The Los Angeles teachers' union, UTLA, is in an uproar. They're rapidly organizing a boycott of a major newspaper, coordinating an intense letter-writing operation, and on an all-out messaging campaign. What's infuriating the UTLA, you ask? Accountability, transparency, and lack of control.

On Sunday, The Los Angeles Times published an analysis of teacher effectiveness in the nation's second-largest school system, the Los Angeles Unified School District. The Times used seven years of English and math test scores to measure the effectiveness of 6,000 third- through fifth-grade teachers by comparing the progress of each student from one year to the next, which aims to account for poverty level, prior learning, or other outside factors. The Times is running a series of articles analyzing this data, which they say is the first time this data has ever been available to the public.

The Times' Analysis Findings

• Some students ended up in the worst classrooms year after year, compounding the negative effect on their education
• Highly effective teachers are scattered throughout the district
• Which teacher a child gets is more important than what school he or she attends
• A teacher's education, experience, and training had little bearing on their students' performance

email to friend

Print

comment

Permalink

Comments (0)

Submit a comment

Name and location

Email (not published)

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment