Reply #12: Is the problem here that teachers should never be rated, or that [View All]

[hedgehog]

the methods used to rate them now can't capture the data? Engineers run into this problem all the time. I can look at a situation and say we'd be better off going with slightly more expensive "A" than with cheaper "B", but coming up with the numbers to prove it is very hard. How do you measure 10 minutes less maintenance time here, 15 minutes more up-time there? Again, I once saw a very pretty chart showing that the compressed air was perfectly dry day after day, even as I was replacing valves full of ice. The guy filling out the chart checked the dial every day and never opened the cabinet to discover that the air dryer was kaput. So, how do you measure for the teacher who gets her students to read a newspaper on a regular basis, and what about the students who ace the test without understanding what they've learned?

The problem with measuring a teacher's effectiveness is also aggravated because students don't respond to a single teacher, they respond to an entire system. For example, a student may stay in school and keep working on his math homework because he is encouraged by the band teacher. Another student may skip school because she is ashamed of her clothes. A third may have a fight with the history teacher first thing every morning, then sulk in the back row in every other class that day.

My first two kids had a fantastic high school principal. My third kid went to the same school two years later and suffered for four years under a fool. Same teachers, same school, same rule book, same group of kids; but an entirely different experience. How could anyone measure the difference between those two principals that made such an incredible difference in the school?