Dan F. Bauman

A 4th grade teacher at Canoga Park Elementary 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

Least effective
Less
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Most effective

English effectiveness

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Most effective
See how this teacher would change under different statistical models »

About this rating

The red lines show The Times’ value-added estimates for this teacher. Bauman falls within the “less effective than average” category of district teachers in math and within the “less effective than average” category in English. These ratings were calculated based on test scores from 140 students.

Because this is a statistical measure, each score has a degree of uncertainty. The shading represents the range of values within which Bauman’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.

Bauman's LAUSD teaching history

Years used for value-added rating. See FAQ for details.

Dan Bauman's Response:

Last year for language arts, my students went up an average of 33 points. Looking at scores, 21 students went up, 3 went down. Looking at bands (far below basic --> advanced) 8 went up 1 band, 6 went up 2 bands, and 2 went down 1 band.

For math, my students went up an average of 13 points. 15 students went up in scores and 6 went down. Looking at bands, 2 went down 1 band, 7 went up 1 band, 1 went up 2 bands, and 1 went up 3 bands!

While I don't have the scores handy anymore, the year before was nearly the same. This means I am "less effective?" If my scores show me as less effective, that means that most teachers did better than I did. If that were true, LAUSD would have much better scores than they do.

Don't trust this model. Don't trust LA Times for objective reporting. Look to the LA Times to support an effort to bust unions and destroy public sector jobs. Where is the LA Times evaluation of charter school teachers using this same model? Charter school evaluations where students are not so diverse and hand picked, and where students who prove difficult or failing are "counseled out" and sent to public schools.

 

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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Los Angeles Teacher Ratings, the Los Angeles Times' database of value-added scores for Los Angeles Unified elementary schools and teachers.
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About the Data Desk

This page was created by the Data Desk, a team of reporters and Web developers at The Times.