By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

LOS ANGELES – It’s good to have options, as teachers in the Los Angeles school district are discovering.

Los Angeles educators who aspire to be more than drones for the education establishment can join other reform-minded teachers in a new advocacy group, reports the Los Angeles Times.

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The group – simply known as Educators4Excellence Los Angeles – is eager to establish itself as an alternative to United Teachers Los Angeles, the wealthy and powerful local teachers union.

The fledgling group just released an official policy statement that supports using student standardized test scores to measure a teacher’s effectiveness, tenure status and layoff eligibility, the Times reports.

The group also wants highly effective teachers to be identified and given mentoring and leadership roles in their schools – in return for extra money – and for principals to have more latitude in making hiring decisions.

It’s unclear how many L.A. teachers currently belong to Educators4Excellence Los Angeles, but the new group already has several powerful friends.

L.A. Superintendent John Deasy and school board members Monica Garcia and Monica Ratliff have publicly endorsed the group. And the group’s parent organization (Educators4Excellence) has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.

The new group might be more than just an alternative organization for reform-minded teachers to join. Its members, who are still union members, could attempt to change the powerful UTLA from within, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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That’s a lofty goal, but certainly a worthy one.