Controversial - Peer Review System for Teachers Spreads

[flashl]

All Things Considered, June 9, 2008 ·

The teachers' union in Toledo, Ohio, has spearheaded a controversial policy to purge the school district of incompetent teachers. It's called "peer review" and no school system in the country has been doing it longer than Toledo.

Teachers' unions are often blamed for protecting educators who are burned out or should never have been allowed to teach in the first place.

Every year for the past 27 years, a panel of Toledo administrators and teachers has met behind closed doors to discuss teachers who've been deemed "incompetent."

Under peer review, a team of master teachers called "consultants" meticulously monitors and evaluates teachers in several areas: how they prepare, plan and present lessons, how well they know the material they teach, how they engage and discipline students — even a teacher's punctuality and dress are scrutinized.

A recommendation to terminate a teacher for doing poorly in these areas can be overturned, but it almost never is. A teacher can appeal, but that's rare too.

All Things Considered

[ulysses]

1. don't make any enemies on the faculty.

Holy shit.

[fed_up_mother]

5. That can happen in ANY job

Incompetent teachers shouldn't be protected. It's the main reason we left public school for homeschooling for a few years. After six blissful years in elementary school, my kids ended up in the worse middle school in the city. Probably a quarter of the teachers were incompetent - not to mention that some were downright cruel and mean. The school was a known haven for lazy-ass teachers who didn't want to work. They just transferred to that school.

Most school districts have a school like that. I've talked to many people who say the same thing.

I'm all for teachers' unions, but not unions that protect lazy bums.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, teachers are probably better able than anyone else to tell whether or not another teacher is doing a good job given their circumstances.

On the other hand, they're possibly less able to be objective about this than dedicated managers.

Still, my immediate knee-jerk reaction is that it's probably not a bad idea.

[donco6]

3. It's either that or the principal - or a combination.

There aren't many other alternatives.

I'm not sure this could work in a small system like mine. It's far too personal here.

[Odin2005]

4. Sounds like a recipe for silencing teachers with unorthodox viewpoints.

Tyranny of the Majority is not Democracy

[fed_up_mother]

6. Paying lazy idiots to teach our kids isn't good for democracy, either, imo

There has to be a way to get rid of bad teachers, and this sounds as good as any I've read. I can't tell you how many people cite teacher unions as "the" reason they are against unions. They're bad for the cause.

[Odin2005]

7. I'm with you that I'm not a big fan of the teachers "unions"

IMO they have degenerated into special interest groups out to protect bad teachers, especially bad teachers with seniority. But why are there so many bad teachers in the first place? My opinion is that teacher pay is too low to attract enough people that will be good teachers, because it seems that at my college the education programs are filled with mediocre students.