"The Palo Alto Unified School District hasn't paid a law firm that successfully challenged the district's policies for placing students in ninth grade math, according to a new lawsuit by four parents. The district owes attorney David Tollner $38,311 for his firm's work on a lawsuit that said the district was holding students back from advancing. Tollner said his emails to attorney Mark Davis, who represents the district, have been ignored since Dec. 1. So Tollner filed a lawsuit on Monday on behalf of four parents - Edith Cohen, Xin Li, Yiyi Zeng and Marek Albostza - asking a judge to find the district in contempt of court and to order another $4,018 payment."
"Math placement lawsuit Cohen, Li, Zeng and Albostza sued the district in July 2021 for allegedly violating the state's 2015 Math Placement Act, which requires districts to establish "a fair, objective, and transparent mathematics placement policy" for students entering high school. "All opportunities to excel in math are based on bogus tests designed so that students fail and are railroaded two to three years before they start high school," said the lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Davis argued that students were tested and allowed to advance rapidly ahead of the typical path, with four levels of math offered in three years of middle school."
"Judge's ruling Judge Carrie Zepeda in February 2023 found that freshman are placed in a math class based on their eighth grade level and ordered the district to test students in the first month of high school. Zepeda also found the district failed to post its math placement policy online and didn't collect and analyze data related to math levels, as required by the Math Placement Act. Zepeda ordered the district to annually report the number of students, broken down by gender and ethnicity, who moved up or down after a placement test."
Four parents sued Palo Alto Unified School District for contempt after the district allegedly failed to pay attorney David Tollner $38,311 for work on a prior lawsuit. Tollner said emails to the district’s attorney have been ignored since Dec. 1. The parents seek a judge order another $4,018 payment. The underlying case challenged ninth grade math placement practices under the 2015 Math Placement Act, which requires fair, objective, and transparent placement policies. A judge found students were placed based on eighth grade level and ordered testing in the first month of high school, posting of the policy online, and annual reporting of placement changes by gender and ethnicity.
Read at Padailypost
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]