One of the state’s most hidebound districts in the past  took a step this week toward becoming one of the most progressive. The rest of the state: take notice.

A  Los Angeles Unified task force that included teachers, parents and administrators and was chaired by State School Board President Ted Mitchell, has recommended significant changes in the way teachers in the nation’s second largest district are evaluated, paid and granted tenure.

If adopted by the school board, excellent teachers who agree to work in underserved schools will be paid more, and teacher evaluations – now perfunctory and uncritical – would include the opinions of parents and student as well as several years of student test data to measure effectiveness, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

The probationary period for some teachers – those who deserve a longer chance to prove themselves – could extend from the current two years to four; however, this would require a change in state law. In 2005, when Gov. Schwarzenegger put an initiative for a longer probation period on the ballot, the state teachers union led a grassroots effort to kill it.

But a lot has happened since then, particularly in the past year, in LAUSD, and even United Teachers Los Angeles, is recognizing the need to change. A burgeoning charter school movement has led to more than 15 percent decline in enrollment over the past decade and a declining union membership. This year, union teachers, backed by the district, submitted plans for running 30 new and low-performing schools that will challenge work rules.
The  school board approved most of the proposals. And just as the task force was beginning its work, the Los Angeles Times did shocking articles on how difficult, expensive and rare it is to fire even the worst performing teachers.

The Obama administration has made performance-based pay and effective principal and teacher evaluations the top priority in the Race to the Top competition and signaled this week that they will be a cornerstone of the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind act. Districts that get ahead of curve could find themselves in line for substantial federal money at a time when others will go begging. California lost out  in the first round of Race to the Top, but now, if school trustees follow through with the task force report,  LAUSD could lead the state’s sales pitch in the second round.

The big obstacle to adopting the task force’s recommendations will be, not surprisingly, how much to factor  standardized test results into teacher evaluations and pay. They should definitely count for something, but probably not much under the current system, with its exclusive focus on high-stakes tests in math and English language arts. Not all subjects are tested, and particularly in high school, students tend not to take them seriously.

The Obama administration has called for more complex students assessments and accountability systems that measure individual students’ growth over the course of a year, instead of annual tests that compare the results of this year’s students with last year’s. So it would be wise to wait until these new measures are created and accepted before giving them a lot of weight in the pay formula.  For now, the districts should do something to recognize those teachers who consistently raise test scores sharply. And  teachers whose students lag behind year after year be flagged for probation.

The task force also agreed with another measure that Schwarzenegger wants the Legislature to act on, according to the Times story: elimination of seniority as a factor in some layoffs and the abolishment of the  Commission on Professional Competence, a state agency that hears appeals of teachers who have been fired by districts.

By John Fensterwald on March 17th, 2010