Stanford Graduate School of Education professor Thomas Dee can breathe a lot easier; so, too, can other researchers who could imagine themselves in the same conflict with the California Department of Education.
Lawyers for CDE notified Dee on Wednesday that it won’t carry out a threat to retaliate against him for providing testimony in litigation against the department. Responding to widespread condemnation that the department was violating Dee’s First Amendment rights, the state said it had dropped a controversial clause that banned him from participating in any lawsuit “adverse” to the department, as a condition for access to non-public education data.
