Melinda Anne Steinberg

A 4th grade teacher at Sherman Oaks 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, Steinberg 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.
Least effective in English. Students of teachers in this category, on average, lost about 7 percentile points on the California Standards Test compared with other students at their grade level.

Steinberg's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Sherman Oaks Elementary, 2009 - 2003

Melinda Steinberg's Response:

This is totally offensive, and in no way measures my success as a teacher! Did you consider the fact that I usually get a lot of behavior problems as well as students with special needs? This is ridiculous as I consider myself a good teacher. How do you base a teacher's score on 4 days of students taking a test? Have you also considered how much harder each grade is? Have you considered that maybe students are not good test takers? This whole thing is ridiculous, and I now refuse to buy your newspaper.

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.