Diana Maria Bracamontes

A 5th grade teacher at Bryson Avenue 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, Bracamontes ranked:

Most effective overall.
Most effective in math. Students of teachers in this category, on average, gained about 11 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.
Most effective in English. Students of teachers in this category, on average, gained about 7 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.

Bracamontes' LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Bryson Avenue Elementary, 2006 - 2003

Diana Bracamontes's Response:

I strive to assist each of my students reach their potential. How much my students improve depends not only on me, but also on student motivation and parental support.
When administering the CST in language arts this year, I was concerned with the developmental appropriateness of the test. I had prepared my students for this portion of the test by teaching the designated standards as well as comprehension strategies. There were a substantial number of stories with questions for the students to answer, pages and pages of them. My students looked at me for help as they turned the numerous pages of this section to determine where they would stop. I felt a tug on my heart as I looked at their overwhelmed faces. Do they really need to read so many stories for their comprehension skills to be assessed? I don't need to run a marathon for someone to assess whether I can run. I wonder how many of my students gave up as a result of mental fatigue? I'm not making excuses. My goal for this year is to focus more on testing stamina. Even an effective teacher can teach all the strategies and standards necessary and not see the level of performance he/she had hoped for due to poor testing design. I vow this school year to prepare my students to meet and surpass the challenges of this test, particularly in language arts. I don't ever want to see those overwhelmed faces again that are still etched in my heart. We will prevail!

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.