Deasy and new board member Ratliff laud teacher report
by By Howard Blume
Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy on Thursday broadly endorsed proposals from an outside group for attracting and retaining teachers, including more money for those who take on difficult assignments and deliver measurable academic gains.
Positive reaction also came from newly elected school board member Monica Ratliff, who is leaving the classroom to join the Board of Education in July.
Both were responding to recommendations in two reports developed by a small group of L.A.-area teachers under the guidance of Educators4Excellence, an advocacy group funded by influential national nonprofits including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
The group's founding principles include using student standardized test scores as part of a teacher's performance evaluation; the new reports urge the linking of student achievement to tenure decisions and, when necessary, to layoffs.
All told, the reports list a large array of strategies, some of which echo approaches favored by the
