Evaluation

Los Angeles to Develop Value-Added Teacher Evaluations

Connie Llannos

 http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/11/11/mct_cateachereval.html

                Los Angeles is launching a method to evaluate teachers based on the performance of their students.  The district has hired two consultants who were paid 4.5 million dollars to study and develop ways to evaluate teachers. The other consultant was hired to design guidelines and best practices for the teachers.  The union of Los Angeles is very critical of this plan and states that it is unfair and there are flaws in this plan.  However President Obama supports their effort to design an evaluation system for teachers.  Judith Peres states that the district needs to identify effective teaching practices and share with administrators and teachers throughout the district.  The district has two contracts that are paid by federal funds for professional development.  This money is not to be for programs and to hire back teacher.  The first contract is for New England based Teaching and Learning Solution for 3 million dollars to create teaching best practices and clear expectations and meet guideline to follow.  The other is to create value-added scores for its teachers termed in academic growth overtime.

                All these programs are well and good.  We are spending money for professional development for the wrong people.  What about the people who have an impact on the students on a daily basis?  Why can’t we facilitate that money into developing programs that will meet the needs of the students so that they can grow academically?  Why can’t we have programs where the teachers are trained to facilitate in the classroom?  That’s what I call professional development.  It seems to me that so much money is being spent on outside help to make a change for the teachers and how they are value.  True I think there should be some accountability?  However, if what we are teaching is not working?  How we are teaching is not working?  Then train the teachers who work in the classroom.  As a principal I would want to look at training the teachers to meet the needs of the students.  I think all stakeholders, principals, superintendents, and teachers need to be train on the same information so that they can know what the common goal is and thus produce the final outcome which is to educate our students.