One thought on Teacher Evaluations and Education in 2011

The year of teacher bashing

Yes, it’s that time again. Time to look at where your tax dollars are going in education. Around five years ago I wrote about how there were multiple instances of wasteful public spending in education that included teacher ed. Programs and lavish lunches for training sessions all paid for by “The District.” As we have seen, those expenses have been cut back due to the downturn of the economy and state funding for education across the nation. Yay! Order has been restored, for now……

Now, we’re into teacher bashing. With films such as “Waiting for Superman,” the public now knows the truth. They know teachers don’t work hard enough and unions are a huge umbrella protecting their jobs. It’s the union that shot that kid in a Gardena public school. Or, it was because of a teacher that a school lockdown kept students from going home for around five hours. Let’s look at “teacher scores,” and not “student scores.” As the L.A. Times suggests, let’s evaluate the teachers. Wait, what year are we in? Isn’t it a little late in the year 2011 to finally suggest this. No one must have thought of this idea before. Why golly, haven’t they done this before, shame on you public education.

So let’s take a little look into the reality of teacher evaluations.

Teacher Evaluations:
“I demand that a public employee such as a teacher perform to their best potential. I pay them for that!” So, here comes the good ole’ L.A. Times to the rescue. The same newspaper that has gone scummy by adding an LA Extra section to develop a tabloid reputation. And we all know how credible tabloids are. So, L.A. Times to the rescue to publish almost all elementary school teacher test scores over a range of around four years. One teacher commits suicide over their test score. Thanks L.A. Times. But, thankfully I can rest easy at night knowing my child’s teacher ranked as “very effective.” That makes me feel better because I know at least they’re not going to a babysitting service Monday morning like I thought they were the past five years. I was getting used to the free lunches and after school programs that the public schools offer. I was getting so used to it, I even thought of looking into charter schools.

Test scores to the rescue. But, one wise veteran teacher once told me, “if you want to know what’s going to happen in the future, simply look at the past.” But, what exactly has been the past of public education? Has it been good? Has it been bad? I wonder what my teachers evaluation was when I was going to school? Why couldn’t I look it up online? I missed out!

But wait, I do remember the principal walking in the classroom from time to time and not only evaluating the teacher, but making sure the class was ok. Ask yourself, how many times a year did the principal actually do this. Now, let’s do some “elementary” Math. If your principal came in at least five times a year, and there are around 180 school days a year, what’s the percentage of him visiting for either evaluation or supervision. Now, ask yourself if you feel that 2% visitation percentage is enough to fairly make a decision to fire your hard working Mrs. Magu who works so hard everyday trying to help you with spelling. And my friend, you have just solved the equation to the problem with teacher evaluations and public schools today. Congrats, and for the L.A. Times, please do your homework before you come to class.