Aug 30, 2010
LA Times teacher database released
I'll probably have more on this later, but for locals, I just wanted to provide a link to the LA Times' value-added teacher ratings. You can search by teacher or school, and some of the data appears incomplete - for example, the most recent data for a teacher at our local school was from 2006. The database only includes LAUSD teachers for grades 3 through 5.
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3 comments:
Wow. That's really a shame. From what I see, according to this database, a teacher's effectiveness is based on how his or her students did on the standardized test. There is no information on student attendance (it's hard to pass a test when you are never there); ELL (it's also hard to pass if you don't speak the language the test is given in); parental involvement (hard to pass a test when no one cares at home if you're at school or doing the work).
A teacher can do all they can do and still have most students fail that test.
I'm trying to figure out what the benefit of this information is (why the school district and newspaper found it would be beneficial to publish it).
Thanks for your comment, Camille. So many of us who work for LA USD are feeling hurt and betrayed. I work in a very tough area of LA with teachers who pour our hearts into our profession and sacrifice a great deal. We work in areas that are avoided by many teachers because of crime, poverty, etc, but there is dire need for good educators. And this is the thanks we get. I'm glad readers like yourself can see the bigger picture
@Camille and Anon - I have mixed feelings about it. I definitely don't think the database gives a full picture, but I would take its data into consideration when selecting a school or deciding which teacher to request. It's a tough situation when you have teachers like Anon who are dedicated on the one hand, and a teacher I know on the other, one who prefers to work in South Central because the expectations are so low it doesn't matter if she's a bad teacher.
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