Eloisa Martinez

Eloisa Martinez's Response:

Shame on the L.A. Times for publicly shaming my colleagues!!!!!! As much as I wanted to stay far away from the DRAMA, until being officially back to work, I could not resist the temptation of opening up the article. I AM OUTRAGED!!! HOW DARE THE LA TIMES take "OUR" ( students', teachers', & schools') precious data and manipulate it. More importantly, how can anyone, who is not a TEACHER, even begin to understand the complexities pertinent to standardized testing. THIS PUBLIC SHAMING IS WRONG ON SOOOOO MANY LEVELS!!!! We, as educators, must stand together on this. Today you may be deemed a "Most Effective" teacher, but tomorrow you may be that humiliated teacher who receieves a "Least Effective" ranking. I am disappointed with teachers, who have bought into this whole notion of the "Value -Added" approach. We, are the ONLY ones (not L.A. Times reporters/ researchers/ writers, bureaucrats, politicians, and even some administrators and parents) who TRULY understand the challenges WE face, as educators in one of the most troubled school disctricts. It is ludicrous to think that this database can accurately rank our performance/competence when these standardized tests do not take into account the many contributing factors that affect scores (i.e. ELD levels, IEPs, grade level standards, testing irregularities, etc.) I am deeply troubled to know that we, as professionals, have worked hard for our Teaching Credentials (a significant number of us even pursuing graduate work) and that we are fair game for the media. Hmmmmm..... it is my sincere hope that UTLA will respond (but I will not hold my breath). To all my fellow teachers, who ARE "THE REAL DEAL" , let's keep our heads up and our eyes on the prize :)