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How Has The L.A. Times Database Affected LAUSD Teachers?

Kristie Hang |
October 8, 2010 | 3:14 p.m. PDT

Contributor

(Creative Commons)
(Creative Commons)
Susan Saisho, a 13-year veteran teacher at Sunny-Brae Elementary School, teaches alongside 6,000 teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School district whose performance ratings were recently made public by the L.A. Times.

Saisho spoke with Kristie Hang about the effect the information, which is based on student progress on the California Standards Tests for English and math, has had on teachers.

Kristie Hang: Do you think the L.A. Times is wrong in releasing those test scores?

Susan Saisho: I don’t think they should have published it that way. It’s humiliating for a teacher. I feel that the L.A. Times is very anti-teacher and pro-charter.

KH: Does this affect you directly?
 

SS: No, because I teach kindergarten, but many of my colleagues are being affected starting 3rd grade and up. 

KH: What can the parents of children that have teachers labeled as ineffective do?

SS: It really doesn’t mean anything because a parent has no say where their child is placed. If you find out your child has an ineffective teacher you can complain to the administration, but there’s not much they can do. We have only so many spots and so many teachers.

KH: What are some flaws in the rating system that you have seen at your school?

SS: A fairly new teacher was given a pink slip but according to her online rating she is considered highly effective, yet she was still fired. We had a gifted teacher who was rated as ineffective because her scores didn’t exceed last year’s but that wasn’t a fair assessment because her kids were already testing high. It would be hard for them to go beyond their scores at that point.

KH: For the gifted teacher who was labeled ineffective, were the parents of her students upset about their ratings for someone labeled as an ineffective teacher?

SS: Not in her case because the parents loved her. The parents knew that she’s a good teacher.

KH: Is society blaming teachers and using them as a scapegoat for the ills?

SS: I think a lot of it is because many people want to privatize public education. We have charters and their scores look like they’re doing really well. If there’s a student with a behavior problem or who is not excelling on rate they have the option of releasing the child. In public school, we have to take them if it’s their home school and we have to work with them and teach them the best we can, whereas charters have the flexibility to weed out students that may lower their test score.

KH: What should parents do aside from just looking at the ratings published?

SS: Parents should go into the classroom and do teacher observations and see how their child interacts with the teacher. Some kids just don’t test well. You can’t base it just on that. You have to look at the other areas as well.
 
KH: Should there be another system in place to rate these teachers? Is there a better way to do it or should this rating system be completely abolished?

SS: That’s really hard to say. I know they are saying that this added value is just a portion of the evaluation, but aside from that we’ve always had the principal come in and do a still evaluation where they come and watch you perform. So that’s another way of doing it.

KH: If there is a bad teacher, how are they going to be held accountable?

SS: It’s up the administration to do the hard work to get the teacher out. You can’t just say that it’s too much trouble and not bother even if it means you need to fight the union. No one wants to go to that length but that’s the only way to really weed out bad teachers.

 

Reach contributor Kristie Hang here.

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