Heidi Ann Sturm

A 5th grade teacher at Montague Charter Academy 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, Sturm ranked:

Least effective overall.
Least effective in math. Students of teachers in this category, on average, lost about 10 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.

Sturm's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Montague Charter Academy, 2009, 2007 - 2004

Heidi Sturm's Response:

I would like to invite anyone to my classroom to visit me and see me teach. I request students with so called "behavior problems" and emotional issues because I feel they need a teacher that sees them as "the whole child" not just a statistic. I am a teacher because I love children. I only share 163 days of the school year with them and I make them interesting and "effective" for the children, not for statistics. These are children who need to be loved and learn to love learning. That's what I'm there for. Again, please come to my classroom and see for yourself.

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.