Due Diligence and the Evaluation of Teachers: A Review of the Value-Added Analysis Underlying the Effectiveness Rankings of Los Angeles Unified School District Teachers by The Los Angeles Times

Policy Brief - Feb 08, 2011

Author(s) - Derek Briggs and Ben Dominque, University of Colorado at Boulder

This report, by Richard Buddin, is a value-added analysis of elementary teachers in the LAUSD. Buddin asserts that teacher quality can validly be measured using student performance on the reading and math portions of the California Standardized Test. Buddin's analysis was the focus of an article in the LA Times which included a database of LAUSD teachers by name and their individual rankings which were based on Buddin's model. The reviewers found that Buddin's analysis is a deeply flawed and an inaccurate measure of teacher effectiveness.