Contributor
David G. Sciarra, Executive Director, Education Law Center
Biography provided by participant
David G. Sciarra is Executive Director of Education Law Center (ELC) in Newark, New Jersey. A noted civil rights lawyer, Sciarra has litigated numerous cases involving socio-economic rights, and his work has resulted in precedent-setting rulings in such areas as affordable housing, shelter for the homeless, and education equity.
Since 1996, Sciarra has served as lead counsel for the plaintiff urban students in Abbott v. Burke, New Jersey's landmark school finance case. Sciarra secured the seminal NJ Supreme Court rulings establishing the "Abbott remedies" for improving urban education, which include standards-based education and reform, adequate school funding, high quality preschool, and school facilities financing. Sciarra represented the plaintiffs in Abbott in over 15 separate proceedings before the NJ high court. The New York Times described Abbott v. Burke as "the most significant education case" in the United States since Brown v. Board of Education.
Founded in 1973, ELC is among the nation's premier education advocacy organizations for low-income students, students of color, and students with special needs. ELC seeks to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for disadvantaged public school students through policy initiatives, action research, public engagement and legal action. ELC focuses on serving New Jersey's school children, but also provides technical assistance and support to education rights advocates and lawyers across the nation.
Sciarra also does research, writing and lecturing on education law and policy in such areas as school finance, early education and school reform.
Recent Responses
November 4, 2009 02:06 PM
Another reason why RTTT, in its present form, is more federal money “down the drain:” it will go into states with school finance systems that seriously under-fund their highest poverty, lowest wealth districts. And to states with chronically “underperforming” education departments, that is, state education agencies lacking the organizational structure to manage reform and the capacity to effectively deliver the expertise, technical assistance, rigorous evaluations and other supports necessary to improve high needs districts and schools. We need a state, not just a school “turnaround strategy” to finally get the equitable funding and institutional changes required to ensure states meet their…
Read moreOctober 20, 2009 04:18 PM
Bob Peterson's excellent post makes two things clear: 1. Unless evaluating teachers includes evaluating the conditions under which they work, it is of little value for improving professional practice. 2. Teachers need to be at center of the evaluation process in both its design and implementation. Peterson describes a school where, due to an underlying lack of funding, teachers lack planning time (common or otherwise), music or art staff, administrative and other supports, in short, a school without the work environment or support system to make professional growth a serious priority. In light of the deep funding inequities in…
Read moreSeptember 28, 2009 09:08 PM
It seems we haven’t learned a key lesson from the decade-long experience with 50 state content and performance standards. National content standards alone, like their state counterparts, will do little to improve educational quality and performance in public schools serving the nation’s high poverty, high minority neighborhoods and communities, no matter how well written. As the New Jersey Supreme Court in Abbott v. Burke so cogently observed 11 years ago when state officials suggested that common curriculum standards were a credible substitute for the resources needed to deliver them, “the standards themselves do not ensure any substantive level of achievement. Real improvement…
Read moreJuly 29, 2009 12:59 PM
New Jersey stands out for narrowing the gap in both mathematics and reading at the forth grade, as gains among Black students outpaced those of whites, especially since 2005. While being cautious about drawing causal connections from NAEP data, this notable progress coincides with implementation of the so-called “Abbott” remedies in the state’s urban school districts, among the poorest and racially isolated in the nation. Arising from the Abbott v. Burke school funding litigation, the broad outline of these remedies include: · Well planned, high quality preschool for all three- and four-year olds, with full day/school year programs staffed by certified teachers…
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