Five ways school reform is hurting teacher quality

Brett Rosenthal:

1. Teacher evaluation systems -- Teacher evaluation systems are changing to include as a major factor how well students do on standardized tests. Teachers in New York State have a terrible new evaluation system known as APPR. It is highly inaccurate, meaning that truly good teachers can be deemed ineffective or developing, or truly bad teachers to be classified as highly effective. Forty percent of a teacher's evaluation is now based on student achievement, which is measured by the student standardized test scores.

But what if a student knows he/she is going to fail a class and decides not to put in effort on the exam or not take it ? This is not unusual. How about seniors who famously put in minimum effort during the second half of their school year since they know they're going to college? I wouldn't want to teach them if I knew that my job depended on their scores. Or how about the 11th grade class that contains students from other countries where they were under educated, barely literate, here for a year and are now supposed to show growth on Regents exams?

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 17, 2012 4:39 AM
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