Report Cards May Be Used to Rank Teacher Postions

With all the talk these days about education reform and cuts, poorly performing or ineffective teachers may be next on the chopping block. It seems that parents, lawmakers, and educators are desperately trying to determine the best plan for reforming the poor performance of the U.S. education system. The problem seems to be with just which system or process of teacher evaluation would be the best.

In Colorado, a controversial new law puts a teacher's effectiveness to the test, comparing their performance with student's progress. Student progress is measured by standard achievement tests and then use that information in evaluating a teacher's overall performance. Principals are required to evaluate a teacher's effectiveness based in part on how well students grow and perform in their studies.

Race to the Top

The White House has spent $4.35 billion to strongly encourage states to measure the effectiveness of school leaders and individual teachers. Race to the Top is designed to be an incentive program to bring about change, reform, and innovation in the U.S. education system. So far, 12 states have been awarded money in return for a promise of linking student performance to teacher evaluations and pay.

Apparently the White House is serious about the incentive programs because lawmakers have been out visiting states like Colorado where these programs are just starting. Lawmakers want to know how supporters of the teacher effectiveness bill were able to rally such broad support. The answer is probably in the rising dissatisfaction with the current education system from concerned parents.

Getting Rid of Ineffective and Bad Teachers

Teacher's unions and some education groups are very concerned with all of this teacher evaluation talk. Tim Callahan of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators stated, "We are very concerned that, like the clumsy and under-resourced rollout and training on the new math curriculum - which is still imploding at local and state levels - policymakers will try to move rapidly forward on the cheap in terms of resources, money, staff, and time."

While lawmakers rush to get teacher evaluations based on student performance into law, the U.S. Department of Education is testing it's own version of teacher evaluation systems that do not include input form student performance or test scores. One thing is for sure, there will be some sort of teacher evaluation system in place soon. Teachers who are marginally effective will be replaced with teachers who are considered "better," whatever that means.

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