SCENARIO #1: Take one teacher. Put her in a classroom of Japanese-American kids or Hungarian-American kids. They will do well because they are committed to learning.
SCENARIO #2: Put that same teacher in a classroom of African-American kids from Oakland, California. The kids will do poorly because African-American culture rejects learning -- and rejects Western culture in general.
In scenario #2, the teacher would be fired as a "bad" teacher. In scenario #1, the same teacher would get a bonus for producing such accomplished students.
Is there any reasonable and objective way to determine a teacher's performance that is independent of the students in her classroom?
There are many many processes to evaluate teacher performance. The problem we face in education isn't "bad" teachers vs. "good" teachers (How do you determine this anyhow apart from supervisor evaluation? It becomes then a dog and pony show rather than the hard work of learning). The issue is the contempt most of society has toward learning. Because education is perceived as "free"--as public education is paid for through taxes, most students see learning as a right and a "free right" at that to be treated with contempt in any regard. Our views toward education need to change: we need to see it as the privilege it is. I wonder how a teacher would be evaluated in a class made up of young girls from Afghanistan?
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SCENARIO #1: Take one teacher. Put her in a classroom of Japanese-American kids or Hungarian-American kids. They will do well because they are committed to learning.
SCENARIO #2: Put that same teacher in a classroom of African-American kids from Oakland, California. The kids will do poorly because African-American culture rejects learning -- and rejects Western culture in general.
In scenario #2, the teacher would be fired as a "bad" teacher. In scenario #1, the same teacher would get a bonus for producing such accomplished students.
Is there any reasonable and objective way to determine a teacher's performance that is independent of the students in her classroom?
There are many many processes to evaluate teacher performance. The problem we face in education isn't "bad" teachers vs. "good" teachers (How do you determine this anyhow apart from supervisor evaluation? It becomes then a dog and pony show rather than the hard work of learning). The issue is the contempt most of society has toward learning. Because education is perceived as "free"--as public education is paid for through taxes, most students see learning as a right and a "free right" at that to be treated with contempt in any regard. Our views toward education need to change: we need to see it as the privilege it is. I wonder how a teacher would be evaluated in a class made up of young girls from Afghanistan?