Genie G. Penn

A 3rd grade teacher at Overland Avenue Elementary in 2005

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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More
Most effective

English effectiveness

Least effective
Less
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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. Penn falls within the “less effective than average” category of district teachers in math and within the “more effective than average” category in English. These ratings were calculated based on test scores from 18 students.

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

Penn's LAUSD teaching history

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

Genie Penn's Response:

During that school year, our grade level did teaming. My math class reflects the fact that I taught the "intensive" level group, those who were not proficient in that area and therefore may not have done well on the CST tests. My language arts class was the "advanced" group and most probably did well on the CST tests. Of course I would be least effective in math and more effective in language arts based on the make up of the teaming groups! If you have teaming groups you cannot rate a teacher accurately at all! This point has been made to the LA Times by other teachers and does not accurately reflect whether that teacher is a "good" one or not!

 

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.