Shannon Jessica Pitman

A 5th grade teacher at One Hundred Fifty-Third Street 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, Pitman 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.
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.

Pitman's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

One Hundred Fifty-Third Street, 2009 - 2005

Shannon Pitman's Response:

I would like to acknowledge that these scores are taken from my first 5 years teaching. I am positive that if my very first year was removed there would be a marked increase in my ranking. Like anyone else, my effectiveness as an instructor has vastly improved with time and the gains made by my students on the CST in recent years have been outstanding. I believe that parents of my students would agree that their children experience much growth during their time spent in my class.

Additionally, I have been assigned to teach the Gifted and Talented cluster for the past 5 years. Though my students perform well and make gains, they often come to me with high test scores to begin with. There is not room in the standardized system for my students to gain more than 10-15 percent in their scores because many are already scoring above 85%. So, when losses of 2-4 percentile points are what put a teacher in the "less effective category" bear in mind that the students who have experienced any losses while working with me are often still scoring in the proficient or advanced range on the CST.

This model may have been better served if it used the performance indicators of Far Below Basic, Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced and ranked teachers on their ability to maintain students in the proficient/advanced range or move them up a level, rather than focusing on very small percentages of gain or loss.

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.