Value Added Teachers Aldama Elementary

Value Added Teachers

Aldama Elementary is located in Los Angeles county, in the Los Angeles Unified School District. By looking at the school's STAR results over the last five years, it can be seen that Aldama is improving their test scores (See Table 1). In English, their scores have risen from 328.5 to 343.3, from 2006 to 2010. Math saw a similar rise from 350.6 to 361.9 during this same period. Science has seen the biggest improvement for Aldama, with scores rising from 308 in 2006, to 348 in 2010. These are very similar results to the four other schools researched. Each of these saw improved test scores, and all also saw the most significant improvements in science, over five years. Despite these improving test scores, I would not send my children to Aldama. Their scores are still significantly lower than other schools in California. As an example, test results in Aviara Oaks Elementary and Alamo Elementary have been consistently over 400, over the last five years.

The value added database is a database of approximately 6,000 Los Angeles elementary school, third-, fourth- or fifth-grade teachers, who taught at least 60 students between 2002-2003 and 2008-2009 academic years. These value-added determinations were made by analysis by the Los Angeles Times. This statistical analysis estimates the effectiveness of a teacher or school by looking at the standardized test scores of students -- in this instance, math and English scores on the California Standards

Tests. Past scores are used to project each student's future performance. The difference between the child's actual and projected results is the estimated 'value' that the teacher or school added (or subtracted) during the year ("FAQ," 2010).

This method of analysis is a relatively fair process, since it isn't factored on a student's performance, per se, but instead their level of improvement in performance over the year. For this reason, teachers who have students with learning disabilities, or who can't speak English, would not necessarily receive lower rankings, as the rating simply is an expression of how these students improved beyond expectations, taking into account each student's unique ability to normally learn.