Standardized Tests

High schools are offering a new deal at 39 Los Angeles campuses: Students who raise their scores on the state's standardized tests will be rewarded with higher grades in their classes. If it works, schools also will benefit because low scores can lead to teachers and administrators being fired and schools being closed. A proposed teacher evaluation system relies specifically on these tests for part of an instructor's rating. Even the new superintendent's salary, and his tenure, are tied to scores on the California Standards Tests, which are administered this month.

The Los Angeles school district will hold a shortened day of classes on May 13 to accommodate a planned teachers union protest without interrupting standardized testing on most campuses. Dismissal time will vary from school to school but could be up to several hours earlier than normal. Schools will be required to make up the lost time from the shortened day later in the year, according to Los Angeles Unified School District officials. The teachers' demonstration is aimed at encouraging state legislators to place tax extensions on the fall ballot to provide continued funding to school districts.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called Tuesday for an overhaul of the federal No Child Left Behind law and urged Los Angeles school management and teachers union leaders to negotiate a new contract that strengthens teacher evaluations. "L.A. faces a perfect opportunity, not a perfect storm," he said during a speech at a United Way of Greater Los Angeles education summit at the Los Angeles Convention Center. "The opportunity, I think, is breathtaking.... Please don't squander it. " Many of Duncan's comments echoed remarks by President Obama earlier this month, when he said that the previous administration's signature school accountability law classifies too many schools as academic failures and does not give enough flexibility to local and state educators.

In an attempt to fight off a looming closure, officials with a charter school organization caught in a cheating scandal fired the group founder Friday evening and threatened to sue the Los Angeles Board of Education, if necessary, to stay open. Both announcements drew sustained cheering from more than 300 parents, students and supporters packed into a meeting hall at a South L.A. church that serves as a campus and main headquarters for Crescendo charter schools. "Please be assured that one of the most, main reasons we're here tonight ?

The performance of Crescendo charter schools was nothing short of remarkable ? annual gains on state tests that were sometimes 10 times what other schools would consider strong progress. Too good, perhaps, to be true. Last year, administrators and teachers at the six schools south of downtown Los Angeles were caught cheating: using the actual test questions to prepare students for the state exams by which schools are measured. Nonetheless, on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Board of Education is scheduled to act on a staff recommendation to reauthorize Crescendo's charter, giving the organization another five years to operate.

By Jason Felch Teachers' effectiveness can be reliably estimated by gauging their students' progress on standardized tests, according to the preliminary findings of a large-scale study released Friday by leading education researchers. The study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provides some of the strongest evidence to date of the validity of "value-added" analysis, whose accuracy has been hotly contested by teachers unions and some education experts who question the use of test scores to evaluate teachers.

WASHINGTON -- Roxanne Brummell has thrived in what many consider the toughest new testing ground for teachers in the nation. The fifth-grade teacher in Washington, D.C., earned a "highly effective" rating under the district's controversial system that rewards -- and sometimes fires -- teachers based in part on their students' progress on standardized tests. In just seven months, she helped boost her students' reading scores by an average of 24%. Brummell's reward: a $20,000 bonus and recognition at district award ceremonies.

Roxanne Brummell has thrived in what many consider the toughest new testing ground for teachers in the nation. The fifth-grade teacher in Washington, D.C., earned a "highly effective" rating under the district's controversial system that rewards ? and sometimes fires ? teachers based in part on their students' progress on standardized tests . In just seven months, she helped boost her students' reading scores by an average of 24%. Brummell's reward: a $20,000 bonus and recognition at district award ceremonies.

The role of test scores in evaluating teachers is a prickly and complicated issue, which is why California has been avoiding the conversation for so long. Fortunately, that procrastination is no longer possible after The Times took the bold step of analyzing standardized test scores in the Los Angeles Unified School District to see whether individual teachers appeared to be successful at raising their students' scores. Given the current nationwide push to include test data in teacher evaluations, it was time to strip away the mystery about test scores and take a close look at what they are, what they show and don't show, and what teachers, administrators and the rest of us might learn from them.