Manuel Nava

A 5th grade teacher at Sixty-Eighth 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, Nava 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.
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.

Nava's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Sixty-Eighth Street Elementary, 2009 - 2004

Manuel Nava's Response:

Wow! As an educator I would not be totally opposed to this being a part of my evaluation process. It would have be nice to use this as a tool to improve my instruction. Unfortunately, I also feel torn because I feel that a system like this will promote 'Teaching to the Test" and therefore our students will fall further behind. Your article also does not address that some learning institutions are considered most effective because part of their day is spent on practicing test taking strategies. I've had the experience of receiving kids who scored really high on the CST in 4th grade but in the 5th grade they were totally unsuccessful with the periodic assessments and did not score as well as they did the year before on the CST. It is a shame that instead of helping and improving our public school we attack them and point out their failures. When are the politicians and special interest groups going to realize that their actions are destroying public education. It is a shame and the L.A Times should write an article about all of their failed attempts, but you wont it's not in your best interest.

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.