The Arcade Fire – Neighborhoods #1 (Tunnels)

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More recent developments regarding the L.A. Times report on “Grading Teachers”.

First, our union agreed to sit down to renegotiations with the district regarding teacher evaluations. KCRW’s Warren Olney interviews UTLA President AJ Duffy, parent activist Bill Ring, and article author Jason Song here. Not one day later, LAUSD is officially going to seek the implementation of a “value-added” component to teacher evaluations here in the district.

Not only does this story itself demonstrate the volatility of its subject matter, but also the power of the media (specifically the L.A. Times) in driving policy in response. Arne Duncan (Obama’s Secretary of Ed) himself is now on record as having a plan to call all states to publicize their teacher performance data in the public record.

Needless to say, this issue is clearly snowballing out of control.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the commentary has been one of extremes in this case (after all, it’s extremism that makes headlines). What’s yet to be developed is a more moderate position, one that is currently in dialectical development (a phrase that should elicit smiles from my theologian friends out there). As one LAUSD teacher I know put it quite simply today, the premise of the article is something we’ve been arguing for years, namely that “teachers matter.” It’s only from that common baseline that the district (and the country) will be able to develop policies that encourage student, teacher, and administrator growth. I think we can all agree on that.

Next up? Notes from the field: how do L.A. teachers feel about value-added?