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L.A. schools chief orders weak new teachers ousted
12/18/09 | Los Angeles Times

Behind the Headline
When Principals Rate Teachers
Spring 2006 | Education Next

Los Angeles superintendent Ramon Cortines wants the school district to stop awarding tenure to teachers who are ineffective. An investigation conducted by the L.A. Times found that many new teachers are not meaningfully assessed before they are granted tenure. A study by Brian Jacob and Lars Lefgren that appeared in Ed Next in 2006 suggests that principals could identify the ineffective teachers if they were pressed to do so. The study found that principals are quite good at identifying those teachers who produce the largest and smallest standardized achievement gains in their schools (the top and bottom 10–20 percent).