A controversial bill revamping teacher-evaluation requirements in California was put on hold last month by its sponsor, state Rep. Felipe Fuentes.
The move came as a surprising coda to the action on the bill, which was first introduced in 2010 and resurfaced in the last days of the current legislative session. It had cleared an important committee vote earlier in the week and had the backing of the California Teachers Association, but faced critics from business, civil rights, and education advocacy organizations.
The bill from Mr. Fuentes, a Democrat, would have scuttled a 1999 state law specifying that teacher evaluations be based on students’ progress toward grade-level standards, as measured by applicable state standardized tests, among other criteria. It would have required districts and unions to bargain over evaluation systems.
