I was responding to a post on how good teachers are not being put into the classroom and decided that I had some things that needed to be in a different topic. How are good teachers determined now and how should it be measured? I know now a lot of teachers are measured by how well his/her classroom does on the EOG. I believe that a student's grades should be a factor in determining whether a teacher is good or not, but I do not believe it should be all of it. Should a teacher be fired because some students in his/her class cannot take tests well? I'm not sure what the solution would be but I think that teachers need to be judged on other things as well, not just by the EOG scores.

Brittany, I understand what you are saying. Teachers should not be based only on thier students test grades. Some students do infact test well. For example, my sister (and I am sure she wouldnt mind me saying this) made straight As all through college here at ASU and all through grad school. She is super smart and a very hard worker but on the other hand, she had to take the praxis 5 times to completely pass it. So, no test grades should not be the way to judge the porfamance of a teacher.I think it is also important for a teacher to be observed serval times through out the year. Teacher-student interaction is very important. Some factors to consider are: is the teacher motivating and excited about what she is doing? is it evident that the teacher cares for her students? Is the teacher a "master" at the subject matter he or she is teaching?

As a special education major I especially agree. I know that my students will have to take the same standardized tests as all of the other general education students because of No Child Left Behind. Unfortunately it is unrealistic to expect for my students to do very well overall and that is not their fault and I really don't believe that it will be completely my fault either. I hope that I will be a good teacher and be able to teach them what is essential for them to know. It is sad that I will have to take time away from things that I could be teaching them that they actually could use and apply later in life because I have to teach the standard course of study which doesn't really apply to most of my students. I know it is important to have a somewhat set curriculum and regime of testing but our system of standardized testing has spiraled out of control. It is a shame that it reflects so negatively not only on really good teachers but also on students who are absolutely giving it all they have but the tests simply are not reliable indications of what many students actually know.

Girls, I agree. Testing and unattainable standards have most definitely skewed the "qualifications" of a good teacher. There are many wonderful and creative teachers in our schools who are so bogged down by paper work and preparing students for the EOG that they neither have the time nor the energy for creating exciting lesson plans and activities. In one of my classes today, we had a discussion that basically boiled down to "Is it worth cramming the enormous amount of content (breadth of knowledge) into our students for them to memorize when we are not arming them with application and critical thinking tools (depth of knowledge) to help them really learn it?" I think that the expectations of education are in actuality getting in the way of learning. There is definitely a problem, so what's the solution?

I am going to continue to agree and say that testing being the rating for teachers is a poor scale. But I would also like to say that rating teachers is a very difficult process that needs revision. Future teachers in my concentration are tested and observed on proficiency in multiple areas before they are given teaching degrees, I think these sort of things should be regularly evaluated. The areas that are tested, are competency in subject matter, effective communication, ability to plan and implement lessons, and ability to work with students. Physical Education doesnt have standardized testing but we are heavily tested before we teach, while we student teach, and I believe we should continue to be tested in the school system. If all classroom teachers were tested/evaluated on more than just test scores I think teachers could be more effective.

I totally agree with Brittany that a teacher's performance can't just be measured with tests. I think the overall well being of their students should be measured. Have they increased from the previous year in knowledge and skills? What about other things such as morals, self confidence, social skills, etc.? I think if each student is progressing then a teacher is successful. Granted, I still think tests are important because students should have basic knowledge in certain areas. However, a student should be thoroughly evaluated to understand their progress, and therefore, we can determine a teacher's success or failure.

Ok, I'm going to sum up everything I've learned about assessment so far during my education at ASU: There is no perfect assessment for anything. Hard to swallow, isn't it? So what do we do? What's the solution? Is there a solution? What do yall think?

Also, when I look back at my favorite teachers, the teachers that taught me the most, etc. most of them taught me more about who I was as a person, how to deal with life, and more. All of those things will never be found on any curriculum. Does the fact that I learned that stuff from them more than I learned whatever content they were supposed to teach make them a bad teacher?

It is extremely hard to say how to measure a good teacher. There are three kinds of teachers: those who make an immediate impact, those who make lasting impact (or later appearing), and those that make no impact at all. As a society we focus on the immediate impact of good test scores after a year in the classroom. What about teachers who help students have great academic improvement but it isn't evident in test scores until a few years later? Or what about the teacher that teaches their students about how to be good citizens and be positive assets in the classroom, school, and community? Is that teacher a bad teacher because their test scores aren't outstanding? I do think its important to have assessments that check on teachers' performance in the classroom. That will ensure that all teachers, good or bad, are teaching material appropriate for their students. I do think that there is a side of this assessment that isn't comparable. All teachers have their own styles of teaching, their own set of students will individual needs to teach, and their own classroom circumstances. Is it really fair to compare teachers with one another? Especially if this comparison is related to who had more students pass a test. I personally don't think so, the individual experiences of different classrooms is part of the beauty of school. Some schools even make the effort of placing students with the teacher that they will best learn from. How cool is that, putting students in classes where they will find it easier to be successful. What if this happened everywhere?

In my opinion everyone is on the right track, and in agreement that teacher evaluation needs some revision, but like it has been discussed and previously mentioned, HOW?? It is a tricky area to decide the best way to measure a "good" teacher. Who decides what exactly "good" means and what standards should be met? I suppose the test scores of the students as a mean to measure the teacher's success has become the means for evaluation to simply tell if the teacher can successfully teach to the standards of the curriculum in that subject matter and grade level. However, this does not take into account children with learning disabilities, and children who don't test well like Emily mentioned before, especially now with the NCLB act. In my opinion, the best and most fair way to really evaluate a teacher's performance would be to take into consideration if the teacher is knowledgeable in the area they are teaching about, if he or she is motivating to the students and can form relationships with the students, and this should be decided through observation, probably more than once. With recent standards for students' achievement sky rocketing, it becomes difficult for many students to pass the tests and this forces teachers to stick to the curriculum and move at a fast pace. Therefore, it takes away all creativity and means of being really effective in lessons. The true point of teaching is taken away in an effort to meet standards and be approved as a "good" teacher.

A personal example of a bad professor looking "good":

I had a professor here at ASU my first semester of my freshmen year. He was a professor with tenure, hence he couldn't be touched. Anyways, he was horrible. He didn't teach anything in his class. Every class period was a waste of time and he was quite rude to all of his students. No one liked him and no one liked his class. Through all of this, I made a very high A in the class. How could I make an A in his class if he didn't do anything? Well I went back to my dorm room and spent hours reading the text book, taking notes, rereading my notes, completing a huge paper and project, etc. I taught myself and completed all my work. That's how I earned my A. At the end of the semester, our class filled out our "course/professor evaluations". This professor got torn to pieces in these evaluations, just like many semesters in the past. However, he's still here. Why is this? Maybe because students like me worked hard to earn an A therefore we made him look good? I don't know.

The point of this story is:
1. "Bad" teachers can be made to look "good".
2. One form of evaluation of teachers is to include student evaluations and to actually consider what they have to say. - Just a suggestion.