Jeff Bergosh Blog: Huge Court Victory for School Boards Statewide

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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Huge Court Victory for School Boards Statewide

The word came late yesterday afternoon that the School Board had prevailed in a challenge to the utilization of the Value Added Model (VAM) for computation of teacher evaluations.

In Cook v. Stewart, the Escambia County Teacher's Union and others challenged the VAM calculations for utilization as a factor that helped to determine teacher pay. School Board attorney Donna Waters argued the case in April of 2014 in Gainesville before the Federal District Court. The plaintiffs appealed to the Federal Circuit Court, and in April of 2015 the Board's attorney presented the appellate argument before this court in Montgomery Alabama.

Yesterday, the court issued their ruling--affirming the lower court decision in favor of the School Board and the Florida Department of Education.

This decision is another huge victory for students, parents, and taxpayers around the state.

read the complete ruling here