Kudos to Evanston-Skokie School District 65 for experimenting with a system to evaluate teachers based on their students’ test scores. Other districts have had some difficulty with such a system, but it's good that District 65 is taking another shot at it.
I’m interested to see how, exactly, the school translates test scores into a measure of teacher performance. To what degree does the teacher impact a student’s test scores, and to what degree can changes in performance be attributed to a teacher’s behavior? To what degree will a single student’s problems impact the teacher’s performance rating? And, to what degree will elements of the school environment not related to teachers be taken into consideration? This last point is particularly interesting because it implies that administrators may also be evaluated, in part, based on the performance of the students. District 65 has taken the bold step towards addressing these questions.
Without a difference compensation model, perhaps one without tenure, our nation’s schools will continue their slow decline, and our children will suffer insult as well as injury as their teachers get raises while they fail tests. It is high time that the system recognized that the best teachers are not necessarily the most educated or the longest employed.
District 65 has taken a brave step towards improving Illinois education system. Good show.
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I worked in a special education classroom throughout my high school years, and I agree with the statement "it is high time that the system recognized that the best teachers are not necessarily the most educated or the longest employed." This may ring true for a lot of teachers in our school systems, but not necessarily all. In this classroom, I was more in awe of the class aide than I was the actual teacher, who held a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in special education. She rarely got out of her seat, let alone taught her students. I witnessed true progress, behaviorally and educationally, the students made that worked with the classroom aide. Being college educated myself, I realize a college level degree is required to be called a teacher, but doesn't necessarily mean you earn the title of "teacher." It is time to start rewarding our educators who make a real difference in these childrens' lives, because education is a means for children to become productive citizens.
