Education: Teacher Rankings

Rankings are sometimes not good enough...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/nyregion/in-new-york-teacher-ratings-good-test-scores-arent-always-good-enough.html?ref=education

Teacher ratings can be a deciding factor for parents on were they want their children to attend public school. The New York Education Department released ranking figures for teachers this past Friday and to many surprise, more than half were below average. The rankings are based on how well their students did on the standardized tests throughout the year. This is a worldwide issue because students are tested on the material being taught through curriculum and it determines how well the student is succeeding in the classroom. The article said it is a first glimpse to the public and parents on how well their student is performing. The reason this is a big deal, says head of department, Matthew Mittenthall, is because teacher evaluations stem from these rankings. Essentially it could determine whether a school will keep a teacher there or not. Every year students and teachers are expected to have higher scores and for the rankings to increase, but lately that has not been the case.

As a future educator for elementary students, I believe that there are some pros and cons to having teacher rankings. Looking at this situation from a worldly perspective it is not plausible to have teachers in third world countries being ranked for how well they are teaching their students. They are sometimes lucky enough to have a building to teach students in, let alone a top educator for students. However, in the United States there has always been emphasis on teachers being the best of the best because of the strict budget. A pro for teacher rankings is that they eliminate all of the “bad apples”. If you don’t have passion to teach students, then it will show and will reflect on their end of year tests. Also, if you are not following the curriculum, then the students probably aren’t learning anything, and having a poor teacher ranking will reflect poorly on your teacher evaluation. Some cons to having rankings are that the education department is able to distribute the strong teachers amongst weaker districts.