XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: typical@barackobama.com   
      
   It obviously hasn't helped the white liberals in that cesspool   
   of a city.   
      
   Niggers and hispanics are intellectually inferior anyway.  Look   
   at Obama.   
      
   Black and Latino students are more likely to get ineffective   
   teachers in Los Angeles schools than white and Asian students,   
   according to a new study by a Harvard researcher. The findings   
   were released this week during a trial challenging the way   
   California handles the dismissal, lay off and tenure process for   
   teachers.   
      
    In the study, professor Thomas J. Kane concluded that the worst   
   teachers—in the bottom 5%--taught 3.2% of white students and   
   5.4% of Latino students. If ineffective teachers were evenly   
   distributed, you’d expect that 5% of each group of students   
   would have these low-rated instructors.   
      
   A similar pattern held when Kane looked at teachers rated in the   
   bottom half: 38.5% of white students had such an instructor; the   
   number was 48.6% for African American students and 52.2% for   
   Latino students.   
      
   Kane presented his findings during testimony in Vergara versus   
   California. He appeared as a witness on behalf of nine families,   
   who are backed by the Menlo Park-based Students Matter, which   
   seeks to overturn several laws. The organization opposes teacher   
   tenure decisions being made in only 18 months, layoffs based on   
   seniority rather than merit, and a dismissal process for   
   ineffective teachers that can prove lengthy and costly. These   
   laws have the effect of diminishing the quality of the teacher   
   workforce and do particular harm to low-income and minority   
   students, advocates contend.   
      
   The teaching-quality imbalance especially hurts the neediest   
   students because “rather than assign them more effective   
   teachers to help close the gap with white students they’re   
   assigned less effective teachers, which results in the gap being   
   slightly wider in the following year,” Kane testified, according   
   to an unofficial trial transcript.   
      
   His other notable finding was that the worst teachers in Los   
   Angeles are doing more harm to students than the worst ones in   
   other school systems that he compared. The other districts were   
   New York City, Charlotte-Mecklenberg, Dallas, Denver, Memphis   
   and Hillsborough County in Florida.   
      
   Kane’s research was used to suggest that the challenged laws are   
   causing the disparities that he cited.   
      
   The statutes are being defended in court by the state of   
   California, the state Federation of Teachers and the California   
   Teachers Assn.   
      
   Attorney James Finberg, representing the unions, cited other   
   research that blamed voluntary transfers for the concentration   
   of more-effective teachers at schools with fewer minority   
   students and more pupils from higher-income families. His side   
   has contended that better management, including an effort to   
   improve teaching conditions, could address the disparities found   
   by Kane.   
      
   “Well-managed districts are able, within the existing statutory   
   scheme, to give tenure only to those probationary teachers who   
   demonstrate effectiveness, and to dismiss, or encourage the   
   resignation of, the few ineffective teachers who slip through   
   the cracks, or become ineffective,” Finberg said in an interview.   
      
   In cross-examination by Finberg, Kane acknowledged that the   
   ability to win tenure rights could help in recruiting talent   
   into the profession.   
      
   Kane's study looked at data from the 2004-05 academic year   
   through 2010-11.  It encompassed the test scores of 1.1 million   
   students and 58,000 teachers in grades 3 through 8. It has yet   
   to be reviewed by peers, Kane said.   
      
   Kane's ratings of teacher effectiveness were based only on   
   student scores from state standardized tests that were applied   
   to a "value-added" formula. This measurement takes into account   
   such factors as ethnicity, family income and past performance   
   when determining how much an individual teacher affects a   
   student's test results. Kane said that the best measure of a   
   teacher’s work would include other factors in addition to scores.   
      
   L.A. Unified has joined the growing number of school systems   
   that measure teachers through a value-added formula, which it   
   calls Academic Growth Over Time. Elsewhere, such ratings count   
   for as much as half of a teacher’s evaluation. Under an   
   agreement with the teachers union, L.A. Unified can only apply   
   the value-added results for an entire school as part of a   
   teacher’s performance review. But an individual’s rating can be   
   used, for example, to inform annual improvement goals.   
      
   http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-unequal-teaching-in-   
   la-20140207,0,3465389.story#ixzz2shtwRTzU   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)