David Zuniga Garcia

A 4th grade teacher at One Hundred Seventh Street Elementary in 2009

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 2002-03 through 2008-09 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.

Overall value-added effectiveness

Math effectiveness

English effectiveness

This chart shows where teachers in this effectiveness category fall on a distribution of all teachers’ scores.

Compared with other Los Angeles Unified teachers on the value-added measure of test score improvement, Zuniga Garcia ranked:

Average overall.
More effective than average in math. Students of teachers in this category, on average, gained about 4 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.
Less effective than average in English. Students of teachers in this category, on average, lost about 3 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.

Zuniga Garcia's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

One Hundred Seventh Street Elementary, 2009 - 2006

David Zuniga Garcia's Response:

How was this score determined? Does it take into account that many of the kids that we teach at this school are English Language Learners or that the standards change from grade to grade. Are the overall scores of the students taken into account, for example what they accomplished in 2nd and 3rd grades. The majority of our kids enter this grade with reading, writing, and mathematical levels that range from 1st to 3rd. However, the CST assesses the students on grade level standards. Many students make great gains and yet they might still be below grade level. Standardize testing is wasteful and not an appropreate tool to judge the competence of a teacher. The achievement of a student on the CST can be attributed to many factors such as physical, mental, and social. If a child comes to school tire on CST day, hi/her concentratin might suffer, the same might occur if the child did not get a goodnight sleep or if there was some problems in the yard before school. We try to elliminate as many barriers, but we cannot control what happens beyong our walls.

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.