On Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, at 5:12 P.M., Meg Gruber, VEA President, released the following information.
I have an update
and good news to share regarding the issue of the Virginia
Department of Education’s release of Student Growth Percentile (SGP)
information. As you know from prior communications, the VDOE had planned as of
last Friday to release SGP information, including the names of teachers and
schools, on February 5. That release would have compromised the privacy of
thousands of Virginia teachers in grades 4-9.
VEA staff and I
have been working each day this week to protect our members’ interests in this
matter. We have advocated with every major player in this drama and forcefully
and successfully made our case. We have hit the law books and are working with
our allies.
And as of today the
planned release of SGP data accompanied by teacher names has not
occurred.
That is a credit
to the VEA’s advocacy and effort—and a credit also to the rightness of our
cause.
Breaking
news. I am pleased to tell you that, with expert
assistance from the National Education Association Office of General Counsel,
VEA Attorney Dena Rosenkrantz filed a motion just an hour ago with the Circuit
Court of the City of Richmond.
That motion asks
the Court to allow VEA to enter the case as respondents to safeguard the
interests of teacher-members. It notes that the SGP records are exempt from
disclosure under the personnel records exclusion. And it argues that SGP
measures are misleading and unreliable as an indicator of teacher quality or
performance.
We believe our
motion will provide additional time to build support for our position that
release of these records is injurious to our fine teachers. We are
simultaneously reaching out to key Virginia officials in government, as well as
partners in the K-12 arena, to find a way to fix the loopholes that resulted in
this situation in the first place.
We cannot allow
this travesty to stand.
Thank you, as
always, for your commitment to our members, our students, and to public schools.
I will keep you informed of developments.
Meg
Meg
Gruber
VEA
President
116 S. Third
St
Richmond, VA
23219
804-648-5801
1-800-552-9554
Fax:
(804)775-8379
Every
decision that affects public education was first a political
decision.