Mario Loeza

A 3rd grade teacher at Charles H. Kim 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, Loeza ranked:

Most effective overall.
Most effective in math. Students of teachers in this category, on average, gained about 11 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.
Most effective in English. Students of teachers in this category, on average, gained about 7 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.

Loeza's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Charles H. Kim Elementary, 2009 - 2007
Cahuenga Elementary, 2006 - 2003

Mario Loeza's Response:

Now let's work developing a similar system for the parents of the children we teach. Too often, we put too much of the blame on one of the stakeholders. Our classrooms continue to grow in numbers and we, as teachers, are getting less and less support and even through all this our scores as a district continue to improve. Let's continue to look for successes in our schools but if you're going to list the names of teachers as "least effective" then let's do the same for the the parents of the children we teach. I wish I could list for you the number of times I have come across a student who needs the most help and parents who refuse to get involved. Look at the history of some of our students that continue to fail and let's hold the parents accountable as well. How many of the kids that fail don't even do their homework even when we've tailored the homework to the specific needs of the students? 9 out of 10 times, if you show me a student who's failing I can show you a parent that doesn't follow through.

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.