Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield

With the California Legislature on standby, ready to change the state’s education law to compete for a federal grant, one of Bakersfield’s legislators is skeptical about the changes.

Republican Assemblywoman Jean Fuller was a teacher and then superintendent of Bakersfield City School District, the area’s largest except for the high school district.

She’s not convinced that using student test scores to evaluate teachers is a good idea.

“I think having evaluated teachers for a long time, and having been evaluated as a teacher, I think you have to be careful about this,” she said. “Where performance of one student absolutely is the evaluation of a teacher, in a single evaluation setting, that could be counterproductive.”

A 2006 law barred the state from using data collected in CALPADS and CALTIDES, two state programs, to influence teacher pay. But federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan declared that ability to use data to evaluate teachers is necessary to qualify for the $4.35 billion in “Race to the Top” grants, which his department will parcel out to winning states over the next year. National press coverage indicates only California has such a law.

Such proposals have typically been more popular with Republicans than Democrats, who are usually supported by teachers’ unions. But here, it’s Democrat Duncan making the proposal and Republican Fuller expressing doubt.

Fuller allowed that she may stand alone among Assembly Republicans on this one.

“I think most members of my caucus would be more approving of the use of student data,” she said. “Most of the time I have found I really can get them to listen to my arguments, but I can’t always use that to get a change of heart.”

A bill already on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk would repeal that provision, but another bill, introduced but not passed, would make that repeal as well as several other changes. One such change would allow students to transfer out of “low-performing” schools — including almost every BCSD school — into a better school, if there’s room.

The California Teachers’ Association, the state’s dominant teachers’ union, argues that the change is unnecessary. Current law bars the state from connecting student data to teachers, but it allows local districts to make the connection, even using state tools. And many districts, including the Los Angeles district, the state’s largest, already do just that.

“Race to the Top” is a package of grants that the federal government will parcel out on a discretionary basis. The money can be used for developing standards and the tests to measure them; for developing data systems; for programs aimed at recruiting and rewarding good teachers and principals; and to turn around low-performing schools. States will submit their grant applications either in late 2009 or early 2010 — the due dates for the two phases haven’t been announced yet.