There's a remarkable story in today's Los Angeles Times, by the invaluable education reporter Jason Song, about the L.A. Unified School District's continued stonewalling on performance metrics for teachers. Last year, the Times did the yeoman's work of putting together its own database examining teacher performance, using statistics the paper received through public records requests. That galvanized LAUSD to do its own analysis -- which it is now refusing to make public...
More precisely, the school district has agreed to the idea of releasing the scores, but not the names of the teachers the scores correspond with -- rendering them essentially useless for parents and anyone who cares about the impact on specific students within the system. Particularly notable is the rationalization from David Holmquist, general counsel for LAUSD, aping many of the teachers union talking points opposing the release of the information:
LAUSD exists to educate Los Angeles children, not act as a jobs program for union members. That that point even has to be made shows how severely off-track the district has become.
Holmquist cited several reasons why the district declined to release all the information The Times requested, saying it could cause jealousy among teachers and lead to poor school morale. He said that the public release could harm teachers' ability to get future jobs and that parents could demand instructors with high ratings, leading to unbalanced classrooms.It's not the release of the information that could cause jealousy; it's the fact that some teachers are materially better than others. It's not the release of the information that could lead to poor morale; it's the fact that students are being done a disservice by inadequate, union-coddled educators. Teachers who can't perform in the classroom should have a harder time getting jobs. And parents should be demanding the best from their children's school.
LAUSD exists to educate Los Angeles children, not act as a jobs program for union members. That that point even has to be made shows how severely off-track the district has become.
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