Over on Education Week, Walt Gardner, a retired Los Angeles teacher, comments on the reported link between a fifth teacher’s recent suicide and the L.A. Times’ publication of teacher rankings based on student test scores:
On Sept. 28, I was invited to discuss this issue on WBAL radio in Baltimore. I explained that even before Ruelas took his own life, the Times had exercised atrocious judgment that would do little to improve instruction. I still believe that this naming and shaming is reminiscent of the use of pillories in colonial America. If the real intent is to help teachers improve their effectiveness, then the best way to do so is by private conferences with teachers, their principals and their department chairpersons and/or colleagues.