Grading teachers
10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, August 28, 2010
California needs a better method of evaluating teachers than infrequent, pre-announced classroom visits by school principals. School districts should provide more comprehensive and valuable teacher assessments by including student test scores, as well as less objective measurements, in that process.
News reports this month that analyzed test scores to grade teachers in Los Angeles put the issue directly in the public spotlight. Not surprisingly, some teachers excelled while others lagged.
More troubling than the results of that analysis, however, was the revelation that the Los Angeles Unified School District had the same information, but did not use it in evaluating teachers. Superintendent Ramon Cortines said last week the district would develop a method for incorporating test scores into teacher assessments, though the teachers union would have to agree to any such approach.
But there is no good reason to exclude testing data from teacher evaluations.
