By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

LOS ANGELES – It’s an escape that would make Harry Houdini jealous.

Just when it appeared that the United Teachers Los Angeles had no choice but to comply with a court order mandating the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations, the union on Saturday approved a new evaluation plan that dilutes raw state test scores with a series of meaningless data, such as student attendance and suspension rates.

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In other words, L.A.’s new teacher evaluations are much ado about nothing.

But that reality didn’t stop school district leaders from celebrating the news that 66 percent of UTLA members ratified the new evaluation plan, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The agreement seems to fulfill a recent court ruling that ordered the district to comply with the Stull Act, a 1971 law that requires student achievement to be used in evaluating educators.

While the agreement may technically comply with the statute, it doesn’t seem to embrace the spirit of the law. California lawmakers’ purpose in linking teacher ratings to student learning was to ensure that only effective educators are allowed in the classroom.

But this new evaluation system waters down the student learning component with an odd assortment of data that measures how long students spend in class, which has little connection to actual learning.

According to the Times, “the pact limits the use of a controversial method of analyzing a teacher’s impact on student learning known as value-added. Instead, the (district and the union) agreed to evaluate teachers with such data as raw state test scores, district assessments, high school exit exams and rates of attendance, graduation, suspensions and course completion.”

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If the union had failed to approve this new evaluation, a “judge could have mandated value-added scores be used to evaluate teachers,” Southern California Public Radio reports.

Too bad that didn’t happen.

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy will announce later this week just what percentage of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on this bizarre collection of data, but it’s expected to be less than 50 percent, and possibly as low as 30 percent.

Teacher union apologist Diane Ravitch praised the agreement for assuring that test scores “will not be the sole or primary determinant of a teacher’s evaluation,” reports the DailyNews.com.

Ravitch’s glowing endorsement confirms our suspicions.

LAUSD leaders want the public to think some major breakthrough has occurred. The reality is that beneath all the hype and favorable media reports, the Los Angeles public schools have a new way of rating educators that will not improve teacher quality or student learning in any meaningful way.