Wow! As an educator I would not be totally opposed to this being a part of my evaluation process. It would have be nice to use this as a tool to improve my instruction. Unfortunately, I also feel torn because I feel that a system like this will promote 'Teaching to the Test" and therefore our students will fall further behind. Your article also does not address that some learning institutions are considered most effective because part of their day is spent on practicing test taking strategies. I've had the experience of receiving kids who scored really high on the CST in 4th grade but in the 5th grade they were totally unsuccessful with the periodic assessments and did not score as well as they did the year before on the CST. It is a shame that instead of helping and improving our public school we attack them and point out their failures. When are the politicians and special interest groups going to realize that their actions are destroying public education. It is a shame and the L.A Times should write an article about all of their failed attempts, but you wont it's not in your best interest.

I appreciate this data. My question now is given all the issues that my students come to school with how do I become a teacher that is most effective? I think that it is a good idea that the Times is looking at this data, but what about the other data? And now that we have this data, what do we do with it? I understand how many think the Times is targeting teachers. I ask the Times, help us teachers and the district become better.

As an LA Times subscriber, I greatly appreciate investigative reporting such as the investigation that broke the high salaries being paid to the city of Bell officials. However, this article set to come out on Thursday, extremely disappoints me. If anybody should know, the Times should truly understand that it takes a village to be responsible for a child's education. This includes and is not limited to the parents and the home environment they have created for their child, school climate set forth by the school principal, socioeconomic factors, social factors surrounding the community along with of course, their teacher. To solely focus on teacher "effectiveness" based on state tests leads me to wonder if their is a hidden agenda behind this article that will further support the future political agenda of current city politicians and charter school advocates? It also leads me to question whether to change my subscription to the Daily Breeze come September 15 (expiration date of current subscription).

This report is an insult. I don't have a problem with teacher's evaluating teaching methods, but this is only one aspect of a student's growth and performance and is a gross misreprestation of dedication and ability. Also, student populations reflect a vast difference in scoring on standardized tests. The real irony of my evaluation is that it doesn't reflect how through my creation of writing materials, I turn my children into writers. The evaluation that means the most to me is what my students write in 5-paragraph essays to the 4th graders about what to expect in fifth grade. Effective, doesn't come close to their descriptions--awesome is more like it.

The real truth is that I get evaluated by more than 30 people everyday I teach. I get evaluated on whether or not I listen to them when they tell me things that they have never told anyone else. I get evaluated when I see in a child’s eyes that they do not understand and I need to come up with three other ways to present a concept to them. I get evaluated when I have to break up a fight or mend a friendship. I get evaluated when I stay after school to help kids with homework whose parents can’t or worse won’t. I get evaluated when former students come back to visit me and recall specific lessons they did 5 years ago. I get evaluated when a student struggles and finally succeeds with a smile. Yah, I get evaluated more often than any other job on earth. According to your research the only data that matters to my evaluation is the 4 days out of the year my students are tested, when in reality I see every day as an evaluation and I sure hope in my students eyes that I pass as being something more than “average”.

The last year I taught was 2006 - so you are working with 2 years of data. I am not sure how you are computing your scores. I think you should show percentages of CST scores. That is a true indicator of how students did. Anyone can easily manipulate data.

Thank you for the personal feedback, but I still object to the publication of specific teacher's scores. When I have done well for my students, it is because of my colleagues and the work we do together in planning and analyzing data. At my school, we work together as a team. No teacher is an island and no success I have achieved with a student is due solely to my own efforts. When a student has done well, it is because of my work along with the previous teachers, my grade level colleagues, the parents, the administration and other staff.

I have been a teacher for 37 years. No student whom I have taught has ever been cheated in any way. I am confident of my skill, and ability to teach in creative ways that inspire highly gifted learners, as well as those who are at a remedial level. Test scores do not reflect a teachers quality of educating. They only reflect a students ability to retain information that was presented.
Although this is a small point, it looks as though the students scored 42 in English, and 8 in math. Combined they would equal 50. Therefore, the overall score would be 25, and placed in the less effective category. Hopefully, the rest of your survey is more accurate then presented with these numbers.
Finally, in my last year of service, I want to condemn the Los Angles Times for diminishing the value of all my years of selfless commitment to my students, and their parents. Laura Freedman, B.A., M.A.

The reporters of LA Times never fail to bring the attention to our schools, and somehow it is always a negative attention. While we try to use the positive in life to bring our kids out of poverty, bloody divorces, bad mornings, crying parents with no jobs..., the reporters use the negativity to improve the education and ultimately the life of our children. It does not work. I understand the reporters worked very hard to deliver the scores to us. It is just that your work will bear no fruit, just mold and puss.
OBGECTIVE ~What DID you try to accomplish? Did you try to let the public know that their teachers are not good enough for their kids. And? If my friends and I leave, who will teach them? You? You know that this job is not competitive enough for anyone. Not that I am planning to leave mind you. I happen to love what I do. By the way, are you going to let the public know that we are only paid for 6 hours of work, and we are to put in the two other hours in a day free? Are you going to let them know that our vacation is not paid? We get two weeks of vacation just like the rest of the population, but the society is under the impression that we are on a very loose schedule!
PARENTS ~ Now parents will be requesting other teachers whose scores are a bit better than the teacher who is currently teaching their child. They will stand in line in the office crying and raising their voices to get the best education possible for their kids, and they will be frustrated just like the Principal who will have to deal with them and the office staff who will have to calm them down. What are they supposed to do? The private schools are no better. Are you going to publish their scores as well? In my experience a lot of the private school teachers are not credentialed, they do not receive enough training, and the ones that I have seen so far do not measure up to the creativity and diligence of my colleagues.
STUDENTS ~ The students cannot succeed in a classroom knowing that the society does not show a lot of respect to the only adults who is in charge. You must lead the society and raise the respect for the teachers and the awareness of what they are going through in order to avoid burn-out and come to work every day. How will the students succeed in a class of the teacher whose picture you showed in LA Times. They will do even less now. After all THE NEWSPAPER even said he was bad…
TEACHERS ~ Your public documentation of a “teacher’s score” will do a lot of damage to the moral of the teaching staff. People will be looking at each other knowing each other’s scores… It takes a village to raise a child. Publishing the individual scores means that the teams are not in existence anymore. The village has been successfully destroyed, and we now stand on our own checking each other’s scores.
I sometimes think that due to your low sales you choose SENSATIONAL over GOOD, and you used me an d my colleagues this time. Sometimes though I think that you may have the best interests of the society in heart losing sleep over your little daughter starting kindergarten next year or your teenage son who cannot wait for his senior year to begin… Maybe you are wonderful and caring, you just forgot to think it through. And maybe you did not listen to the ones who have. I may have a suggestion that next time you may choose to publish the percentage of the teachers who are average, below average, etc., but maybe it would be best to avoid publishing their names.
I look in horror at the world around me. I am 42 years old. I am not that old, and I do not miss any old times… but sometimes I wonder… I see the world where privacy, decency and common sense have been torn apart by the reporters, the people who are to serve the society and its members. The world I live has ripped the very foundation of an educational system, its respect to the teachers, the ones who do it all, the people who put in hours and hours of work grading papers and creating projects for the thirty, fourty children they adopt for a year often to the detriment of their own families. Last year Daily News published our salaries, this year you publish our score as to how good a teacher we are… What will happen next year? My medical records will be up for a review by the public? Will there be a camera in my class? What’s next?

Judging by the continuous positive feedback I have received over the past 8 years at Topeka Drive Elementary from parents, students, staff and administration alike, I do not believe this evaluation to be an accurate reflection of my dedication and skills as an educator.