Teachers union threatens ‘massive boycott’ of Los Angeles Times for reporting on teacher performance

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Teachers union threatens ‘massive boycott’ of Los Angeles Times for reporting on teacher performance
By: MARK HEMINGWAY
Commentary Staff Writer
08/16/10 3:30 PM EDT
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times began publishing a hard-hitting analysis on teacher performance. Today, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that union leaders are threatening the paper as a result:

The Los Angeles teachers union president said Sunday he was organizing a “massive boycott” of The Times after the newspaper began publishing a series of articles that uses student test scores to estimate the effectiveness of district teachers.

“You’re leading people in a dangerous direction, making it seem like you can judge the quality of a teacher by … a test,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which has more than 40,000 members.

Duffy said he would urge other labor groups to ask their members to cancel their subscriptions.

Based on test score data covering seven years, The Times analyzed the effects of more than 6,000 elementary school teachers on their students’ learning. Among other things, it found huge disparities among teachers, some of whom work just down the hall from one another.

How dare a newspaper report pertinent, public information related to child welfare! The unions defensiveness here is especially galling when you consider that the Los Angeles Unified School District is one of the worst in the country when it comes to firing bad teachers. See this report from L.A. Weekly:

[clearvision]

40000 member teachers union in one city! Yikes.

[cudjo]

let's not dare let anyone know how they rate on teaching.

[SrWoodchuck]

I have to like this......the LA Times finally publishes something hard hitting and exposing liberal fraud....and they get put out of business by their communist readership! Win-win?