Paula Teri Spector

A 3rd 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, Spector ranked:

Least effective 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.

Spector's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Sherman Oaks Elementary, 2009 - 2003

Paula Spector's Response:

I do think it is valuable for me to reflect on why in my classroom, where critical and creative thinking is extremely important and focused on in my lesson planning, that my students are not making progress on this standarized test. On the other hand, considering the amount of hours I spend planning, evaluating student work and district tests, this is an unwarrented public attack on my teaching abilities. At a time when the district's money is being so mismanaged, and teachers are under more and more pressure, and less resources, it saddens me to think that even the Los Angeles times is not on our side.

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.