First academic study of controversial LA Unified teacher evaluation program
Pilot program using student tests scores to evaluate teacher gets its own good grade in first study.; Credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images NewsAn academic study of a teacher evaluation method that looks at how much teachers are able to improve students' test scores gave the pilot program a good grade. But the study comes too late -- the teacher's union and Los Angeles Unified School District agreed not to use the measure in the district's new teacher evaluation protocols.
The Academic Growth over Time became a lightning rod of criticism by the teachers union and some academics. At issue was whether it was fair to judge a teacher's effectiveness by looking at how a student's test scores had improved from year to year. Critics say the method doesn’t accurately capture all the factors in and outside the classroom that go into improving a student’s test scores.
USC researcher Katharine Strunk studied how it was implemented in group of L-A Unified schools last academic year.
"It indicates that the principals and other leaders that were assessing teachers using these protocols did a nice job doing that," she said. "It means that the value added score, the AGT that was generated, is also a solid