LA Teachers Agree to New Evaluation System

Student test scores will be incorporated

Facing a Tuesday deadline to come up with a deal, Los Angeles Unified and its teachers union announced today that they'd hammered out a tentative agreement that incorporates student test scores in performance evaluations.

Under the tentative deal, teachers' evaluations will factor in how well their students perform on standardized tests, and will also include their school's score on Academic Growth Over Time (AGT), a controversial formula used to measure student progress.

The main element of the evaluation will be "robust classroom observation," officials said, with attendance rates, student grades and passing rates and other factors rounding out the process. The pact leaves it to district administrators to determine how much weight will be given to each element.