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Monday, February 21, 2005
Putting Teachers to the Test
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox mentioned during a recent visit to the AJC a bill she’s working on. It would assess teachers based on how well they teach, as measured by their students’ test scores.
How would it work? The key is value-added assessment, education jargon for “How much did this kid really learn during the school year?” To get such a reading, each child is tested at the beginning of the school year and again at the end. A testing tool measures how much each child learned during that one school year. The teacher is not responsible for a child’s low reading level when the child arrives in, say, third grade. Instead, the teacher’s competence is gauged based only on how much students learn while in his or her classroom.
Would this be fair? Should teacher salaries be tied to such a measure?
