John David Sturm

A 3rd 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:

More effective than average 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.
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.

Sturm's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Montague Charter Academy, 2009 - 2003

John Sturm's Response:

Even though my rating is acceptable at this point, I find this method of public humiliation quite beneath the integrity of the L.A. Times. What do you hope to accomplish by belittling the accomplishments of so many hard-working, dedicated educators? Before you pass judgement on anyone by labeling them "ineffective" you ought to step into their shoes to personally experience the challenges of a school day, week, month, and year. Then to judge us based on one week's worth of effort by students is incredulous.
When a teacher is "stulled" at our school, the principal does not let the teacher know when they are coming in. They may enter our room any time and stay for as long as they like. The generalizations you make are inaccurate and unfair. We do need to change the way we are evaluated, but your method is far from the right direction.

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.