Teacher Evaluation and Student Testing - Who’s brilliant idea was this?? Public School Saboteurs??

It’s amazing to me all the ‘talk’ about evaluating teachers on student test scores, especially if that measurement is based on an arbitrary ‘cut’ score. Students are not pieces/parts. They cannot and SHOULD NOT be measured like a bolt on an assembly line...in-tolerance, out-of-tolerance. A TEST will NEVER tell us what all a child knows or doesn’t know. In the ‘kindest’ words, this idea is very misguided. Or more to the point, “What a REALLY STUPID IDEA!!!”

Whatever happened to the notion “All kids can learn, but not always at the same rate." AND besides that, when did we EVER want people in America to be the SAME. We all benefit from our differences! When I look over and reflect on the variety and diversity (new word of the decade) of my fellow teachers, not one of us is like the other. Our teaching styles are vastly different, we relate with kids differently, we relate with EACH OTHER differently. AND we ALL work together to teach and maximize our students’ time with us.

I might be less annoyed if student ‘improvement’ was used. But even that approach has major flaws. A teacher has a student for nine months. In my case students are 13 or 14 years old. They have had 13 or 14 years of prior experiences and ‘baggage’ before getting to me. Five of those years, school was not even a part of their lives. Research says when kids come to school in kindergarten the variances are HUGH. The thought is, as a school, we should be able to narrow the variances. But what actually happens is the variances increase. So, is the school, the teachers responsible for this? Nooooo!!

So, what IS going on? Well...teachers have students for about 6 to 7 hours a day and 180 days a year. In the state of Kansas this equates to at least 1116 hours each year. Even if we as a nation ever went to year-round school, the number of days probably wouldn’t increase significantly...the days would just be spread out. Might help, might not.

So, the ‘school learning’ amounts to just under 20% of the hours in a year, 365 days. Teachers can teach kids willing to learn, where parents support teachers, and impress upon their children the adults in their lives are united and working together. And OH...we MUST have parents that insist their children attend school and do required work. Cool concept, huh!!

I actually like looking at test results. I can get ‘big picture’ information looking at scores. I may be able to identify skills where my kids struggle? What strategies, different approaches to teaching can I implement to address these weak areas? I, also, like to see the areas where the kids ‘kicked-butt.’ I might be able to free up some time by spending less time on the ‘easy’ stuff and more time on the ‘hard’ stuff.

I use scores to focus on individual students’ weak areas. Yes, this sounds a lot like differentiated teaching strategies...maybe even a little MTSS. WOW!!! I can ASSURE parents, lawmakers, and business leaders; teachers have utilized individual instruction strategies for a VERY LONG time! I do think we continue to get better at it and possibly the attention this is receiving isn’t a bad thing. As long as those in the education field do not expect miracles, we can continue to improve learning. It’s another ‘focused’ strategy…..not God’s gift to teachers! He already gave us that gift.

My goal each year is to teach kids my subject areas. But more importantly, I want to impart skills to my kids that will allow them to get the most out of their education, strategies to advocate for themselves next year when they enter high school and later in life. I want them to experience making mistakes and learning from those mistakes (both academically and personally). Much of a child’s learning cannot be measured objectively; only subjectively or intuitively. Experienced teachers do this, and they rely on teaching partners to assist in this area.

Evaluating teachers on student test scores is the most ridiculous notion I’ve heard (& I have heard it before). I find it very naive (& certainly insulting) of the ‘groupies’ behind this to assume teachers don’t already care about their students’ progress! Why else would we be teachers? It certainly isn’t for the money, great benefits, because we feel loved by society, are appreciated for the long, long, stressful days, and are often sabotaged in our efforts.

We DO IT because we WANT to teach kids and we WANT the kids to learn. AND we are ALWAYS looking for ways to do our job BETTER. If the “scores & evaluation” army would redirected their efforts to assist teachers rather than continuing to ‘lob grenades’ at us, I know this would produce positive results?

IF the goal is for teachers and schools to educate America's children, America HAS TO EMPOWER teachers and schools to do so.

At a minimum, this must include parents:
•Getting their children TO school,
•Insisting their children DO the work required,
•Providing schools/teachers/kids necessary tools and materials as needed

AND FINALLY if we want GREAT RESULTS for our kids....
We MUST LOWER the classroom teacher/student ratio.
We want the children to learn?
Don’t give a teacher more than 10 kids to teach!
The RESULTS we would have!!!!
How do I know?
29 years of 'ACTION' research!