Linda T. Maher
A 3rd grade teacher at Vine 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.
Compared with other Los Angeles Unified teachers on the value-added measure of test score improvement, Maher ranked:
- Average overall.
- Average in math. 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.
- 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.
Maher's LAUSD teaching history
2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years
- Vine Street Elementary, 2009 - 2003
Linda Maher's Response:

"Value Added" assumes that CST scores are a valuable measure of student learning. Most educational professionals would question this. Why would you use one small measure, over which I have little control, to publicly RATE and LABEL my effectiveness as a teacher? Whose assumption is it that a child's test scores will continually go up every year? This is not statistically possible. If a child scores 95% in second grade how can his scores keep going up? If they stay the same or go slightly lower in successive years, is every successive teacher labeled ineffective? How do you get children to care about scoring well on tests which they have no vested interest in. Their grades nor advancement to the next grade level do not depend upon their doing well on the CST. Students and teachers do not even see the results until the following school year. Until you can give children a reason to care about doing their best on these tests, how can you hold teachers accountable for their performance? I would like to see the raw data you used, including student names, to compute my Math Score ranking because it conflicts with the data I see every year which shows that my students have continually scored higher in math than language arts. Although you preface your rankings by stating that this is one aspect of a teachers work you know that people will make judgements based on your LABELS. This is irresponsible journalism.
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.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |