O'Connell v. Superior Court

Citation141 Cal.App.4th 1452,47 Cal.Rptr.3d 147
Decision Date11 August 2006
Docket NumberNo. A113933.,A113933.
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeals
PartiesJack O'CONNELL, as Superintendent of Public Instruction etc., et al., Petitioners, v. The SUPERIOR COURT of Alameda County, Respondent; Liliana Valenzuela et al., Real Parties in Interest.

Yanger, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Douglas M. Press, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Kara Read-Spangler, Hadara R. Stanton, Karin S. Schwartz, Deputy Attorneys General, Counsel for Petitioners: (Defendants below).

Allan Zaremberg, Sacramento, for California Chamber of Commerce, California Business Roundtable, and California Business for Education Excellence, as Amici Curiae for Petitioners.

Raneene Rae Belisle, Los Angeles, for Las Familias del Pueblo, as Amicus Curiae for Petitioners.

Morrison & Foerster and Arturo J. González, Shane Brun, Vanina Sucharitkul, Chris J. Young, San Francisco, and Johanna Hartwig, Counsel for Real Parties in Interest (Plaintiffs below).

Public Advocates, Inc. and John Affeldt, Jenny Pearlman, and Tara Kini, San Francisco, for Campaign for Quality Education, Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership (AYPAL), California Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (CA-ACORN), Californians for Justice, California Tomorrow, Coalition for Educational Justice, Community Asset Development Redefining Education (CADRE), Justice Matters, Parents for Unity, United Teachers Los Angeles, Youth in Focus, and Youth Together, as Amici Curiae for Respondents.

Melissa W. Kasnitz, Berkeley, for Disability Rights Advocates, as Amicus Curiae for Respondents.

RUVOLO, P.J.

I. INTRODUCTION

By order of the California Supreme Court, we are charged with reviewing defendants'1 petition for writ of certiorari, mandate, and other appropriate relief, challenging a preliminary injunction issued by the Alameda County Superior Court, but later stayed by the California Supreme Court. That injunction restrained defendants from denying diplomas to members of the 2006 graduating class at California public high schools who were otherwise eligible to graduate, but who had not passed both portions of the California high school exit exam, otherwise known as the CAHSEE.

We conclude, inter alia, that: (1) the trial court's determination that plaintiffs were likely to prevail on their primary equal protection claim was supported by substantial evidence and legally proper, although the court's determination as to their secondary claim was not; (2) the trial court abused its discretion in the manner in which it balanced the factors it was legally required to consider in deciding a motion for preliminary injunction, and in concluding that the injunction was necessary in order to maintain the status quo while the underlying litigation proceeded; and (3) the remedy exceeded what the court had the legal authority to impose, and was otherwise overbroad in its scope. Accordingly, we grant defendants' writ petition, and vacate the preliminary injunction.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The historical background facts relevant to this litigation are largely a matter of public record, and are not in dispute. In March 1999, the California Legislature found that "[l]ocal proficiency standards" set by individual school districts were "generally set below a high school level and [were] not consistent with state adopted academic content standards." (Stats.1999, 1st Ex.Sess.1999-2000, ch. 1, § 1(a).) The Legislature concluded that "[i]n order to significantly improve pupil achievement in high school and to ensure that pupils who graduate from high school can demonstrate grade level competency in reading, writing, and mathematics, the state must set higher standards for high school graduation." (Stats.1999, 1st Ex. Sess.1999-2000, ch. 1, § 1(b).)

In order to further this goal, the Legislature directed that defendant "Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the approval of [defendant] State Board of Education, shall develop a high school exit examination in English language arts and mathematics in accordance with .. . statewide academically rigorous content standards adopted by [defendant] State Board of Education ...." (Ed.Code, § 60850, subd. (a)2.) The examination developed under that mandate has come to be known as the CAHSEE. The CAHSEE is administered to all public high school students starting in grade 10, and each student is permitted to continue to take the CAHSEE at each subsequent administration, several times a year, until he or she has passed both sections. (§ 60851, subd. (b).) School districts are required to offer "supplemental instructional programs for pupils . . . who do not demonstrate sufficient progress toward passing the [CAHSEE]." (§ 37252, subd. (a); see also § 60851, subd. (f).)

The legislation creating the CAHSEE provided that passage of the examination would be required as a condition of a student's receipt of a high school diploma (the CAHSEE diploma requirement). (§ 60851, subd. (a).) Originally, the Legislature directed that the CAHSEE diploma requirement take effect commencing with the 2003-2004 school year. (Ibid.) In 2001, however, the Legislature gave defendant State Board of Education the authority, at any time prior to August 1, 2003, to delay implementation of the CAHSEE diploma requirement if it determined, based on an independent study mandated by the legislation, that "the test development process or the implementation of standards-based instruction [did] not meet the required standards for a test of this nature." (§ 60859, subd. (a); see Stats.2001, ch. 716, § 3.) As permitted by this legislation, defendant State Board of Education determined in July 2003 not to impose the CAHSEE diploma requirement on students graduating prior to the spring of 2006. A motion to defer the requirement for one additional year, until 2007, failed by one vote.

Since the start of the 2000-2001 school year, school districts have been required to notify their students' parents or guardians annually about the CAHSEE diploma requirement. (§ 48980, subds. (a), (e); see Stats.1999, 1st Ex.Sess.1999-2000, ch. 1, § 3 [amending § 48980, subd. (e), to require notification regarding CAHSEE diploma requirement].) Accordingly, at least since July 2003, it has been a matter of public record that students scheduled to graduate from high school in the spring of 2006 (the class of 2006) would be required to pass the CAHSEE in order to receive their diplomas.

In May 2000—shortly after the legislation creating the CAHSEE went into effect—the same law firm that represents plaintiffs in this action filed a class action on behalf of public school students against the State of California (the Williams litigation), charging the state with "failing to meet its constitutional obligation to provide students with fundamentally equal educational opportunity, focusing on dramatic inequalities in access to instructional materials, adequate learning facilities, and qualified teachers." In August 2004, the state agreed to settle the Williams litigation, and as part of that agreement, passed several pieces of legislation providing for improvements in the provision of teaching materials, clean and safe facilities, and qualified teachers to all California students. It was not until March 2005, however, that the superior court judge who presided over the Williams settlement entered a final order approving its terms, and it is undisputed that the improvements in educational equality required under the Williams settlement had not yet been fully implemented by the time the CAHSEE diploma requirement became effective.

The skills tested on the CAHSEE are neither esoteric nor highly advanced. To pass, a student need only be able to achieve a 60 percent score on a test of up to 10th grade English language skills, and a 55 percent score on a test of math skills at up to a 7th grade level, plus algebra. Nonetheless, only 69 percent of the students in the class of 2006 were able to pass both sections of the CAHSEE when they first took it in February 2004, while they were in the 10th grade. By January 2006, the aggregate pass rate for the class of 2006 had improved to 89 percent.3 Significant differences remained, however, between the overall pass rate and the pass rates for Hispanics (82 percent), African-Americans (80 percent), economically disadvantaged students (82 percent), and English learners (69 percent).

In the fall of 2005, with the implementation of the CAHSEE diploma requirement scheduled to occur at the end of the current school year, the Legislature appropriated $20 million in supplemental funding (the supplemental funding) for school districts with the highest percentage of students in the class of 2006 who had not yet passed the CAHSEE. The statute appropriating the money specified that it was to be distributed by ranking schools on the basis of the percent of their students in the class of 2006 who had not yet passed the CAHSEE, and then distributing $600 per pupil to the school districts in which those schools were located, in the order determined by defendant Superintendent of Public Instruction, until the funds were exhausted. (Former § 37254.) The result of this legislative directive was that all of the supplemental funding went to school districts containing schools in which 28 percent or more of the class of 2006 had not yet passed the CAHSEE. School districts in which none of the schools had a CAHSEE failure rate of at least 28 percent did not receive any of the supplemental funding, no matter how many students in those districts had not passed.

The legislation creating the CAHSEE required defendant State Board of Education, in consultation with defendant Superintendent of Public Instruction, to "study the...

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