So how are we going to judge effectiveness? Standardized tests? Well this will never be apples to apples. My scores could be worse because I have classes with kids that are not as advanced or vice-versa. Some content areas have no standardized tests. How then would you evaluate my wife as a music teacher? How about a teacher in a content area like English? The English Regents is a product of the education of the 9, 10, and 11th grade teacher but the scores would only be reflective of the 11th. And the 12th grade English teacher gets off really easy, there is no standardized testing evaluation for them.
So what other method could be used? Administrators? If we believe that all administrators are noble enough to judge based on effectiveness alone I could see it. But that is impossible. They will favor those they like, style and/or personally. They will oppose those that they combat with. So does that mean that the employer must then not rock the boat with their boss, not challenge any policy? If they do they might get a poor evaluation or two and lose their job. You are shouting, “YES! That is how the real world works” but you are wrong! It brings us back to profit. This administrator if they were a supervisor at a Xerox would want the best employees that make the best profit. But this is not a factor in education, therefore their evaluation can easily be tainted.
So who will do the evaluation? Students and parents? Come on, this will lead to popular (but not necessarily effective) teachers getting merit pay and high scores and unpopular (but not necessarily ineffective) getting fired. How can this work?
Who really judges effectiveness? Perhaps it is a combination of all of these groups. That, however, seems so impractical and impossible. Not to mention- how do you attach a 0-100 score based on this(proposed by the state of NY)? And how is getting a lower score as a teacher going to motivate them to do better if the scoring system is inherently flawed? I think any score for me below 98 will do not but de-motivate me and hurt my feelings.
I get it, again, this entire system is because everyone believes stuck within their district there are one or two old, stale teachers that are hurting kids and the unions and tenure are making it impossible to punish or get rid of them. So every district is telling everyone else not to worry about new evaluations because they are “good teachers”. But teachers, because unlike free agency in sports for example, are stuck for thirty years in the very system they created. We are not going anywhere. Administrators, however, change like the seasons. Just because your current one thinks you are “good” does not mean your future one might feel the same. So none of us are safe.
Politically the Republicans feel like they won, finally the teachers union can be weakened. The Democrats think they won as well, they have a popular governor and a President who is “reforming” this broken system. I have not even gotten into the mandates from professional development to services each local district is saddled with, another story for another time.
But I ask the question- who won here? It certainly doesn’t seem like the kids.
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