Bruce Lederman, an attorney acting on behalf of his wife, experienced elementary school teacher Sheri Lederman, filed suit to challenge the state’s teacher evaluation system. The New York State Education Department sought to have the case thrown out. Today, the New York Supreme Court ruled that the lawsuit can go forward. Good for the Ledermans!
From Bruce Lederman:
The NY Supreme Court has denied a motion by the NY Education Department to dismiss the Lederman v. King lawsuit, in which an 18 year veteran Great Neck teacher has challenged a rating of “ineffective” based upon a growth score of 1 out of 20 points, even though her students performed exceptionally well on standardized tests.
This means that the NY Education Department must now answer to a Judge and explain why a rating which is irrational by any reasonable standard should be permitted to remain. The NY Education Department argued that Sheri Lederman lacked standing to challenge an “ineffective” rating on her growth score since her overall rating was still effective and she was not fired. A judge disagreed and determined that an ineffective rating on a growth score is an injury which she is entitled to challenge in Court.
Now, Sheri will have her day in Court. A hearing will likely be scheduled in August.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It is about time! There are several cases to be made on behalf of those fighting current reforms. It seems to me several rights are being violated. I hope this inspires more parties to files suits in order to protect teachers and children from these shortsighted and undemocratic reforms. This indeed is good news.
Let’s just hope that this case is decided by a judge who has enough good sense not to be swayed by ignorant economists or others pushing “growth model’ crackpot theories.
Awesome news! Our ludicous legislators will now be “held accountable” for this travesty of justice!
Thanks for keeping us posted… I doubt that this will be reported in the NYTimes…
Bennett-Byrd resigned from Chicago schools & a $250,000 a year salary. Do u have anything on that story?
Sent from my iPhone
>
Reblogged this on We Are More and commented:
Illinois should do the same!
Let the floodgates open!!!!
Erratic and inconsistent results. I system so complex it can’t be explained? Why should it be trusted as a matter of faith? The statistical association says it’s garbage. Why isn’t it in the garbage?
Reblogged this on donotmalignme and commented:
How much do you want to bet that the NY evaluation looks similar to the evaluation systems adopted by many districts around the country under Common Core? Good luck Sheri Lenderman! May the forces of that which is ethical, correct and best for students and teachers alike be with you.
I spoke with Sheri at LIU Post at your presentation in March 2015. I was struck by how she felt wronged by the system. Primarily she wanted to continue to do what she had done so well over many years but is no longer able to do. That is a fight worth fighting. Good luck, Sheri.
Good luck, and I hope you have all the statisticians of repute subpoenaed.
Congratulations Sheri. You are fighting the good fight against a corrupt evaluation system that is trying to ruin careers and force out good teachers.
I have been a Social Studies/Paralegal Teacher in Bronx High Schools since 1996. In 2012, the high school that I worked at for 16 years, excessed me because it is being phased out and will cease to exist at the end of this month. I received a Satisfactory Rating at that high school every single year I worked there.
I spent the 2012-2013 school year floating around to 13 different schools as an ATR. In September 2013, I competed for and obtained an Appointed Position at a different South Bronx high school. All I taught at my new high school was Freshman Global History. I received a Developing Rating from the Principal of my new high school, in June 2014.
The scores on the Global Exam in June 2014 were so bad that my rating was lowered to an Ineffective (along with the other Social Studies teachers at this school). Yet, I did NOT teach ANY of the students that took this Regents Exam, because I only taught Freshmen. The Global Regents is a 2 year course, and it is not given until the end of the student’s Sophomore Year. That was my first year at this new school, and I only taught one year in this school to Freshmen students, who did not take The Global Exam.
I received an Ineffective for students that I never taught. How is this fair? This would NEVER hold up in Court (I graduated New York Law School and I passed both the New York and New Jersey Bar Exams). My case has been on Appeal since I filed the paperwork with the UFT in January 2015.
If I do NOT win this Appeal, I will be asking Sheri for the name of her Attorney.
I hope you can get a better job. You deserve it.
Thank you Linda. These are tough times for teachers, but I plan on persevering.
Mrs. Lederman’s attorney is her husband.
Thank you Mamie. I figured that out yesterday after I sent in my Comment. That was a Reading Comprehension oversight on my part. 🙂
I sincerely hope her judge is not another political hack.
The deformers are doubtlessly browning their britches over this as it is a direct, existential threat to one of the cornerstones of their toxic agenda. If it falls, the testing industrial complex will be crippled. They will be throwing everything including the kitchen sink at this, though they might be limited to amicus briefs. If you thought the Vergara decision was bad and influenced by lies, just wait till this trial gets started. I’m sure that the ASA report on VAM will play a key role here, so Mr. Lederman should contact them in advance in order to secure their services as expert witnesses. One key difference is that the objective reality, the overwhelming preponderance of facts is on Mr. Lederman’s side. He will need to exclude that ancillary issues that will be brought up by deformers to muddy the waters, the ones that can be lumped together under ” But what about the children?” I eagerly look forward to the chickens coming home to roost and VAM being discredited in the courts.
Thank you Dianne for your support!
Bruce & Sheri
Thank you thank you for persuing this! I just finished my appeal to overturn my ineffective rating which was of course denied. I was rated ineffective with an Ineffective MOTP
and an effective MOSL. I wrote a 32 page statement rebutting every ineffective and why it should be effective according to the Danielson framework (as advised by the UFT). One of the ineffectives I received was for Classroom Procedures. The AP’s rationale? I wasted 45 seconds of instructional time handing out highlighters and a dictionary. I can’t make this stuff up. In the arbitrator’s decision his rationale was that the Principal and AP went through SED training and therefore, their judgment stands. He didn’t even consider anything I wrote in my statement. He just rubber stamped my appeal. This is such a slap in the face to every teacher. I feel like Frank Serpico because everyone I thought who would help me is corrupt. You have brought this outside “the agency” so maybe now something positive will finally happen to the decent, hard working, dedicated teachers and that the Shawshank Redemption warden like Principals who think they are above the law get what they deserve. I’m praying for you!!!!!
Bruce & Sherri
There are 200,000 public school teachers from Montauk to Buffalo cheering you on. Give ’em hell!
“And so castles mad of sand, slip into the sea, eventually.” -JH
Go Sheri!! Take them down…for you, for me, and for all the teacher who work their butts off and deserve better than this!!!
Certainly when “they” can label you as anything but effective, and can so do 2 years in a row and fire you, and those labels are based on inaccurate formulae, one should have a right to sue the bastards.
I think that this judge is probably fair because he let the case go forward. If he was a hack to the politicians, this case would have ended already. It should be made clear to the judge the difference between peer reviewed research that is legitimate and research that stems from a political agenda. If he understands this, this evaluation system will be thrown out. However, the reformers have big pockets and if they lose, I am sure it will be appealed and appealed. Something tells me that eventually the efficacy of VAM will eventually be before the US Supreme Court.
Bear in mind he wasn’t ruling on the merits of the case, just whether there was standing for her to challenge it.
There are a lot of steps left in the whole process, she will have her day (or more likely many days) in court
We saw in Florida too that common sense need not apply….just whether the law was followed.
Is the NY Supreme Court simply judging was the law as written followed, or, can they judge and dismiss the entire law?
The FL court case was a challenge based on the constitutionality of the evaluation system. The seven teachers that initiated the suit did not pursue the case based on “harm” as Ms. Lederman is doing.
We are poised to follow your lead NY and we are similarly pissed about the vile dehumanizing system that is pounding us with crushing hateful deforms corporate driven hell.
I hope the publicity surrounding this case goes nationwide. We need the public to understand the issues with these new evaluations. The misguided witch hunt for bad teachers needs to end. So much time and energy has been wasted on this good teacher – bad teacher nonsense. What Asian or European country does this ?
The public needs to understand that if they are not already suffering from the absurdities of what teachers are going through, they are not immune and in whatever field pays their livelihood. They are subject to the same if this “steam roller” is not stopped.. “corporate ed reform” will shed its “ed” label and just be “corporate reform” as those who control the purse strings buy off politicians… henceforth our democracy. I hope this judge is not tainted by “corporate ed reform” and just putting this case forward to finally “put the issue to rest” as was done in Vergara! In Vergara the judge did not care that his decision was based on junk science. Why should this current judge be any different??? Let’s hope for the sake of public education things are different this time!
My situation is very similar to Sherri’s. I am a Reading teacher in a small rural district in upstate New York along the Pennsylvania border. Every year I receive an Effective rating on my APPR, though my Growth score is a perfect 20 and my Teacher Evaluation score is a perfect 60. However my Achievement score is a zero every year. I work with struggling readers. They generally receive scores in the teens on the pretests, and generally score in the 50’s on the post tests (thus the excellent Growth score). However scores in the 50’s are still failing, so my Achievement score is always a zero. I tried to get my union and administrators to help, but no one has come up with a solution.
My administrators, coworkers, students, and I all know I am a more than effective teacher, but in the state of New York, I am just a few points away from being ineffective. I hope this court case goes quickly and helps end this inaccurate and unfair system.
Readers will notice that NYSUT/UFT/AFT are nowhere to be found in this suit. Apparently, they have no problem with absurd, anti-teacher evaluation metrics.
In fact, along with the so-called reformers they enable, they are among the only ones who do support it, and they’ll support the next absurd iteration that comes down the pike, and the one after…
They never seem to find a destructive so-called reform scheme they can’t “collaborate” with.
Have the days of good man Shanker completely………..
And just where is NYSUT???
Just like in NYC, teachers have been hung out to dry by their own Union.
Perhaps the DISCOVERY phase will yield some interesting facts and reveal how the UNION is implicated in allowing a bad evaluation system to go forward.
Bribes, threats, promises?? Which was it NYSUT/UFT/AFT???
TRUTH WILL COME OUT, MATTER OF TIME
Great news!
Good for you! About time someone who can, stands up to state ed. How about a class action lawsuit on behalf of all New York State teachers?
>The NY Education Department argued that Sheri Lederman lacked standing to challenge an “ineffective” rating on her growth score since her overall rating was still effective and she was not fired.
Typical straw-man defense by NYED court rep, saying “our evaluation system is 100% accurate BECAUSE WE SAY SO!”
Or did they mean, she was fired for different reason other than overall rating ‘(in-)effective’? [Watch out for typo! he he]
The UFT/NYSUT can’t support this since they were involved in breathing life into this evaluation in May of 2010.
What’s even more important is that teachers who received an “effective” rating now have recourse of one part of their evaluation is bad. Before they didn’t. As another commented pointed out, let the floodgates open!
Time for a class action suit!!