Report says L.A. principals should have more authority in hiring teachers
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa strongly backs suggestions in the report, whose research was paid for largely with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/lV6JBY
A. J. Duffy, United Teachers Los Angeles president, rallies teachers, parents and students filling Pershing Square to protest budget cuts. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / May 13, 2011)
June 7, 2011, 12:01 a.m - School principals should be able to hire any teacher of their choosing, and displaced tenured teachers who aren't rehired elsewhere within the system should be permanently dismissed, according to a controversial new report on the Los Angeles Unified School District. The report will be presented Tuesday to the Board of Education.
The research, paid for largely by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, offers a roadmap for improving the quality of teaching in the nation's second-largest school system, with recommendations strongly backed by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The report gave L.A. Unified credit for improvement in some areas, noting, for example, that more teachers are being fired for poor performance, a sign of better quality control, said researchers from the Washington, D.C.-based National Council on Teacher Quality.
In 2008, the district dismissed seven tenured teachers. The number for the current year, through April, was 94; 105 others have resigned to avoid dismissal.
The teachers union denounced several recommendations as being emblematic of an ineffective corporate-style, market-driven approach to education.
The recommendations would revamp teacher hiring. One would do away with the guarantee of a job for a so-called must-place teacher. These instructors include those who lose positions because of poor teaching, conflict with an administrator, declining enrollment or budget cuts. The list also includes teachers returning from illness or parental leave.
Principals are under pressure to hire from this group, although district rules and state law do not always require that they do.
"Three-quarters of principals surveyed … said that teachers on the must-place list are rarely if ever a good fit for their school," the report says.
"It is critical that we do away with the must-place list," said Arielle Goren, a spokeswoman for Villaraigosa.
The report recommends that principals be able to hire any qualified applicant, including those from outside the school system, and that displaced teachers lose their right to district employment after a year.
Employees should not be punished for factors beyond their control, countered A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. He said about 150 teachers will be displaced because district officials elected to turn over campuses to independent, mostly nonunion charter schools, which frequently opt for less experienced, less expensive instructors.
"Many must-place teachers are fine teachers," Duffy said.
Under the heading "food for thought," the report says, "economists recommend that districts should routinely dismiss at least the bottom-performing 25% of teachers eligible for tenure in order to build a high-quality teaching corps."
That might be overdoing it, said L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy, who largely agrees with the report.
"What you shoot for is quality, not a percentage," Deasy said, adding, "we need to be doing a whole heck of a lot better."
The report also concluded that teacher evaluations must be stepped up: 40% of tenured teachers and 70% of non-tenured teachers are evaluated annually.
Duffy and Deasy agreed that such scarce supervision failed to help teachers improve.
Another of the report's recommendations was that the earning of tenure be more demanding and take longer, but that those who get it receive a significant pay increase.
Sixty-six percent of surveyed principals admitted advising "an underperforming teacher to voluntarily transfer" to another school.
"Sending a problem to another school is the very last thing we should be doing," Deasy said.
The report surveyed 247 principals (31% of the district total) and 1,317 teachers (4.5%) while also reviewing data and contracts in L.A. Unified and comparison districts. The recommendations include changes in state laws and in the teachers' contract.
Report eyes LAUSD contracts
By Connie Llanos, Daily News Staff Writer | http://bit.ly/iEIXzc
6/7/2011 01:00:00 AM PDT - As administrators and teachers union leaders negotiate their next contract, a report released today urges Los Angeles Unified to implement changes that would toughen evaluations and empower the district to retain good educators and fire ineffective ones.
The study - commissioned by the local United Way and civil rights groups and produced by the National Council on Teacher Quality - focuses on ways to help LAUSD improve the quality of its teaching pool.
"With just over half of the 680,000 students graduating on time in LAUSD ... district-wide change is required in order to make way for effective teachers and overall student achievement," said Elise Buik, president and CEO of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.
"What the NCTQ report found is that key policies must be reformed, changes that our teachers and principals have stressed they want and need, in order to drive an effective educational system where our students can learn and thrive."
The authors, who surveyed some 1,500 teachers and principals, recommend changes to the current union contract and to state laws regulating staffing, evaluations, tenure, compensation and work schedules.
Those changes include: eliminating the seniority-only basis for layoffs, and using student test scores and other performance measures to evaluate teachers and make hiring and firing decisions.
The report also recommends that teachers not receive tenure until at least four years, instead of the current two years and only if they have made gains with students.
Union leaders oppose efforts to use student test scores in teacher evaluations, and the the head of United Teachers Los Angeles called the report an "attack on the teachers union."
But Superintendent John Deasy and other district officials are pushing similar recommendations, especially as they negotiate a new contract with UTLA.
The report also noted that LAUSD spends more than $500 million, or 25 percent of its payroll budget, to give teachers pay increases for taking college courses, according to the report.
Its author recommended that raises be based on student performance instead.
Deasy said he had not read the report so could not comment on its specifics. However, he reiterated his commitment to improving the quality of teachers at LAUSD.
"We know that the greatest factor affecting a student's performance inside a school is a quality educator," Deasy said. "Working on this issue is probably my single greatest priority after student safety."
With the current contract set to expire June 30, UTLA has been negotiating with the district since early this spring.
Discussions on work rules have taken a back seat in discussions while negotiators focused on saving jobs and closing a $408 million budget deficit for 2011-12.
Last weekend, UTLA members voted to take four unpaid furlough days in order to save as many as 5,100 teacher jobs; the actual number of furlough days could change depending on the state's final budget.
With the furlough issue settled, UTLA President A.J. Duffy, the union can turn its attention to the work rules.
While Duffy said UTLA leaders are willing to agree to some changes, including revamping the evaluation system, the union still vehemently opposes the use of student test scores to determine which teachers are the most qualified.
He also questioned the sincerity of the report.
"Educational equity and teacher quality are important and we should all be talking about them," Duffy said. "But it should not be about an attack upon teachers unions," Duffy said.
"The people that put this report together are non-educators who believe that a market-driven approach is the only way to improve public education and we believe that is absolutely the death and destruction of public education."
The NCTQ has produced other reports dissecting work rules for educators and state and district education policies in other urban districts including Seattle, Baltimore and Boston.
The Los Angeles report was funded primarily by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has advocated in favor of overhauling education policies and longstanding union rules like the seniority system and the use of student test scores in educator evaluations.
additional coverage:
Educational System in Los Angeles Requires Significant Change; Report ...
Sacramento Bee - This data-driven look at the state of teacher policies in the Los Angeles Unified School District explores LAUSD's contract with its teachers, as well as District practices and state laws that shape the work rules for teachers. ...
Study: LAUSD Education Policies Flawed
MyFox Los Angeles - Tony Spearman - The Los Angeles Unified School District needs critical reform in teacher evaluation, tenure and teaching assignment policies, according to a national study of the district released today. The National Council on Teacher Quality, ...
Press Release: EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN LOS ANGELES IN PERIL; REPORT DEMONSTRATES NEED FOR IMPROVED STATE AND DISTRICT PRACTICES IN ORDER TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN QUALITY TEACHERS
The National Council on Teacher Quality, in partnership with the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and a coalition of civil rights groups, including Alliance for a Better Community, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Families in Schools, Los Angeles Urban League, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Parent Organization Network, Releases Report That Examines LAUSD’s Teacher Recruitment, Staffing, Compensation, Tenure and Evaluations
NCTQ/United Way Press Release | http://bit.ly/klsPID
 | THE SPIN/THE FRAMING/THE MESSAGING: the political manipulation of the data:
|
LOS ANGELES, June 7, 2011 – Today, United Way of Greater Los Angeles and its partners released the Teacher Quality Roadmap: Improving Policies and Practices in LAUSD study, an in-depth study conducted by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). Designed as a tool to highlight what is and is not working in our local schools, the report compares LAUSD’s policies with both surrounding districts and similar districts around the nation. The report also identifies local and state legislative reforms that would facilitate district efforts to attract and retain highly effective teachers. This report follows other NCTQ district spotlights in Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Hartford, CT; Seattle, WA and Kansas City, MO.
―With just over half of the 680,000 students graduating on time in LAUSD, the country’s second biggest school district, systemic change is required in order to make way for effective teachers and overall student achievement,‖ said Elise Buik, president and CEO, United Way of Greater Los Angeles. ―What the NCTQ report found is that key policies must be reformed, changes that our teachers and principals have stressed they want and need, in order to drive an effective educational system where our students can learn and thrive.‖
Los Angeles Unified School District has seen modest gains in educational achievement over the past ten years, but further reform is needed:
Only 52 percent of students graduate high-school on time; In contrast, 70 percent of students statewide graduate
The needs of minority students are lagging even further behind. While Latinos make up 73percent of LAUSD’s students, their graduation rate is only 40 percent
Only 11percent of LAUSD’s 9th grade students are proficient in Algebra 1, one of the key indicators of high school success
"Many people have looked at what must be done to reform LAUSD, but few have done it as thoroughly and thoughtfully as the National Council on Teacher Quality,‖ said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. ―I look forward to turning their research into reality by continuing to work with the leadership at LAUSD until all students have access to the effective education they deserve."
This data-driven look at the state of teacher policies in the Los Angeles Unified School District explores LAUSD’s contract with its teachers, as well as District practices and state laws that shape the work rules for teachers. Additionally, NCTQ analyzed LAUSD human resource data; conducted a district-wide survey of over 1,500 teachers and principals; and held focus groups with teachers, principals and parents. The analysis is framed around five standards for improving teacher quality. The five standards— staffing, evaluations, tenure, compensation and work schedule—are supported by research and best practices from the field.
Among the report’s findings:
Teacher assignment policies are flawed: Current contractual requirements force principals to hire teachers who may not be a good fit in their buildings, and layoff teachers based on seniority rather than the performance. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of principals surveyed reported that teachers hired from the district ―Priority Placement‖ list are not a good fit for their school (―rarely‖ or ―never‖).
LAUSD teacher evaluation policies don’t work: The evaluation instrument focuses too much on teacher behaviors and not how those behaviors impact student learning. Teachers observed by only their principal—and only once every other year, too infrequent to serve as a meaningful factor in shaping student performance.
Criteria for teacher tenure must be modified: Although LAUSD has made tenure a more meaningful designation in recent years by requiring principals to actively approve a teacher for tenure, California law impedes the district's ability to do more on this front.
Teacher compensation structure should be reviewed: LAUSD spends 25 percent of its teacher payroll ($519 million) to compensate teachers for completing additional coursework, even though such coursework has not been shown to improve student achievement.
Standard work schedule must be defined: The contract sets an expectation of an 8 hour work day, but teachers are not required to be on-site for this entire period, consequently teacher planning time and opportunities for collaboration with colleagues, is given short shrift.
“Teachers and principals alike want and demand the change necessary to improve how student learning,‖ said Kate Walsh, President, NCTQ. ―Like other cities we’ve studied, Los Angeles must work in particular to make the tenure decision meaningful, assign teachers putting student interests first, and take evaluation far more seriously. These themes have been a common thread across the country.‖
Recommendations provided in the NCTQ, Teacher Quality Roadmap include:
- LAUSD needs to improve their recruiting, pre-screening and staffing practices to attract and keep the strongest teachers in the District
- Improve applicant recruitment and screenings by HR to ensure candidates sent to schools are of high caliber
- Eliminate the "priority placement" list (also called the "must place" list), which forces LAUSD to compromise on its commitment to mutual consent staffing
- Give principals the right to refuse hiring a specific teacher, regardless of whether a teacher is transferring voluntarily or involuntarily
- Determine who gets laid off by weighing by multiple factors, including teacher effectiveness
- Teacher evaluations must be regular and include multiple measures, including student achievement
- Make student performance the preponderant factor in teacher evaluations
- Include multiple measures in teacher evaluations, such as value-added data on teacher performance, classroom observations by principals and content experts
- Conduct evaluations on an annual basis
- Tenure should be meaningful and offered after more than the current two years of teaching
- Hold tenure reviews to determine whether teachers are awarded tenure
- California is one of only eight states that provide tenure after two years;
- the state legislature should extend the probationary period for teachers to earn tenure from two years to at least four years
- Award teachers who earn tenure a significant salary increase
The NCTQ report follows the recent United Way Education Summit, keynoted by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the largest-ever event focused on education reform in Los Angeles County.
Funding for this study was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
About United Way of Greater Los Angeles
United Way of Greater Los Angeles is a nonprofit organization that creates pathways out of poverty by helping homeless people move into housing, providing students with the support they need to graduate high school prepared for college and the workforce, and helping hard-working families become financially stable. United Way identifies the root causes of poverty and works strategically to solve them by building alliances acrossall sectors, funding targeted programs and advocating for change. For more information, visit www.unitedwayla.org.
About The National Council on Teacher Quality
The National Council on Teacher Quality advocates for reforms in a broad range of teacher policies at the federal, state, and local levels in order to increase the number of effective teachers. In particular we recognize the absence of much of the evidence necessary to make a compelling case for change and seek to fill that void with a research agenda that has direct and practical implications for policy. We are committed to lending transparency and increasing public awareness about the four sets of institutions that have the greatest impact on teacher quality: states, teacher preparation programs, school districts and teachers unions. For more information, visit www.nctq.org
| | THE SPIN/THE FRAMING/THE MESSAGING: the political manipulation of the data:
|
LOS ANGELES, June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, United Way of Greater Los Angeles and its partners released the Teacher Quality Roadmap: Improving Policies and Practices in LAUSD, an in-depth study conducted by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). Designed as a tool to highlight what is and is not working in our local schools, the report compares LAUSD's policies with both surrounding districts and similar districts around the nation. The report also identifies local and state legislative reforms that would facilitate district efforts to attract and retain highly effective teachers. This report follows other NCTQ district spotlights in Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Hartford, CT; Seattle, WA and Kansas City, MO.
"With about 300,000 students, nearly one-half of the LAUSD population, not graduating on time, change across all schools in LAUSD is required in order to make way for effective teachers and overall student achievement," said Elise Buik, president and CEO, United Way of Greater Los Angeles. "What the NCTQ report found is that key policies must be reformed; changes that our teachers and principals have stressed they want and need in order to drive an effective educational system where our students can learn and thrive."
Los Angeles Unified School District has seen modest gains in educational achievement over the past ten years, but further reform is needed:
- Only 52% of students graduate high-school on time; In contrast, 70% of students statewide graduate.
- The needs of minority students are lagging even further behind; While Latinos make up 73% of LAUSD's students, their graduation rate is only 40%.
- Only 11% of LAUSD's 9th grade students are proficient in Algebra 1, one of the key indicators of high school success.
"Many people have looked at what must be done to reform LAUSD, but few have done it as thoroughly and thoughtfully as the National Council on Teacher Quality," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "I look forward to turning their research into reality by continuing to work with the leadership at LAUSD until all students have access to the effective education they deserve."
This data-driven look at the state of teacher policies in the Los Angeles Unified School District explores LAUSD's contract with its teachers, as well as District practices and state laws that shape the work rules for teachers. Additionally, NCTQ analyzed LAUSD human resource data, conducted a district-wide survey of over 1,500 teachers and principals, and held focus groups with teachers, principals and parents. The analysis is framed around five standards for improving teacher quality. The five standards-- staffing, evaluations, tenure, compensation and work schedule--are supported by research and best practices from the field.
Among the report's findings:
- Teacher assignments need to fit the school: Current contractual requirements force principals to hire teachers who may not be a good fit and layoff teachers based on seniority rather than on performance.
- LAUSD teacher evaluation policies don't work: The evaluation instrument focuses too much on teacher behaviors and not how those behaviors impact student learning. Teachers observed by only their principal--and only once every other year, is too infrequent to serve as a meaningful factor in shaping student performance.
- Criteria for teacher tenure must be modified: Although LAUSD has made tenure a more meaningful designation in recent years by requiring principals to actively approve a teacher for tenure, California law impedes the district's ability to do more, such as increase a teacher's salary when tenure designation is earned.
- Teacher compensation structure should be reviewed: LAUSD spends 25 percent of its teacher payroll ($519 million) to compensate teachers for completing additional coursework, even though such coursework has not been shown to improve student achievement.
"Teachers and principals alike want and demand the change necessary to improve student learning," said Kate Walsh, President, NCTQ. "Like other cities we've studied, Los Angeles must work in particular to make the tenure decision meaningful, assign teachers that put the student interests first, and take evaluation far more seriously. These themes have been a common thread across the country."
Recommendations provided in the NCTQ, Teacher Quality Roadmap include:
1. Layoffs must be determined on more factors than just seniority.
Principals should have the right to refuse hiring a specific teacher, regardless of whether a teacher is transferring voluntarily or involuntarily.
Layoffs should be determined by multiple factors, including teacher effectiveness.
2. Teacher evaluations must be regular and include multiple measures, including student achievement.
Student performance should be the preponderant factor in teacher evaluations
Evaluations should include multiple measures such as value-added data on teacher performance, classroom -- observations by principals and content experts.
Evaluations should be conducted on an annual basis.
3. Tenure should be meaningful and offered after more than the current two years of teaching.
Tenure reviews should determine whether teachers are awarded tenure, not automatically given.
California is one of only eight states that provide tenure after two years; the state
legislature should extend the probationary period for teachers to earn tenure from two years to at least four years.
Tenure should be connected to significant salary increases for teachers.
4. LAUSD needs to improve their recruiting, pre-screening and staffing practices to attract and keep the strongest teachers in the District.
Improve applicant recruitment and screenings by HR to ensure candidates sent to schools are of high caliber
Eliminate the “priority placement” list (also called the “must place” list), which forces LAUSD to compromise on its commitment to mutual consent staffing.
The NCTQ report follows the recent United Way Education Summit, keynoted by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the largest-ever event focused on education reform in Los Angeles County. During the Summit United Way released the results of the Creating Pathways To Graduation, What's Working; Examining high-performing middle grades schools in Los Angeles County report, a qualitative look at six high-performing schools from over 303 middle schools assessed across California (four of which are extensively profiled in the report) as part of EdSource's earlier Gaining Ground in Middle Grades study.
Funding for the NCTQ study in Los Angeles was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
About United Way of Greater Los Angeles
United Way of Greater Los Angeles is a nonprofit organization that creates pathways out of poverty by helping homeless people move into housing, providing students with the support they need to graduate high school prepared for college and the workforce, and helping hard-working families become financially stable. United Way identifies the root causes of poverty and works strategically to solve them by building alliances across all sectors, funding targeted programs and advocating for change. For more information, visit www.unitedwayla.org.
About The National Council on Teacher Quality
The National Council on Teacher Quality advocates for reforms in a broad range of teacher policies at the federal, state, and local levels in order to increase the number of effective teachers. In particular we recognize the absence of much of the evidence necessary to make a compelling case for change and seek to fill that void with a research agenda that has direct and practical implications for policy. We are committed to lending transparency and increasing public awareness about the four sets of institutions that have the greatest impact on teacher quality: states, teacher preparation programs, school districts and teachers unions. For more information, visit www.nctq.org.
NCTQ on LAUSD: Teacher Quality Roadmap 06-07-2011
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