LAUSD, teachers negotiating use of test scores
Posted in Teacher Development, Tenure, Turning around failing schools, payThe Los Angeles Times’ impending plan to publish the performance rankings of 6,000 elementary school teachers, based on student test scores, has become the catalyst for sudden negotiations between Los Angeles Unified and its teachers union over teacher evaluations. One likely reason: Incorporating test scores into teachers’ personnel reviews could provide the legal basis in the future to deny releasing the scores, tied to individual teachers, to the public and to the Times.
The Times reported Sunday that United Teachers Los Angeles has accepted Deputy Superintendent John Deasy’s offer to restart talks on performance reviews of teachers. UTLA President A.J. Duffy declined to say whether that should include using test scores, although Duffy, who has flatly ruled out the use of test scores until now, is facing pressure to do so.
CSBA board admits it was in the dark on pay
Tags: CSBA, Scott PlotkinPosted in Advocacy organizations
In belatedly releasing more details about former executive director Scott Plotkin’s pay, the California School Board Assn. board of directors fessed up last week that they really didn’t know how much he made in total ($308,000 in 2006, $384K in ’07, $517K in ’08 and $403K in ’09).
“The Board reviewed the executive director’s compensation incrementally, and determined the level of compensation based on snapshots of information – rather than looking comprehensively at compensation history and the long-term implications,” said a statement posted on the organization’s web site.
The immediate consequence is a serious setback in the leadership of a critical organization representing K-12 education at a time when all interest groups in Sacramento are scrapping over every penny. CSBA is facing a swarm of school board members who are angry over how their taxpayer-funded dues, which comprised about 40 percent of CSBA’s $16 million budget, have been handled.