DON'T BLAME TEACHERS FOR LAUSD PROBLEMS.

Byline: Maureen Foster Local View

During the past week, many public schools began administering this year's Stanford 9 Achievement Test.

LAUSD wants teachers' salary increases to be contingent upon raising their students' scores on such standardized tests, which are based on what students ought to know.

Unfortunately learning is not standardized, for reasons that are beyond a teacher's control - and that's why the district's plan is unfair. Consider the following:

--Social promotion. The practice of promoting students to the next grade level no matter how unprepared they may be has virtually eliminated student accountability and hindered teacher credibility in the process. This year, the district will begin the gradual process of eliminating social promotion. But since it's been the district's official policy for years, how can it be fair to abruptly penalize teachers for not raising the scores of the students who've been promoted repeatedly despite their lack of skills?

--Administrative pressures. While officials campaign to end social promotion, they simultaneously come down on teachers who give ``too many'' D's and F's. Students earn these grades. If the district wants higher performance, they'd better let teachers uphold higher standards - and stop harassing the ones who are sick of inflating grades and dumbing- down their curriculum. Decades of lowered expectations have gotten us into the mess we're in today, as any veteran teacher can tell you.

--Egregious overcrowding. Because the district has consistently failed to accommodate the city's burgeoning population, overcrowding has reached crisis proportions. Teachers can't give all students what they need when class size approaches and often exceeds 40.

Are teachers to be blamed for the consequences of these adverse conditions? (A recently passed state law requires that a ratio in eighth- and ninth-grade English classes be 20 to 1, but space is so tight that some schools put two teachers in a cramped classroom with 40 students.)

--Traveling teachers. An added consequence of overcrowding is that many secondary schools have no classrooms for all their teachers, sending them shuttling between two or three rooms, hauling their boxes of materials on luggage carts.

Are teachers who have nowhere to place files, bookshelves, maps and other necessities, who cannot store student projects or display their work - teachers without even a desk to call their own - to be accused of not working to their fullest potential?

--Year-round calendars. A system devised by the district as a Band-Aid to warehouse children, while the powers that be continue to neglect to build schools, year-round calendars chop up the academic year and disrupt the learning process.

Year-round calendars are found at schools in low-income areas, where students are already put at risk by numerous other factors and can ill afford further obstacles. Should teachers working under these circumstances be solely responsible for these students' low scores?

--Disadvantaged or negligent parents. Students are poised to perform well when they are supported by parents who take an interest and an active role in their education. Children whose parents are unable or unwilling to provide support, motivation, help, encouragement and rewards or consequences pose an additional challenge to the teachers, who are essentially trying to do the job of both parent and teacher. Are teachers to be punished when the uphill battle of educating such children doesn't yield the desired results?

--Language. There are over 70 languages spoken by the children of the LAUSD, and many of these children are not at grade level in English. Is the task of achieving English language proficiency with children who are one, two, three or more years below grade level to be now left to teachers who will be penalized for not working miracles overnight?

--Qualified teacher shortage. Schools cannot find enough fully qualified teachers, forcing them to hire those less qualified. One of the compelling reasons to raise teachers' salaries is to attract many more of the high-achieving college graduates who don't consider teaching because the pay is so low. Merit pay will actually worsen this shortage, because its inherent unfairness will scare off the additional teachers needed.

Ironically, schools with the lowest scores will have the toughest time of all attracting and retaining teachers, who know they will be held accountable for conditions beyond their control.

The Los Angeles Unified School District must have a substantial across-the-board raise in teacher salaries. When salaries are fair, schools will have a much larger pool of qualified candidates to choose from. Thiswill bring about a high level of teacher performance - but only when the conditions mentioned above are also addressed will students be able to reach the standards that Stanford 9 has set.