L.A. UNIFIED CONTRACTS WITH OUTSIDE CONSULTANT TO ISSUE ITS OWN ‘VALUE-ADDED’ RATINGS OF DISTRICT SCHOOLS
LOUIS FREEDBERG - CALIFORNIA WATCH BLOG | HTTP://BIT.LY/CT4RVV
Photo by Louis Freedberg - Supplies in a California kindergarten class
October 15, 2010 | For the past year, the Los Angeles Unified School District has contracted with an outside consulting firm that has been doing its own "value-added" analysis of how effective schools are contributing to student outcomes.
The researchers with the firm, Education Strategy Consulting, said the results they have come up with are substantially different from those published for individual schools by the Los Angeles Times in its pathbreaking but controversial series of reports "Grading the Teachers."
Most of the attention generated by the L.A. Times series has focused on the paper's evaluations of individual teachers and its decision to publish their names alongside their "effectiveness" rating.
The Times also rated entire schools by effectiveness and included a list of the "most effective" schools in the district. California Watch was