Cecilia Isabel Garcia

A 4th grade teacher at Napa Street 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, Garcia 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.

Garcia's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Napa Street Elementary, 2009 - 2008, 2006 - 2004

Cecilia Garcia's Response:

It is important to remember that not all students are the same, and that as teachers we all want the best for our students. I'm not making any excuses, but our students deal with so many issues like gangs, deportation of their loved ones, and abandonment and we are extremely happy to see our children survive that environment.

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.