School Information System: An L.A. teacher reviews her review

January 30, 2012

An L.A. teacher reviews her review

For the first time this year, LAUSD has prepared reports for teachers that rate their effectiveness. When I received an email saying I could now view my own personal "Average Growth over Time" report, I opened it with a combination of trepidation, resignation and indignation.

First, the indignation. It is, I think, the key factor that has kept me teaching past the five-year mark, when most new teachers quit the profession. I am in my sixth year of teaching after a nearly 20-year career as a professional writer. I know that I am smart, hardworking and competent, and despite the many frustrations of teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District, I have refused to throw in the towel -- as so many do.

Indignation is also what fueled my reaction when I saw the rating the school district sent. It showed me to be on the low side of average for high school English teachers in the district.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 30, 2012 3:27 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom:

Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas

Comments

Not surprised at this teacher's results on their teaching evaluation. The whole idea is a farce, but one that is fully believed by the powers-that-be and the vast majority of the public.

It's hard to know who or what to blame. You can blame the parents if you like, but whose parents? Perhaps the parents to blame are those of the current 40, 50, 60, 70 year olds who are in power or with significant influence and are so overwhelmingly incompetent that they believe the NCLB, teacher evaluations, value-added, hyper-testing can have any positive value.

To put the blame on society as a whole seems almost pointless since then no one is responsible for these continuing failures, and therefore, the correct responsible parties do not know what they need to learn and do to improve the situation.

Posted by: Larry Winkler at January 30, 2012 10:17 AM