Karen Beth Weiss

A 4th grade teacher at Burton 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, Weiss 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.
Average in English. Students of teachers in this category, on average, did not gain or lose significantly on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.

Weiss' LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Burton Street Elementary, 2009 - 2006

Karen Weiss's Response:

I have no idea how this was calculated. Every year, I add how many points I raise a class. I subtract for the few who students who went down. Every year, in both english and math, I have raised my class more than 800 points, for a total of at least 1600 in both subjects. How this calculates to overall "average" is beyond me. It's unfortunate, also, that this year's scores were not included, as 18/30 students moved to advanced in math and 13/30 went to advanced or proficient in English, most of whom started at below basic. If the entire class points were added, I raised the class 2000+ points this year. Additionally, the love and attention that I provide for students is certainly not "overall average." Will you be posting that kind of assessment as well?

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.