4. Why § 3020-a Decisions Matter

policy.5 Most importantly, the cases show the operative standards for minimum teacher competence. Several examples of teachers who were not dismissed for incompetence are compared with several examples of teachers who were, to explicate the principles used to make those determinations.

4. WHY §3020-A DECISIONS MATTER

Under New York State Law, teacher accountability for inadequate teaching performance is implemented exclusively through the court-like, administrative due process procedures mandated by § 3020-a—a law that has been on the books for decades, and remains virtually untouched by the new evaluation legislation. While teachers are evaluated on school sites, it is through § 3020-a proceedings that minimum standards for teachers’ work are actually established. That is, the minimum level of competence that a teacher must demonstrate to

remain employed in New York State’s public schools is not set out in any laws or regulations, but rather is both defined and enforced behind closed doors in state-controlled

administrative proceedings governed by § 3020-a. The standards used in § 3020-a to determine whether or not to return a teacher to the classroom play a critical role in the quality and management of the teaching workforce, and essentially constitute formal public policy regarding minimum performance requirements for New York’s public school teachers. Section 3020-a standards were not formulated through the public policymaking process, yet are firmly established through decades of precedent and function as if they were stipulated explicitly in statutory law. Since they are not set out in any written laws or regulations, however, the standards used in § 3020-a proceedings can only be deduced through direct analysis of the lengthy, legally-binding decisions filed with the New York State Education Department at the conclusion of § 3020-a hearings. And those decisions are obtainable only through a formal Freedom of Information Law request.6 Very few § 3020-a decisions are filed. According to the State Education Department, a total of 208 decisions were filed for New York City from July 1, 1997 through June 30, 2007, constituting an average 0.03% annually of New York City’s total teacher workforce of 78,000.

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5 See, for example, New York City Chancellor’s Regulations A-420, A-421, C-601, C-603, C-604; and Article Sixteen of the UFT Contract, pp. 92-93. 6 § 3020-a decisions average approximately 35 pages in length; many run up to 100 pages or more. 7 The tiny number of § 3020 decisions in and of itself reflects significant problems with the § 3020-a system. Section 3020-a proceedings are highly cumbersome and expensive: a single § 3020-a case addressing pedagogical incompetence has historically taken an average of over two years at a cost of $313,000. And each case requires