that testing is the best use of instructional time and resources for the students of LAUSD?
You never come to the schools. Members of the board, you are politicians, not educators, and the downtown administrators who once worked in a schools and now advise you, forgot what it was like two seconds after they left the schools.
Yet, you spend the money; you order the tests; tell the teachers what to teach; buy the lousiest textbooks; cut support staff and supplies from the schools; raise class sizes; and then raise hell with the principals, who raise hell with the teachers if test scores don't go up.
So what gives you the right to judge each teacher by his or her test scores?
Teaching is not testing. Teachers have a heart and care about the students first and test scores last.
A teacher is a parent when needed, a disciplinarian when needed, a counselor when needed, a friend when needed and much more. How do you assess that?
Teachers need to be effective communicators with students, parents, and staff. How do you evaluate that?
A teacher manages a classroom. How to do judge that?
Testing is the least important role of so many a teacher has.
If you are not in the classroom, if you are not in the schools, then you can't make the decisions that affect more than 80,000 employees and more than 600,00 students.