Re-evaluating LA Schools Using the 'Value-Added' Method
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Last week, the Los Angeles Times revealed that the nation's second largest school district had information that could help evaluate teachers, but never used it. This week, it applied the same information to find that some supposedly good schools aren't so hot after all, and that some "failing" schools are doing better than anyone realized. We hear from the Times, the teachers' union and an activist parent. Also, Eli Broad, the decider. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, flooding in Pakistan is a slow-motion humanitarian crisis that threatens democratic government and civic order—not to mention American interests. We get a comprehensive look at the disaster.
Main Topic
Re-evaluating LA Schools Using the 'Value-Added' Method ()
The Los Angeles Times has been reporting on what's called "value added" analysis of standardized test scores. Last week, the paper revealed that LA Unified had information that could help evaluate individual teachers, but wasn't using it, partly because of objection from the teachers' union. The United Teachers of Los Angeles, or UTLA is holding its annual meeting in Indio, and President A.J. Duffy has accepted this district's offer to reopen negotiations over teacher evaluations.
Guests:
- A.J. Duffy: President, United Teachers Los Angeles
- Bill Ring: Director, TransParent
- Jason Song: Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times
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Reporter's Notebook
As Expected, Broad Picks Downtown LA for New Museum ()
Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad has been dangling the possibility that a new art museum to hold has massive collection might be constructed in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills or downtown LA. Broad said he was postponing a final decision to make sure he got the deal he wanted. Today, the downtown LA site got final official approval and Broad said what's been reported for weeks. It'll be downtown and the architect has already drawn up the plans. Christopher Hawthorne is architectural critic for the LA Times.
Guests:
- Christopher Hawthorne: Architecture Critic, Los Angeles Times, @hawthorneLAT
Main Topic
Pakistan Floods Spread Misery, Threaten Regional Security ()
"It is as if a neutron bomb exploded overhead, but instead of killing the people and leaving their houses intact, it piled trees upon the houses and swept away the villages and crops and animals, leaving the people alive.” That's from an account by Daniyal Mueenuddin, a prize-winning writer who practiced law in New York City but now lives on a farm in Pakistan's southern Punjab. We hear from him and others about the breadth of the disaster.
Guests:
- Daniyal Mueenuddin: Mango farmer and writer, living in Pakistan
- Issam Ahmed: Correspondent, Christian Science Monitor
- Eric Schmitt: National Security Correspondent, New York Times, @ericschmittNYT
- Christine Fair: Assistant Professor, Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies, @CChristineFair
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Underwriters
Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.
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