LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Unified School District is expected today to announce a shift in the way it ranks students and teachers.

The new system, dubbed Academic Growth over Time, will use a formula to rank students over time, using standardized test scores as the raw data. School officials are expected to discuss the system at the afternoon board meeting.

"With AGT over Time, we'll know how much students have progressed on standardized tests," said Lauren Mendoza, a spokeswoman for LAUSD. She stressed that the new system will not compare students to each other.

Asked if the program measures teacher achievement as well, Mendoza said: "Yes. It answers the question,