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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Schools Matter: Seniority and teacher layoffs: A red herring

Schools Matter: Seniority and teacher layoffs: A red herring

Seniority and teacher layoffs: A red herring

Seniority and teacher layoffs: A red herring

The LA Times joins the current trend of discounting seniority in teacher evaluation and, of course, in laying off teachers ("When layoffs come to L.A. schools, performance doesn't count," December 5).

Their example shows the opposite

The Times presents the case of teachers who had been at a school for two years, were apparently successful (at raising test scores), and were dumped in favor of teachers unfamiliar with the situation, resulting, according to the Times, in a disastrous decline in academic performance and student behavior.

But this is an argument for experience, otherwise known as seniority, not