Teacher tenure in court grind

IN A COURTROOM clash Thursday over tenure protections, teachers unions fought to flunk a case they said made no sense in light of reforms to the ways teachers are evaluated.

Lawyers for two advocacy organizations argued those changes were “cosmetic,” and urged a Brooklyn appeals court to let their case move forward.

The groups, the Partnership for Educational Justice, founded by former journalist Campbell Brown, and the NYC Parents Union, sued in 2014. They claimed the state’s laws on teacher tenure and discipline let ineffective instructors stay on the job at the cost of students who were missing out on a constitutionally guaranteed “sound basic education.”

A lower court judge allowed the case to move forward — the ruling the unions were appealing.