Since she upset the heavily-funded favorite in the recent Los Angeles school board runoff, many eyes are on Monica Ratliff.
Some of her supporters were concerned when she appeared at an event where the Gates-funded Educators for Excellence presented a report on teacher evaluation. The event was attended by Superintendent John Deasy and school board president Monica Garcia, an ally of Deasy.
Immediately the tweets began to fly claiming that Ratliff supported paying teachers by student test scores. Some worried that she had crossed over to the side that opposed her in the election.
Whoa!
I wrote Monica Ratliff, we had a candid conversation, and Monica advised that we should judge her by her votes as a board member, not by tweets that did not come from her.
She wrote:
“Dear Diane,
“When I advocate for fixing the LAUSD teacher evaluation system and professional development system, I am NOT advocating that we link test scores to monetary gain for teachers or administrators.
“Across LA, there are public schools where scores have been rising over the years sans any monetary gain for teachers or administrators. If we link test scores to monetary gain, I have no doubt that we will see some increases in test scores but at what cost and by what means?
Sincerely,
Mónica Ratliff
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Thanks for this info. Wish folks would not jump to conclusions would not be so quick to admonish without facts.
Don’t worry, Monica. Most of us know it was just FUD – fear, uncertainty, doubt.
Sounds to me like some folks are out to sow seeds of division among Monica’s supporters. Call out those people, whenever you find them “tweeting” nonsense like this. It’s bad enough we live in a world dominated by 6-9 second sound bites. Must we now live an a world dominated by tweets!
I second Ellen Lubic. Never move without full information.
Give the woman a chance. She can posture and pontificate and get nothing done or she can work with others to advance the agenda she ran on. She says to judge her on her votes – true enough – but more significant is how many folks she gets to vote with her and how many of those votes she wins!
[…] However, in an email published by school reform advocate Diane Ravitch, Ratliff clarified that her appearance at the event with Superintendent John Deasy did not mean that she is in favor of linking test scores to salary increases: […]
I attended the event as well. The report presented was not only about evaluation; it was about a variety of ideas. In any case, attendance does not mean support for everything said. I saw working teachers presenting their ideas about how to improve teaching in Los Angeles Unified Schools. I saw Board Member-elect Ratliff listening to the presentations respectfully and commending classroom teachers for their efforts at improvement from the classroom level. I would rather have a new Board Member listening to teachers and a range of ideas than one who appears not to listen to any teachers at all. The implied suggestion that she should not appear at an event just because the Superintendent of the school district or a Board Member with opposing views are present is ridiculous. She will be a Board Member representing all teachers; not just the ones who elected her. She will also have to work with the other Board Members and the Superintendent throughout the coming years. Why create ill will when grounds for a better working relationship can be established instead?
The issue teachers have with Monica was never about merit pay – something she’s against. It is her overtures of eliminating seniority protections.
Monica – you are the last piece in the LAUSD Board puzzle needed to oust this dictator that is determined to destroy LAUSD. He has a proven track record in Santa Monica and Culver City where he was eventually ousted. Everyone in the District is totally demoralized and feeling the effects of the obvious plan of destruction for public schools. Sure, public schools aren’t perfect, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. The private school model doesn’t work for ALL students and has all the temptations for corruption at the top. Deasy is nothing more than a shill for the billiionaire boys club to orchestrate another money grab of one of the few public funds left. Rejoice! Ipads for everyone! At the courtesy of Bill Gates. Technology is not the panacea, lowering class size and being able to teach kids to think is. Momentum is on your side Monica. Run with it.