Friday, August 20, 2010

Grading teachers

If you care about public education then you have to read this article.  And then you need to petition your district to start doing this sort of teacher analysis immediately.

It's about more than grading teachers.  And it certainly isn't about firing teachers.  It's the first step towards true scientific understanding of what works and what does not.  Once we have that we can better train teachers.

I think that 99% of the benefit of this type of study would be achieved if the public did not know the teacher's names.  Only the principal and superintendent should know all of the teachers' scores.  And each teacher should know their own scores.

I would love to see bonuses or pay raises tied to these grades.

The best teachers should be video-taped.  Districts could trade tapes and show them to their teachers.  Trading tapes would avoid the embarrassment of being shown up by the teacher down the hall.

I've never led a petition drive before, but I'm seriously thinking about it.  My oldest two go back to public school  on Monday, after four years of home school.

The LA Times has done some serious groundbreaking journalism here.  This is amazing and fantastic data.  They deserve a Pulitzer for this!

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