Bonnie B. Mac Adam
A 3rd grade teacher at Carpenter Community Charter in 2010
These graphs show a teacher's "value-added" rating based on his or her students' progress on the California Standards Tests in math and English. The Times’ analysis used all valid student scores available for this teacher from the 2003-04 through 2009-10 academic years. The value-added scores reflect a teacher's effectiveness at raising standardized test scores and, as such, capture only one aspect of a teacher's work.
Math effectiveness
English effectiveness
About this rating
The red lines show The Times’ value-added estimates for this teacher. Mac Adam falls within the “most effective” category of district teachers in math and within the “most effective” category in English. These ratings were calculated based on test scores from 149 students.
Because this is a statistical measure, each score has a degree of uncertainty. The shading represents the range of values within which Mac Adam’s actual effectiveness score is most likely to fall. The score is most likely to be in the center of the shaded area, near the red line, and less likely in the lightly shaded area. Teachers with ratings based on a small number of student test scores will a have wider shaded range.
The beige area shows how the district's 11,500 elementary school teachers are distributed across the categories.
Mac Adam's LAUSD teaching history
Years used for value-added rating. See FAQ for details.
- Carpenter Community Charter, 2010 - 2004
Bonnie Mac Adam's Response:
Teaching bright students who are eager to learn is every teacher's dream, but it was more than a dream to me. Every year I taught at Carpenter Elementary School, each class was an exciting challenge to meet. There were gifted 3rd and 4th grade students who were ready to learn Algebra and to read high school level books, while others were ready and willing to move ahead--and did. I passionately believe that our kids are ready to learn much more than they're given, and we should be encouraging acceleration whenever it's appropriate for the student. I'm a great champion of technology, but I think providing more mentors and tutors would be a far greater valuable educational investment than the purchase of any computer. Although I retired from LAUSD last June, a teacher who delights in teaching never truly retires, and we never, ever forget the kids we reached, nor the ones we didn't. I believe that standardized tests reflect neither the whole of a child's learning, nor the scope of his/her teacher's instruction. How can any written test discern that a student has acquired metacognition, where he has learned to analyse his own learning? On the other hand, tests can and do provide certain concrete comparisons. I welcome both the LA Times' "Value Added" scores and the scores of the annual standardized tests. They're useful tools, but they should not be treated merely as black and white teacher report cards since both the kids and the teachers are so much more.
The Times gave LAUSD elementary school teachers rated in this database the opportunity to preview their value-added evaluations and publicly respond. Some issues raised by teachers may be addressed in the FAQ. Teachers who have not commented may do so by contacting The Times.
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