The L.A. ostrich
United Teachers Los Angeles President A. J. Duffy has made a complete fool of himself by calling on teachers and members of other labor unions to boycott the Los Angeles Times for…telling the truth.
How did the newspaper incur the wrath of Duffy? The Times on Sunday published the first installment in what will be an ongoing series on teacher quality. The paper contracted with the Rand Corporation to conduct a statistical analysis of seven years of math and reading scores from L.A. students.
Not surprisingly, the paper found that some teachers are far more effective than others. The database allows readers to search by teacher name to see how much value an individual teacher has added — or in some cases failed to add — to student learning.
The paper is careful to qualify its findings, and to describe the value-added methodolgy’s shortcomings.
No one suggests using value-added analysis as the sole measure of a teacher. Many experts recommend that it count for half or less of a teacher’s overall evaluation.
And in Los Angeles, the method can be used for only a portion of the district’s roughly 14,000 elementary school instructors: California students don’t take the test until second grade and teachers must have had enough students for the results to be reliable.
Nevertheless, value-added analysis offers the closest thing available to an objective assessment of teachers. And it might help in resolving the greater mystery of what makes for effective teaching, and whether such skills can be taught.
The series is sure to spark serious debate, and merits a serious and thoughtful response from teachers and their leaders. Instead, we get this from Duffy.
After learning of the analysis and the database last week, union leaders began making automated calls to teachers objecting to publication. In the Friday evening call, Duffy said the database was “an irresponsible, offensive intrusion into your professional life that will do nothing to improve student learning.
“Our attorneys are looking into the legalities of this database,” he said in the recorded message. “This is part of the continuing attack on our profession, and we must continue to fight back on all fronts.”
One can only hope he has taken his blood pressure medication.
Tellingly, American Federation of Teachers (UTLA’s parent organization) President Randi Weingarten, who is sophisticated and smart, has remained silent on the matter.
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