“How We Got the Story”
Jason Felch, Jason Song and Doug Smith
Moderated by Jill Stewart

Please join us on March 24 at the Los Angeles Press Club to hear Los Angeles Times reporters Jason Felch, Jason Song and Doug Smith discuss "How We Got the Story" about 6,000 Los Angeles teacher test scores that created a nationwide media sensation and earned the team the 2011 Scripps Howard Public Service Award.

The Times has been variously praised and slammed for its series “Grading the Teachers,” in which it became the first newspaper ever to publish the names of highly ineffective — as well as effective — teachers based on multiple years of their students’ test scores. The series was published in late 2010 after Song, Felch and Smith and the paper's lawyers successfully pressed the Los Angeles Unified School District to release long-secret data which turned out to be public information under California law.

After Song and Felch requested the information, LAUSD officials improperly asked the United Teachers Los Angeles union what they should do. "Before even responding to us, they consulted the union," Jason Felch later explained. "They're not supposed to make determinations based on how a union feels about it, but strictly upon the law."

UTLA President A.J. Duffy denounced the Times series, angrily calling for Angelenos to boycott the newspaper. The explosive series quickly attracted more than 300,000 page views. Later, when a teacher who had been shown by the Times data to be slightly ineffective in the classroom tragically committed suicide, Duffy demanded that the newspaper unpublish its findings.

The “Grading the Teachers” series has helped to spur a growing movement to use student test scores as part of a new system for determining who is an effective public school teacher and who is not.

Come and hear the riveting story of how these three journalists nailed down their facts, published their series, and pursued follow-up stories amidst a dramatic backdrop of anger, controversy and praise.

Drinks, fingerfood and networking at 7 p.m.

Program at 7.30 p.m.

Free parking

Metro: Red line Sunset/Vermont