Edith Aileen Close Vaziri

A 3rd grade teacher at Elysian Heights 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, Close Vaziri ranked:

Average overall.
Average in math. Students of teachers in this category, on average, did not gain or lose significantly 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.

Close Vaziri's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Elysian Heights Elementary, 2009 - 2003

Edith Close Vaziri's Response:

Although the test scores are an indication of the student's ability and/or performance level, it is not the complete picture. The emotions felt during the test can effect the results. The maturity and/or attitude of the test taker can effect the test. While the teacher is an important factor, the support of the parents does play a major role in the success of the student. Non-random assignments by teachers, administrators, and/or designees does affect the make-up of the class if the class is not balanced especially in the area of discipline which greatly affects the learning that takes place. In my experience, teachers have had both pre-announced and unannounced classroom visits several times during the school whether they are being officially evaluated or not. The evaluation system should be changed and the evaluators need to specifically trained with effective procedures. The language arts portion of the test does seem to be more difficult for the student to comprehend; in third grade this is due partly to the fact that second graders have many more portions read to them.

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.