Wendy A. Harris

A 5th grade teacher at Broadacres Avenue Elementary in 2008

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, Harris ranked:

Average overall.
Less effective than average in math. Students of teachers in this category, on average, lost 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.

Harris' LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Broadacres Avenue Elementary, 2008 - 2003

Wendy Harris's Response:

Unfortunately, this rating does not account for the unique situations schools attempt to utilize in assisting student achievement. Noting my own strength in English, a couple of the years represented in this "evaluation" I didn't even teach the math portion of instruction and favored a "team teaching" situation. Therefore, my math score was calculated without me even having taught that subject; my partner teacher taught the math to students on my roster. I now teach only Language Arts at my current school so as to maximize my effectiveness. I'm sorry The Times feels this kind of "evaluation" is necessary. I feel it demeans a profession which is already inadequately compensated financially, consistently regimented and challenged by those who do not practice the profession, and is often thankless.

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.