Settlement in suit over Oakland schools’ ‘sham’ classes

12th grade student Eric Flood, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought against the state of California by the Public Council and the ACLU of Southern California over the amount of time students actually spend learning, stands with Public Council staff attorney Kathryn Eidmann at Fremont High School in Oakland, CA, Wednesday May 28, 2014. less 12th grade student Eric Flood, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought against the state of California by the Public Council and the ACLU of Southern California over the amount of time students actually ... more Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Settlement in suit over Oakland schools’ ‘sham’ classes 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Students in Oakland and two other California school districts will no longer have to languish in bogus courses or miss weeks of class because of scheduling fiascoes, under a settlement reached in a lawsuit targeting the loss of learning time in some of the state’s lowest-performing schools.

The class-action lawsuit said that students at Castlemont and Fremont high schools in Oakland, along with four schools in Los Angeles and Compton (Los Angeles County), received much less learning time than other, more affluent children across the state. Civil rights attorneys filed the case against the state Department of Education and Board of Education, saying the state and not individual school districts are responsible for ensuring all students have the opportunity to get an education.

Other court cases have challenged unequal access to quality teachers or classroom materials, but this was the first case in the country to address the time students spend learning, plaintiffs’ attorneys said.

The suit cited cases in which youths had been assigned to “sham” courses that had them perform tasks in the school office or pick up trash.

Schools cited in the lawsuit had students retake courses they had already passed or sent them home early because there was no room in classes, attorneys said. Some schools employed rotating substitute teachers rather than fill full-time vacancies, the suit said.

The state Board of Education voted to approve the settlement Thursday. The agreement requires state education officials to track students assigned to classes without educational content and provide assistance in class scheduling if necessary. The settlement also requires the state to pay $400,000 in attorneys’ fees.

“No child’s time in school is disposable,” said Kathryn Eidmann, staff attorney with Public Counsel, a public interest law firm that filed the suit with the American Civil Liberties Union in Alameda County Superior Court. “Many students in California’s most disadvantaged schools were put in fake classes, made to run errands, sit in the back of classrooms or go home early.”

Futures ‘treated as less worthy’

The lead plaintiff in the case, Jessy Cruz, was among the students at a Los Angeles high school assigned to service classes rather than academic classes, despite being behind in required credits to graduate. He is now 19 and out of school.

“Jessy didn’t graduate, doesn’t have a job, didn’t go to college,” Eidmann said. He participated in the lawsuit to make sure his younger brother, now 12, receives a better education than he did, she added.

The two sides negotiated the settlement in conjunction with a new state law that bans high schools from assigning students to nonacademic courses or making them repeat classes because there isn’t room for them elsewhere. The law takes effect next school year.

“We believe every student should have access to high-quality courses so they can succeed in 21st century careers and college,” state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement. “This settlement reaffirms my commitment and the California Department of Education’s commitment to help identify and coordinate local resources for districts with significant problems scheduling students.”

Judge George Hernandez Jr. of Alameda County Superior Court is expected to approve the settlement and dismiss the lawsuit, which also included elementary and middle school plaintiffs.

“Their futures were treated as less worthy than their counterparts in more affluent communities,” said Mark Rosenbaum, director of Public Counsel. “Imagine as a parent if you asked your child what did you do in school today and you were told, ‘Well, I took out the school trash and cleaned erasers,’ day after day, week after week.”

One plaintiff, Erik Flood, said he spent a lot of time not learning during his four years at Fremont High in Oakland. He was assigned to three service classes at one point, filing paperwork in the school office or doing nothing, while taking credit-recovery classes online after school.

Distributing students more evenly

His government class was taught by a string of substitutes who simply handed out work packets, he said. By the end of the semester, just three or four students were showing up to class, he told The Chronicle last year.

“People just stopped coming to class because we weren’t doing anything anyway,” Flood said.

Although the districts and schools cited in the lawsuit were not named as defendants, in Oakland, officials have already started addressing the problems, said spokesman Troy Flint.

At Fremont and Castlemont, for example, officials are improving the class scheduling process to ensure that students are distributed more evenly. In the past, some courses had as few as five students, which was not only inefficient but created possible teacher shortages for other classes.

“The suit brings to light some of the same conclusions we reached internally, which is why we launched redesign efforts at three of our comprehensive high schools,” Flint said. “We recognize that kids were being underserved.”

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker