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Nowhere else in California has the debate over the use of student test scores to grade teachers gained more attention than in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), according to a new story from the Hechinger Report that focuses on voluntary pilot evaluation efforts at Melrose Elementary School and other sites around the district.

This year, LAUSD has expanded its new teacher evaluation pilot program to work with about 900 teachers to analyze test score gains, a student’s predicted growth based on past scores, and relative district-wide gains seen across the district and within different groups of the student population.

How much of the evaluation should be based on student achievement has been controversial with UTLA, but at least some of those involved in the pilot aren’t worried:

“I don’t understand why anybody would be upset with 30 percent of your evaluation being tied to student achievement; that means 70 percent is not,” said one of the teachers quoted in the story. “We are teachers, for God’s sake. I mean, how are you supposed to be judged if you are not using the kids’ work?”

The piece also references LAUSD’s NCLB waiver application, which will be helped by the new teacher evaluation system.

Read the full story at the Hechinger Report.

Previous posts:  Teachers & Principals Question Deasy Teacher Evaluation Plan, District Makes Student Achievement 30% of Teacher Evaluations