The New York Times (11/10, Lovett) reports that the September suicide of Los Angeles public school teacher Rigoberto Ruelas has drawn "the city's largest newspaper into the middle of the debate over reforming the nation's second-largest school district." The Los Angeles Times released a database of teacher effectiveness ratings in August. According to colleagues, Ruelas became depressed after he received a rating of "less effective than average." This week, hundreds of people "marched to the Los Angeles Times building, where they waved signs and chanted, demanding that the newspaper remove Mr. Ruelas's name from the online database." The Times notes that value-added teacher assessments are growing in popularity, while remaining controversial. Teachers unions and some experts say that the assessments are "unfair and incomplete and have fought its implementation across the country." Meanwhile, some district leaders and federal education officials support that method of evaluating teacher effectiveness.
Los Angeles School Board Approves Value-Added Contract. Jason Song wrote in a blog for the Los Angeles Times (11/9), "The Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously approved a contract Tuesday with a company that will analyze teachers' effectiveness in raising students' standardized test scores." Under the terms of the agreement, the University of Wisconsin Value Added Research Center "would calculate value-added scores for individual teachers. School district officials have said they plan to issue confidential scores to teachers this year."
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