He lost. The teacher who was number one in the state before having her children tested, who then failed her evaluation after having her tested children scored by the state, whereas the both years’ children’s scores were practically identical, has won.  She was deemed to have been treated unfairly by the VAM test developed by then head of New York’s Public Education John King, now the new Secretary of Education for the US.

The judge was clear.  The teacher had a high bar to reach to prove her low evaluation was based on solely on actions “taken without sound basis of reason or regard to the facts”.

To this she proved…“.In sum, the court found the petitioner has met her burden of establishing that her growth score and rating on for 2013-14 was indisputably arbitrary and capricious.”

The decision should qualify as the persuasive authority for other teachers challenging growth scores throughout the country.  The positive outcome of this decision was in part due to the expert testimony of the following, whom I’ll include here for future lawsuits to reference.

Professor Darling-Hammond,

Professor Pallas,

Professor Amrein-Beardsley,

Professor Sean Corcoran

Professor Jesse Rothstein 

(Please click the links for contact references)…

New York Supreme Court Judge Roger McDonough stated his decision was strictly for this case and he could not go beyond it to rule all evaluations “null and void”, because the evaluation process has since been changed.  But even so, this is the first time a judge has ruled that tying evaluations to a standardized test is “arbitrary and capricious”.  There are 49 other states out there who right now, all need their own court case to lock this bad policy in a casket six feet deep where it belongs….

Standardized tests do not belong in an evaluation process.