William Harold Steele

A 3rd grade teacher at Lankershim 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, Steele 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.

Steele's LAUSD teaching history

2002-03 through 2008-09 academic years

Lankershim Elementary, 2009 - 2003

William Steele's Response:

I think it an unfortunate trend in education, when the ship of thought steers so profoundly in the direction of teaching small children to read short passages, and to respond by choosing from four multiple choice answers to questions. I can't remember the last time I heard a faculty meeting discussion of good books to hook children on reading, before they are irretrievably drowned in the present culture of bytes. I feel profoundly sorry for children caught up this less rich exposure to learning.

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.