Juan Antonio Rodriguez

A 2nd grade teacher at Gulf Avenue 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, Rodriguez ranked:

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

Rodriguez's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Gulf Avenue Elementary, 2009 - 2003

Juan Rodriguez's Response:

I felt shocked, incredulous, saddened, embarrassed, and disappointed upon seeing this. My first reaction was of wanting to disavow such findings, wishing I could have actual data for my students from those few years. I thought about possible reasons for such a poor showing (some of my own doing and some not), such as: my last 3 years are not reflected, during those few years that are I had two family leaves and a major surgery placing me less time in those classes, at least one of those classes had the disadvantage of being a combination grade class. However, the bottom line is that none of this was the fault of those students. They deserved better.
I'll reflect on my teaching as I constantly do and I'll always strive to better help my students. I believe in my ability and my dedication but this will certainly make me look deeper into my teaching practices.

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.