Reply #107: In all cases, yes - teachers should be rated on academic improvement. [View All]

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If a teacher, who works in an impoverished area, has a class which shows improvement on average compared to another teacher in similar circumstances, we can assume one of two things:

1) that teacher is doing a good job of the work they are being paid to do
2) in a remarkable feat of coordination, the parents of every student in his/her class improved their parenting skills simultaneously

Conversely, we can assume there is room for improvement in the other teacher's class.

Like most other responses here, you attempt to portray assigning blame to *any* teachers as the strawman position "we are certain that it's 'bad teachers' who stand in the way of our children's academic success".

Fact: some teachers stand in the way of some students' academic success. When they attempt to defend bad teachers, good teachers appear guilty by association - to their own detriment and to the benefit of the charter school movement.