Zócalo Public Square

Teachers are among the biggest influences on a student’s education. Most parents and educators would say teacher performance should be evaluated. Yet no one agrees on how to do it. From a teacher’s method in the classroom to his or her willingness to spend extra hours with individual students, attaching a number to teacher performance isn’t easy. Some favor a “value-added” teacher ranking system, which measures instructors by whether or not their students beat expectations, while others argue the system is unfair. Does it work, and can a teacher’s effectiveness truly be measured? Zócalo and the California Community Foundation invited a panel of education specialists including education reporter Louis Freedberg, Los Angeles Unified School District Deputy Superintendent John Deasy, UCLA Center X Director of Research Karen Hunter Quartz and Families in Schools Vice President Oscar E. Cruz to ask whether teacher rankings work, how we should create them, and whether they make for better schools.