The education world is abuzz this week with talk about the first installment of a series by the Los Angeles Times that zeroes in on the effect an individual teacher has on students' academic performance. The newspaper later this month is planning to release a database that shows the "value-added" score for every third- through fifth-grade teacher in the L.A. Unified School District.

That "value-added" score shows the aggregate effect teachers have had on their students' test scores strictly during the time those students spent with the teachers in question.

Apparently, this sort of analysis and insight is exactly what the Obama administration has had in mind as it presses states to start evaluating and paying teachers based in part on their students' academic progress and to more aggressively collect data about schools' and teachers' effectiveness.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan became the latest to weigh in on Monday with an endorsement of the L.A. Times' efforts. His reaction followed that of A.J. Duffy, president of United Teacher Los Angeles, who is urging a boycott of the newspaper.

Alexander Russo is at work on a list of states where such a data release that names individual teachers wouldn't be allowed. Russo equated the public release of teachers' scores with an Adequate Yearly Progress rating for individuals.

I haven't yet determined the legality of doing such a thing in Maine. Could it fall under a personnel exemption of public information laws here? (If anyone has input, feel free to share.)

Regardless, the Maine Department of Education -- if it can't already -- will be able to produce the same sort of teacher-by-teacher analysis L.A. Unified is able to now within a few years as Maine's student longitudinal data system comes together, spokesman David Connerty-Marin told me.

As L.A. Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines told the L.A. Times, "We have better data than anyone else in the nation — we just don't use it well."

The timing of the L.A. Times series' start couldn't have been better. Here in Maine, it dovetails with two ongoing discussions regarding data collection and evaluations that judge teachers at least in part based on students' academic progress.

As the start of the school year approaches, many in Maine are worrying about the privacy implications of a plan to start collecting students' Social Security numbers to add to the aforementioned longitudinal data system. While privacy issues are dominating the discussion, at the crux of the debate is data collection and its use in judging schools' effectiveness (and perhaps individual teachers') and informing policy decisions.

The article's publication also came a few days in advance of the next meeting of the 12-member state panel charged with pre-approving and working out ways to incorporate student achievement data into teacher and principal evaluations.

Perhaps the L.A. Times series will influence the group's discussion.

Archives