Los Angeles teachers union approves use of testing data in evaluations
A landmark agreement to use student test scores for the first time to evaluate Los Angeles Unified instructors was approved by the teachers union Saturday.
United Teachers Los Angeles reported that 66% of 16,892 members who voted approved the agreement with the nation’s second-largest school district. L.A. now joins Chicago, New York and many other cities in using testing data as one measure of a teacher’s effect on student academic progress.
In a victory for the union, however, the pact limits the use of a controversial method of analyzing a teacher’s effect on student test scores known as value-added. Instead, the two sides agreed to evaluate teachers with such data as raw state test scores and district assessments. L.A. Unified also plans to use a rigorous new classroom observation process, student and parent feedback and an