LAUSD grants teacher tenure with little review, Times investigation finds

A Times investigation found that the Los Angeles Unified School District routinely grants tenure to new teachers after cursory reviews -- and sometimes none at all.

Evaluating new teachers for tenure is one of a principal's most important responsibilities. Once instructors have permanent status, they are almost never fired for performance reasons alone. The two-year probation period, during which teachers can be fired at will, offers a singular opportunity to weed out poor performers.

It is a chance L.A. Unified all but squanders, according to interviews with more than 75 teachers and administrators, analyses of district data over the last several years, and internal and independent studies. Among the findings:

* Nearly all probationary teachers receive a passing grade on evaluations. Fewer than 2% are denied tenure.

* The reviews are so lacking in rigor as to be meaningless, many instructors say. Before a teacher gets tenure, school administrators are required to conduct only a single, pre-announced classroom visit per year. About half the observations last 30 minutes or less. Principals are rarely held responsible for how they perform the reviews.

* The district's evaluation of teachers does not take into account whether students are learning. Principals are not required to consider testing data, student work or grades. L.A. Unified, like other districts in California, essentially ignores a state law that since the 1970s has required districts to weigh pupil progress in assessing teachers and administrators.

Read the full report by Jason Felch, Jessica Garrison and Jason Song here.

Read The Times' yearlong series on teachers, "Failure Gets a Pass," here.

Comments

[andrew nelson]

Enough. Time for a re examination of our basic standards. We need to be more effects based oriented instead of intentions based oriented. Results count, not effort, not good intentions. Results, competency, hard EFFECTIVE work. Test scores count. Results count. Get to it.

[Dan Basalone]

The missing component in this otherwise excellent report is the fact that the LAUSD/UTLA negotiated contract has grievance processes to protect all teachers including probationary teachers. As stated in the article, there is approximately a four month window of opportunity to evaluate a teacher and with the grievance process in place...that is usually not enough time for the due processes required. If UTLA members truly want an objective and fair evaluation, they should be willing to reinstitute the three year evaluation cycle so that both the District and the teacher have fairness in the process. By the way, the one line about reduced APs in schools is critical. Many times the reason that a single principal at a school cannot evaluate properly and misses observations is because they are holding parent conferences, supervising the playground and lunch areas or just responding to the myriad of compliance regulations heaped upon them. Principals need to evaluate all teachers at least every two years so they can't concentrate solely on the new teachers...a 950 student population for one assistant principal is ridiculous if this Superintendent truly believes in teacher/staff evaluation.

[michael]

I'm a 25 year veteran teacher in LAUSD and have seen my fair share of bad teachers. I've also seen my fair share of wonderful teachers who left the profession because of poor pay and poor treatment.
I'm all for getting rid of bad teachers but who is calling them bad? There are plenty of poor performing administrators (the principal of a nearby school was taking away in handcuffs a few years ago) who are poor judges of whether a teacher is doing a good job or not.
I've urged our union (UTLA) to help weed out the failing teachers. It's a difficult and complex problem.
Finally, however, I think that the Superintendent's time would be better spent figuring out how to keep the thousands of dedicated and talented teachers rather than how to get rid of the relatively few poor performing ones.

[LAUSD Teacher]

Well, as a recently tenured teacher I can attest to the fact that my principal spent less than 30 minutes on observing my teaching practices during my Stull observation day.

However, I can certainly say that he has seen me teach on over 12 occasions during various situations. He has seen me teach during UNANNOUNCED visits from local district administrators (yes those guys do observe as well), during UNANNOUNCED visits from program-improvement administrators (have more power than aforementioned local district people) and during UNANNOUNCED visits when he just wants to drop by and say hi (he's nice like that AND works 12+ hours a day, 6 days a week).

It's unfair to saddle a principal with the duty to weed out BEGINNING teachers as they are usually the ones who have the most energy, who are most effective and who are less jaded. The ones with poor teaching practices are usually the ones making close to $100000 and with 30 years in. These teachers are usually dug in so deep it'll take the destruction of the entire union to get them out.

Cortines is dreaming if he thinks he can weed out ineffective teachers 20 years in advance. The District and the public can't wait that long. Merit pay beckons, people.

[FANNY MARTINEZ]

I FILED A COMPLAINT AGAINST A BAD TEACHER RECENTLY:

Los Angeles Unified School District 2
Attn: Maria Ochoa, Director
5200 Lankershim Blvd., No. Hollywood, CA 91601
(818) 755-5300
Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Dear Mrs. Ochoa,
I am writing this letter to file an official complaint against a North Hollywood High School teacher by the name of Mrs. Butler. This teacher is doing a horrible and injustice to the kids that have passed through her class. I’m dismayed by the District’s disregard of teachers misbehaving and not educating appropriately. I’ve been informed that school administrators, other teachers, students and other parents have complained about Mrs. Butler to no avail. At most, the parents who complained had their child’s grade changed and the matter closed.
Currently I am gathering statements from parents and students that have had the misfortune to have her as a teacher.
My son failed Mrs. Butler’s Health class in the 9th grade. It was not till this year that I realized my son was telling me the truth about Ms. Butler all along. My son’s complaint was that she constantly lost his work, signed by me, his father & fellow students. I didn’t believe him as I should have and LAUSD rules make it too late for me to have my son’s grade re-evaluated. This, although, devastating to us will not deter me from standing up for our next generation currently in her class and future classes.
It’s discouraging to see the district has ignored this teacher’s unprofessionalism for so long. My following letter will have statements from old and current students explaining misbehaviors like; shaving her legs in class, constant eating & on her cell, ALWAYS LOSING/MISPLACING students assignments, not teaching, student preferences/accepting gifts/food, rudeness, and much more. Even her “A” students tell me disturbing stories of having Ms. Butler as a teacher.
This type of misconduct should not be allowed in the school system responsible for educating our future leaders. This has been going on for way to long.
I look forward to your response and resolution in this matter. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Fanny Martinez

CC: North Hollywood High School, Dr. Randall Delling (Principal)
North Hollywood High School, Mrs. Oganesyan (Teachers Counselor)

[Concerned Parent and employee]

I have worked for LAUSD for 4 years and I have seen quite a bit of this. The partnership schools are part of this too.
LAUSD is to BIG for it's own GOOD.
At the end of the day the lack of ETHICAL practices will hurt all. No accountability allows opportunity for continuous faulty practices. Teachers, Administration and people on the board are aware of these practices, employees openly participate and never question authority.

If a teacher is not reviewed correctly they should come forward.
The teacher should also be protected also.

I am glad somebody is investigating this.

LAUSD Special Ed division should be investigated also. H = MCD .

It is widely known that services that students in the inner city lack or are rarely approved for are often provided for students in more affluent neighborhoods (West Side) with very little to no resistance.

Has the fact that LAUSD is not forcing SPECIAL ED STUDENTS TO PASS the CAHSEE this year (09-10) to boost it's Graduate Rate even been addressed? How about you investigate.

That would be a great story.

Who is LAUSD looking out for? Our students? Really? I don't believe so.
BOOSTING GRADUATE RATE BY ALLOWING THIS IS SINISTER and MISLEADING.

LAUSD is going as far as giving 08-09 students diplomas even if they did not pass the CAHSEE test and qualify as Special Education Student. .

LAUSD Keep your eyes on what is important.

OUR KIDS OUR IMPORTANT -
PLEASE STOP FAULTY PRACTICES -
EMPLOY QUALITY TEACHERS AND STOP SHUFFLING INCOMPETENT ADMINISTRATORS.

Does anyone know the educational background of the board members?
Is that public information?

[YC]

Watching movies in school has become such a frequent form of "instruction" here that I am not even surprised by what this article said. After reading an article in the local newspaper about ten years ago that an English teacher who had taught in middle school for ten years was actually an illiterate, this article is no longer shocking to me at all. My daughter even told me her teachers were doing online shopping in classroom, and her school is one of the best in southern California.

[A New Teacher]

If you want to judge teachers by student progress (i.e., State Scores) according to your 'research', then put the tenure teachers in Crenshaw, Watts, and South Central, and give the newbies Beverly Hills, Studio City, and Hancock Park to give them a chance to learn the art of teaching instead of baby-sitting the homeless!

[neighboring teacher]

I am a tenured teacher in a district other than LAUSD. I can assure families in our district that I would be called down immediately for showing movies, not teaching the curriculum, and any other unprofessional habits. If our staff had teachers who behaved as such, we would want them weeded out too. Weak teachers make the job much harder for the hard working ones. But being evaluated by a single, overworked administrator who has his/her own weaknesses, biases, and friends on staff, or being evaluated strictly by test scores has its problems too. While I agree that bad teachers need to either improve or leave the profession, I hope that the L.A. Times would give equal time to the vast majority of teachers I know. Dedicated professionals who give countless extra (free) hours, spend their own money (hundreds if not thousands of dollars) on materials and extras for their students, never take a day off, spend vacation time on school tasks or improving and updating their skills, and work faithfully every school day to be a model of stability and inspiration to a student population unbelievably diverse in so many ways.

[Tom (25 year teacher, out of LAUSD for 20 years)]

This is a problem that LAUSD has had for many years. Twenty-Four years ago I was reviewing my 2nd year evaluation from my assistant principal at Nobel JHS. I noted that he indicated 5 dates that he had observed me when in fact he had never been in my classroom. He explained that the classroom had windows that extended the entire length of the room and the dates are the times he walked past my room and looked in. I don't miss working for LAUSD.

[Robert Lambert]

Let me begin by saying that I despise the corrupt triumvirate of the UTLA leadership, Democrats, and LAUSD bureaucracy. They have taxed the citizens of California into oblivion while skimming off huge portions of these funds to line their own pockets.

Having said that, I will echo what some of the teachers have posted. What are we to do about the rotten apples and worthless parents who have destroyed this school system? I would bet my life that the sob story Ms. Fanny Martinez just mentioned is an anomaly compared to the hundreds of stories from hard working teachers about the thugs and miscreants they face every day in the classroom. Not to mention, the stupid and uneducated parents who think their little miscreant is an angel.

[LA Teacher]

So Andrew, would you be willing to put your test scores on the line when attendance is horrible, the transiency rate of students is 40% and 1/2 the kids because they are below grade level will get take a different test than the subject you taught them all year? Yes, results count for those who are not in the classroom and can take shots at teachers from the outside looking in.

[lisa]

You should not print letters about anyone - no employee should see their name in the paper! One parent claims to be investigating a teacher, but how do you know that this is true? How do you know that any of the claims are true? In all fairness, the name of the teacher should have been deleted. Be careful who you judge, they just might judge you!