HOW TO GRADE A TEACHER: The usefulness of test scores is limited and should be treated that way + smf’s 2¢
BY THE LA TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD | HTTP://LAT.MS/1HMJVJD
November 7, 2013 :: As the recent job evaluation of Los Angeles Unified Supt. John Deasy showed, test scores and other metrics can be a useful addition to the assessment process — as long as they're not allowed to substitute for the bigger, more meaningful picture.Progress should be measured. Data matter. But rigid adherence to them is counterproductive. Deasy had set lofty goals for himself in 2012-13, promising, among other things, to boost student test scores, graduation rates and attendance rates by specific amounts. But his bosses at the school board clearly understood that even if he didn't meet all of his ambitious standards — and he didn't — things were moving in the right direction and great effort was going into improving academic achievement. And that's what needs to be measured, both for teachers and superintendents.
State and local teachers unions — including the California Teachers Assn. and United Teachers Los Angeles — have fought vigorously against using student test scores in teacher evaluations. And on the state level, the unions' victory is nearly complete. California has missed out on federal grants and failed to receive a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act because of its ongoing refusal to link test scores with teachers' job performance. Faced with a lawsuit by school reformers, Los Angeles Unified has developed a mild system for including the scores in its teacher ratings.
It's a shame that the issue has become so polarized, and it's as much the fault of reformers as of unions. Because of an obsessive push by the Obama administration, some states have given far too much weight to test scores in measuring teachers' performance. Parents