How can the tax paying public be sure that teachers are doing their job well?
It is hard to gauge a teacher's "effectiveness" (if it should even be called that), from a typical tax payer's point of view. This is one of the biggest debates, because a teacher's progress is seen in the classroom, rather than by the public. If the tax payers could sit in the classroom and watch the teacher operate, they would understand the immense amount of work that happens every day. Even the parent's of students are able to sit with the teacher and talk about classwork during open house. Unfortunately, the average tax payer (without children) would not attend open house, and many parent's are unable to attend open house for their own children.
The obvious response to this challenge would be through standardized testing, which opens up a whole different can of worms. I personally don't think that standardized testing gives teachers the amount of credit they deserve. At the same time, it does provide a standard to compare teachers and schools across the country. If there was a way to demonstrate the amount of work that a teacher does, in a way that the general public would be able to access it, that would be ideal.
One option would be for the teacher's to form public blogs or newsletters for the public to see what is going on. This could display upcoming lesson plans, results of previous plans and exciting discoveries that the students have made withing the last month or so. In addition, perhaps, to standardized testing, these newsletters could offer another side of what's going on in the classroom. At the same time, there is no guarantee that every taxpayer would read or subscribe to these newsletters, and teacher's probably don't have a lot of extra time to compile a newsletter or update a blog on a regular basis.
Another option would be for schools to hold an open house for the community. This would allow tax payers to understand the conditions that teachers are working with, and give them an opportunity to talk directly with teachers or administrators. The teachers could showcase student work, explain student growth and talk about their plans for the next quarter. This would be similar to the blogs or newsletter, but again only tax payers who are directly concerned would attend these meetings. There is also the problem that people might not be able to attend the meeting at a specific time or day.
Although both of these options have their positive and negative points, I feel like they offer a different form of evaluation than standardized testing. Our society holds numbers higher than the quality of work that they can't see. I think that standardized tests are important in some aspects, but that there is a lot that the general public does not know. Hopefully, we can find a better way to evaluate schools that would show how hard the teachers and students work on a daily basis, in addition to successful test scores.
If standardized testing for teachers is a good idea, then why don't the teachers take a test?
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDelete(I know this isn't your microteaching reflection, but I am going to lose my internet soon so I need to post this now). Unfortunately, your lesson was cut short which is truly a shame because I was enjoying it, but also because it makes it a little harder to give you feedback. Nonetheless, I will do the best that I can. I think one of the strongest points of your lesson was the fact that you explained WHY it was that we were learning what we were. When I was in high school knowing why I had to learn something affected the way I learned. If the teacher told me why I needed something and how I would apply it to the real world, I was far more likely to pay attention because I viewed it as important. I think the same can be said for other students. Thus, explaining the point of your lesson made it more effective in my opinion. Another strong point of your lesson was your explanation of the material. You were sure to really take us through the explanations and examples step by step. As a result, I felt that I totally understood what you were talking about 100% of the time. This will undoubtedly help your future students understand as well. The last strong point of your lesson that I wanted to mention was how you let us express ourselves in different ways. For example, for one of the activities you had us write a sentence, but for the next one, you had us draw a picture. I thought that was great because allowing students to respond in different ways helps them become more interested and show their skills off.
As for areas of improvement, this is a hard one for me. I honestly thought you did a really fantastic job. The only minor thing that I noticed was that you could have talked when you were pulling up the examples on the website. Instead, you just kind of let us sit there waiting. This kind of inactivity on the students’ part could be a gateway for disruption. In the future, if you talk to students about something topic related while you are pulling up examples or getting material, the chances of disruption could decrease. Other than that, I thought you did wonderful. Thanks for your time; I’m sorry you did not get a chance to finish. -Catherine
I like your idea about having an open house for the community but isn't that what a parent teacher conference is? The newsletter idea was the one that really got my attention. Maybe a paragraph per teacher in a monthly newsletter wouldn't be so bad. Parents would have a better knowledge of what was going on and entire families could get involved in what was being taught at that time. Parents wouldn't have to ask what was going on in school because they would already know.
ReplyDelete