properly assigned teachers), is

27 much more wide reaching.

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45. "The RIFs have created an environment that is no longer conducive to learning for the

2 students ... The students understand that the substitute teachers will not stay for very long, and they

3 take full advantage of the situation. They know that they can misbehave and won't be accountable

4 for the material, and the classes often turn into chaos. The class across the hall from me has had

5 seven or eight different substitutes over a two month span. Not having a consistent teacher has made

6 that class act out of control. Students will roam the hallway in the middle of class, and they would

7 throw things everywhere. The students complain that the class is boring because it has no structure

8 or substance. When one permanent teacher covered the class and asked the students where they were

9 in the material, they answered "nowhere." After two months of school, the students didn't even know

10 what chapter they were on in the textbook. The substitutes do not communicate with each other, so

11 the students end up either repeating the same topics, or jumping around the textbook incoherently."

12 (Declaration of Viramontes).

13 46. "The most confusing thing is that even in the classes with a string of subs the students

14 have grades. I don't know where the grades come from, but the students were certainly not being

15 given a consistent curriculum ... There are probably 8 classes like this, with no permanent teacher.

16 With 35 students per class and each teacher having 2 groups, that's 560 students being affected. I

17 had to be pulled off of my current responsibility of supporting the small learning communities to

18 teach one of these classes." (Declaration ofUyeshima)

19 47. "Students take notice when they are being taught by subs instead of permanent

20 teachers. Because subs are new to the class, they have a different presence in the classroom. The

21 substitutes do not have the curriculum knowledge or the classroom management skills to effectively

22 teach the class. They look disoriented because they are unfamiliar with the students and the class

23 environment, and the kids pick up on that. The students do not defer to subs the way they would with

24 permanent teachers, and the subs do not want to spend time teaching the kids and holding them

25 accountable for their actions. Also, the substitutes tend to not take responsibility for their classes or

26 for the progress of the students. As a result of RIF, classrooms have become chaotic. For examplc,

27 when students are not taught by permanent teachers, books are strewn all over the classroom, students

28 are not listening to the substitute's instructions, and students arc coming and going at their pleasure.

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Most fundamentally, the students simply are not learning and are being left behind ... The kids want to

2 learn, but RIF is making that impossible in those classes without a permanent teacher. r know they

3 want to learn because they are excellent students when they are being taught by a permanent

4 teacher. . .. The subs cannot build on information taught by the prior subs because they do not know

5 what was taught, how it was taught, or what information needs to be further explicated. In my

6 experience, students in these classes do not receive the required information to meet the State

7 standards, let alone being taught it in a meaningful way." (Declaration of Ramirez)

8 48. "The kids are not learning the material they are supposed to learn. The school

9 administration has asked me to support the substitute teachers in another math and science class that

10 does not have a permanent teacher. I do it willingly for those kids, giving the substitute teachers my

11 lesson plans and sharing my project ideas. Not one of the substitutes has even tried to use my lesson

12 plans. I see that those kids are so behind. They are still, in March, working on standards that my

13 classes were working on in October. The kids in that class are doing conversions with fractions and

14 my classes are doing proportions now. r don't think the kids will be able to catch up. If someone

15 goes in there who is really willing to dedicate to catching kids up we could possibly get the

16 foundation for sixth grade math in for them but I think it's going to be impossible. Those kids come

17 to me every day asking me if they could be in my class." (Declaration of Vidal)

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49. "This []teacher [who was recently hired] was recently instructed by his colleagues to

"jump up" to where the teachers should have been - the War of 1812 - and "skip" roughly 60 years of

U.S. History. This means that nearly 180 students will have never been taught 60 years of American

History, but then expected to demonstrate mastery on the CST. Another teacher, a resource specialist

who took over the teaching of a history class when he was fed up with the number of substitutes, was

instructed by colleagues to "slow down" because he was too far ahead of many of the other teachers.

lIe was still 40 years behind where he should have been, but was trying to catch up so that the

students wouldn't be deficient in that knowledge. He was reprimanded for trying to help these

children." (Declaration of Melvoin)

50. While not all substitute teachers showed subpar performance, it was more often than

28 not that they did not want to teach at Plaintiffs' Schools, or could not handle the environment at these

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schools, or did not teach the material according to state's content guidelines, and/or gave minimal

2 feedback to the students, if any at all. Indeed, the term "substitute teacher" is a misnomer in this

3 situation. The common understanding of a substitute teacher is a teacher that teaches for a short

4 duration, carrying out the lesson plans of a permanent teacher, while the permanent teacher is out

5 sick, for example. That is hardly the case with substitute teachers at Plaintiffs' Schools-due to

6 difficulties to find replacement teachers, substitutes have a much longer presence at Plaintiffs'

7 Schools, but not providing adequate instructions, if any at all.

8 5l. These problems with the substitute teachers represent the harsh reality of the schools

9 and communities at issue here, as much as it may be hard to believe that professional who have

10 committed to education are actually not doing their job properly. But the facts are clear, from

11 students, teachers and administrators:

12 52. "The problem is that a substitute who lacks an appropriate credential to teach a

13 particular subject is not allowed to teach the same class for more than 30 days ... In the classes for

14 which we could not hire a permanent teacher or a long-term substitute with appropriate credentials,

15 students had a revolving door of as many as seven to ten substitutes in just four months. There is no

16 way that the rigorous educational standards that California requires can be taught in such

17 environments. Ifthere were any instruction in these classes with substitutes, it was minimal at best.

18 While some of the substitutes make an effort and do their best, not all do. Nor can we do anything

19 about the teachers who are assigned by LAUSD to teach at Markham to insure that they are qualified

20 to teach courses to which they would be assigned and believe in our students." (Declaration of

21 Sullivan)

22 53. "In my English class, one of the subs who had been teaching us for only a few days

23 gave me a C, and I don't know why I got that grade. It made me really sad and think it is unfair that I

24 received that low grade when I did everyone I was asked to do in my English class. I don't know how

25 that sub could grade us on anything, because he had not assigned any graded work or given us tests or

26 quizzes before he gave us our grades. And the subs that were there before him never gave us graded

27 work either. If we did any work in class, we gave it to the subs, and then we never saw it all again.

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The grades he gave us are kind of messed up because almost every student in the class got the same

2 grade, a C ... " (Declaration of Flores)

3 54. "[T]hese students are also being given arbitrary grades because of the number of

4 substitutes. Many of these teachers have simply given students C's for showing up to class because

5 they have never administered tests, assigned papers or given homework. At least one student,

6 Concepcion, lost her 4.0 GPA as a result of being given a C .... " (Declaration of Melvoin)

7 55. Mr. Sullivan, principal of Markham, who also received a RIF notice himself, sums it

8 up eloquently: "The children will be losing years of content due to the instability and teacher turnover

9 the RIFs have caused at Markham, and they will always live with the understanding that the system

10 let them do'wn. These students have been and will be denied educational opportunity because of the

II RIFs and are being told they are worthless because their school is being forced to bear a

12 disproportionate share of this budget shortfall. I can't blame them for feeling like nobody cares about

13 them. The children of Watts deserve more than that." (Declaration of Sullivan)

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CONCLUSION

Mr. Sullivan, like so many other declarants, is a committed educator who believed that

17 schools like Markham can succeed, and that the students deserved better education. (Sullivan '1'1 8-

18 10). He and his colleagues dedicated time, efforts and investment to put together a corps of teachers

19 who also shared their vision. (Declaration of Sullivan ,,11). Results were apparent even in a few

20 months. (Declaration of Sullivan '112). But RIFs grounded these efforts and successes to a halt even

21 faster. (Declaration of Sullivan ",,13-19).

22 57. Even with the best efforts of the committed and experienced educators remaining at

23 Plaintiffs' Schools, under the circumstances described above, these schools simply are not functioning

24 as effective learning environments for their students. The students affected by the prior RIFs already

25 require additional attention from teachers to catch them up so far as possible. The 2010 RIF is only

26 exacerbating the situation, causing more turnovers, and plummeting morale among students and

27 teachers. Overall, the RIFs have caused the.infrastructure at Plaintiff's Schools to fail-- experienced

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whether the Sam.e teachers will return the next day. Given the clear demoralization of the teachers

2 and students, the complete lack of stability and educational continuity, and the very high number of

3 teacher misassignments, in particular for English Learning students, it simply is not possible that the

4 teachers are effectively delivering their students the knowledge and skills required by the State-

5 mandated content standards. The damage to students is lasting, as they will miss many of the

6 fimdamental educational building blocks that will hinder their future academic endeavors.

7 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of CalifoI11ia that the foregoing

8 is true and correct.

9 Executed. this eday Of~, 2010, at Stanford, California,

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