A battle that erupted in Los Angeles this summer over the public release of teacher ratings is flaring in New York this week and could become prominent in the debate over school reform efforts nationwide, reports the Washington Post. New York City education officials announced Oct. 20 that they had decided to provide news organizations ratings on teachers that are derived from calculations on how much year-to-year progress their students make on standardized tests. Natalie Ravitz, a city education spokeswoman, said the information, including names of about 12,000 teachers, would be given as early as Oct. 22 to outlets that requested it formally under public records law…