Peter Stern

A 4th grade teacher at Angeles Mesa Elementary in 2006

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, Stern ranked:

More effective than 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.
More effective than average in English. Students of teachers in this category, on average, gained about 2 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.

Stern's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Angeles Mesa Elementary, 2006 - 2003

Peter Stern's Response:

Administration, administration, administration. Teacher effectiveness directly mirrors administrative effectiveness. LAUSD has poor performing schools because administrators are not supportive of staff, do not deal effectively with students, cower to parents of problem students, and refuse to identify poorly performing teachers and subsequently require improvement from these teachers. Teachers lack the support needed to effectively run their classroom. Students are placed in the awkward position of feeling this pressure and will therefore lack the ability to perform at their best.

School administrators watch the discord which takes place at the District level between the Board of Education and Schools Superintendant and develop a culture of apathy as they too lack the support they need to run their school.

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.