The U.S. pullout from Iraq; publishing data on teachers; China’s Three Gorges Dam

Re “Iraq in the rear-view mirror,” Aug. 19

The story of the last, long journey of the Army’s 4th Brigade out of Iraq to Kuwait is bittersweet. In the 1960s and ‘70s, we decimated a generation in a misdirected war in Vietnam. And now we see the end results of seven years in Iraq: a government and people who don’t particularly like us, and young men who now have trouble fitting into the American society they sought to defend.

The Times writes of the anger and frustration of some of these men: shared rock songs of tragedy and death, divorces from home, the last lingering line of one song, “Nothing really matters. Nothing really matters to me.”

We will be as unsuccessful integrating these young people, many with no other options when they joined, as we were with the veterans of the Vietnam War. Most of us won’t want to see the stories of their futures unwind over the next 20 years. This doesn’t happen in other countries.

Ralph Mitchell
Monterey Park

Teachers and their data

Re “Teachers, by the numbers,” Editorial, Aug. 17

I am a parent and strongly disagree with The Times releasing teacher test score data to the public.

This will create a negative impact on schools. Parents already lobby for their favorite teachers, even without these data. Releasing this information will make it difficult for principals to run their schools.

The data should be used as a tool to help principals evaluate and improve their teaching staff.

Maria Sklar
Chatsworth

The Times made an irresponsible decision when it published an evaluation of teachers based on a so-called value-added model using student test scores.

Just as factors beyond the control of journalists contribute to declining newspaper circulation, there are numerous forces a teacher can’t control that affect a child’s performance on tests.

So far, no value-added model has been created that adequately factors the effects of extreme poverty, attendance, broken homes, illiterate parents, poor health and other variables.

Value-added modeling is famously inconsistent. In one case, 30% of math teachers who ranked in the bottom quintile one year were above the median the following year.

One problem is that it’s often impossible to know which teacher contributed most to a student’s learning. Was it the English teacher, the reading specialist or a tutor? Value-added can’t answer that question.

Because of such problems, this model isn’t a reliable way to label or evaluate teachers, and to do so was misleading to readers of the newspaper.

Dennis Van Roekel
Washington
The writer is president of the National Education Assn.

We applaud The Times for prying open the classroom doors.

It is time for a real understanding of how effective teaching occurs. With almost half of L.A. Unified’s students failing to make the grade, it is unclear to us why the district’s teachers union isn’t advocating an approach to improve public education — which it is empowered to bring about — and is instead calling for a boycott of The Times. It seems ironic.

It is our belief that public education can only be improved when there is a close, honest look at the system as a whole. What goes on in the classroom is the core foundation.

We understand that it must be scary for some teachers to realize that their performance is about to be looked at by parents whose children’s future depends on their ability to teach effectively. However, if teachers are willing to embrace best practices used by peers with proven records of success, everyone will benefit for generations to come.

Ginger Bower
Victoria Rierdan Hurley
Los Angeles
The writers are executive directors of MOMS UNITE.

I am a retired public school teacher with 32 years of experience. I applaud your efforts. The stakes are too high to suffer anything less than complete transparency.

You must first tell the truth. Keep fighting.

Janet Layton
Seal Beach

Getting rid of leaks

Re “Aid in leaks probe ordered,” Aug. 18

The director of the Department of Children and Family Services says that information obtained by The Times is causing a morale problem in her agency.

Morale is low not because those children died but because the public knows about it?

Rory Johnston
Hollywood

Feeling the pain of foreclosures

Re “Fighting back on foreclosures,” Editorial, Aug. 17

Your editorial mentioned only those homeowners who could no longer afford their homes. What about the buyers who submitted false documents to obtain loans, and the ramifications of their actions?

Our nine-unit homeowners association in Burbank experienced a 78% foreclosure rate due to mortgage fraud. Some of these buyers didn’t have a driver’s license or Social Security number yet obtained $500,000 or $600,000 mortgage loans without any trouble.

How could a bank or escrow company not check the identification of a home buyer?

These borrowers never made mortgage or tax payments or paid homeowners association dues. But they all rented their units and kept all the money. These foreclosures, and the subsequent nonpayment of association dues, have devastated our community.

I wish they would pass a law to address that.

Lawrence Hill
Burbank

A different view of the LAPD

Re “Fine-tuning LAPD reforms,” Opinion, Aug. 12

It’s easy to criticize but dangerous when you’re shaky on the facts. Joe Domanick’s Op-Ed article is based in misinformation.

As chief of the LAPD, I fired more police officers and ruled more use-of-force cases out of policy than any chief in recent history, which directly contradicts Domanick’s suggestion that I “allowed … officers to act without accountability.” And I did not deny inspectors general access to information and witnesses.

According to the city charter, the chief of police doesn’t report to the inspector general. The inspector general and the chief report to the Police Commission — which, by the way, never complained about receiving incomplete or inaccurate information from me or the department, contrary to what Domanick would have you believe.

Domanick’s piece is worthy of a rewrite, but he should not attempt to rewrite history.

Bernard C. Parks
Los Angeles
The writer is a City Council member and former chief of the LAPD.

What Three Gorges has done

Re “ China dam for 100-year flood is at risk after 1,” Aug. 16

This article takes the typical position of present-day environmental activists: Dams are bad.

The Yangtze River, which the Three Gorges Dam now helps control, is a major river with an ages-long destructive history of flooding. The torrential rains that have hit China this year have been contained by the dam. Were it not for the dam, a disaster would have taken place in China that would have eclipsed this season’s flooding in Pakistan.

Your article should have given estimates of the number of lives saved and the number of people not flooded by the Yangtze as a result of this dam.

Additionally, this unfairly-maligned dam generates enormous amounts of non-greenhouse gas producing electricity.

In the interest of presenting a balanced view of the news, The Times should include this information.

Dallas Weaver
Huntington Beach