Linda Brown

A 5th grade teacher at Hazeltine 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, Brown ranked:

Less effective than average overall.
Less effective than average in math. Students of teachers in this category, on average, lost about 4 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.
Less effective than average in English. Students of teachers in this category, on average, lost about 3 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.

Brown's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Hazeltine Avenue Elementary, 2009 - 2003

Linda Brown's Response:

I am extremly upset and disappointed with your findings. I would like to know if I was being compared to 5th grade teachers with the same demographics and the same school-wide focus? For example, writing was our focus one year, and writing was not tested this year on CST. I consider myself an active participant in staff development, and open to new teaching strategies and practices. As a reflective teacher and life-long learner, I have a few questions for you. I would like to know how many of your researchers have ever been in a classroom and have walked the walk as a teacher? Did your researchers look at each child's weakness and strength and consider that in your data, as we must do as teachers? You seem to forget that there is a lot more to teaching than good CST results. I try to instill a "love for learning" in my classroom which includes independent work, research and good study & social skills. All of which is important to their success in middle school. I am open to any helpful suggestions you may have to enable me to become a more effective teacher. As a reflective teacher, I question the impact these articles will have, not only on teachers, but on students and parents as well. Hopefully, the positive will outweigh the negative.

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.