In sixth grade, teachers in my city went on strike.  Along with other families, my parents donated to a collection for our teacher and classroom aide.  Though money was tight at our house, I distinctly remember my mom telling me it was the right thing to do. “Teachers are important,” she said. No one even considered asking me for money. After all, I was only 11.

But a fifth grader in Southern California has done exactly that. Typical of the pink slip phenomenon happening across the country, Arcadia Unified School District sent home notices that 105 staff members (including about 60 teachers) are being laid off for the 2011-2012 school year.

Fifth-grader Jocelyn Lam felt bad about the budget cuts and wanted to do something about it. She wrote an intelligent, heartfelt letter to the school district about her desire to help save the teachers’ jobs. In the

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This past Sunday the Los Angeles Times did something that no other newspaper has ever done. It published an analysis of the performance of 6,000 Los Angeles Unified School District teachers based on test scores.

To accomplish this, three Times reporters worked with a RAND Corporation researcher to implement a statistical approach known as value-added analysis, which rates teachers based on their students’ progress on standardized tests from year to year. Each student’s performance is compared with his or her own in past years, a process that partially controls for outside influences (like poverty) that can affect student achievement.

The paper published profiles of high- and low-performing teachers, along with some analysis. Here’s an excerpt summarizing some of its findings:

• Highly effective teachers routinely propel students from below grade level to advanced in a single year. T