Los Angeles Unified School District v. Superior Court

INTRODUCTION

When it comes to educating children, few things are more controversial than standardized tests. And few things generate more conflict than how, or even if, teachers should try to improve their students’ performance on such tests. But by law, school districts must establish standards of expected pupil achievement, and teachers are evaluated and assessed in regard to their students’ progress. Whatever the merits of standardized tests, they are part of the present educational environment in which students, teachers, and parents live.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (the District or LAUSD) has developed a statistical model designed to measure a teacher’s effect on his or her students’ performance in the California Standards Tests (CST). This model yields a result — known as an Academic Growth over Time (AGT) score — which is derived by comparing students’ actual CST scores with the scores the students were predicted to achieve based on a host of sociodemographic and other factors. These AGT scores are calculated at various levels — by individual teacher, by grade, by school, and by subject matter. The District releases most of these scores to the…