First Academic Study of Controversial LA Unified Teacher Evaluation Program An 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...

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy has issued guidelines to all principals regarding the new teacher evaluations, which will be implemented by the start of the 2013-14 school year. But UTLA President Warren Fletcher says that the guidelines may violate the underlying agreement, which was ratified by UTLA on January 19th and approved by the School Board on Tuesday.

Earlier today, in a show of support for a group of Seattle teachers who are refusing to administer a standardized computer test to students, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) urged its members to wear red and participate in what was called a “national day of action.” Watch a video of the teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High: The...

Former School Board candidate John Fernandez is among a handful of voices urging to teachers to vote against the tentative agreement struck between UTLA and LAUSD regarding teacher evaluations earlier this year. “The big problem is the district and the union have not figured out how much weight they will count for,” said Fernandez, who...

While union president Warren Fletcher has claimed victory on a recent court-ordered tentative agreement on teacher evaluations, a closer look might leave rank-and-file teachers scratching their heads. UTLA has consistently opposed any use of student test scores in teacher evaluations in the past. So it was unexpected when the union leadership signed off on using...

National teachers union head Randi Weingarten heaped praise on the tentative deal that LAUSD and UTLA announced last week. LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy touted it as historic (see: “This Has Never Been Done”). But elsewhere across the nation, the initial word about the deal hasn’t been so unanimously glowing. Today’s LA Times story about the deal highlights some of these concerns,...

On Friday, LAUSD and UTLA finally came to tentative agreement on a new way to evaluate teachers, just days before the court-imposed December 4 deadline in Doe v. Deasy. The initial responses were generally positive, including from the plaintiffs. “Assuming that everyone behaves in good faith, I think we’ve achieved what we’ve set out to...

Mediator Don Raska has been appointed to try to help resolve the teacher evaluation negotiations between LAUSD and the teachers union (UTLA), according to a UTLA newsletter. The October 19th issue of the United Teacher states that, “the union continues to push back against LAUSD’s proposal to link a percentage of a teacher’s evaluation to...

LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer’s proposal to overhaul charter school oversight and, more controversially, to place a moratorium on new charter schools, has been postponed until the November 13 board meeting, according to the just-posted agenda for the meeting this Tuesday, October 9. Zimmer’s idea was first presented at last month’s board meeting, and generated heavy...

A number of parents and teachers showed up to today’s jam-packed school board meeting to denounce board member Steve Zimmer’s proposal to reject Academic Growth Over Time (or AGT) as a measurement of pupil progress in teacher evaluations. About six or seven of them wore t-shirts reading, “SHAME ON YOU ZIMMER.” They never got their chance...