Student test score data proposed to evaluate L.A. teachers
School district task force also suggests giving more money to high-performing teachers and waiting up to four years before granting tenure. The teachers union strongly opposes evaluation reforms.
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Teachers union officials strongly opposed recommendations made to the Los Angeles school board Tuesday that call for using student test score data to evaluate instructors.
The suggestions came from a task force comprising Los Angeles Unified School District administrators, principals, teachers and union leaders that was created shortly before The Times published a series of articles last May examining the difficulties in firing and evaluating teachers.
The task force made several proposals, including giving more money to high-performing teachers willing to work in hard-to-staff schools, waiting up to four years before granting tenure to teachers and requiring principals and local superintendents to vouch for an instructor before they receive tenure, and revamping the evaluation process to include student test scores and parent and teacher feedback.
Politicians including President Obama and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have advocated using students' standardized test performance to help determine teachers' effectiveness. State Board of Education President Ted Mitchell, who headed the district's task force, goes further, suggesting thatvalue-added analysis — which uses several years of test scores to determine teacher quality — should eventually make up at least half of a teacher's evaluation.
The task force did not specify how heavily test data should be weighed.
Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles said they supported some of the task force's recommendations, including improving the evaluation process, but also said that test score data are
The suggestions came from a task force comprising Los Angeles Unified School District administrators, principals, teachers and union leaders that was created shortly before The Times published a series of articles last May examining the difficulties in firing and evaluating teachers.
The task force made several proposals, including giving more money to high-performing teachers willing to work in hard-to-staff schools, waiting up to four years before granting tenure to teachers and requiring principals and local superintendents to vouch for an instructor before they receive tenure, and revamping the evaluation process to include student test scores and parent and teacher feedback.
Politicians including President Obama and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have advocated using students' standardized test performance to help determine teachers' effectiveness. State Board of Education President Ted Mitchell, who headed the district's task force, goes further, suggesting thatvalue-added analysis — which uses several years of test scores to determine teacher quality — should eventually make up at least half of a teacher's evaluation.
The task force did not specify how heavily test data should be weighed.
Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles said they supported some of the task force's recommendations, including improving the evaluation process, but also said that test score data are
