I recently read an article about publicly releasing
teacher’s ratings for anyone to see.
When I think about the consequences of this action, there are negative
and positive aspects that come to mind. For one, publicly releasing a teacher’s
rating will allow the community to know if there hard-earned money is keeping
poor-performing teachers with a job or rewarding those who are performing above
and beyond. With that being said, it is questionable how exactly teachers are
being rated. To put a major weight on standardized testing results to evaluate
teachers can undermine advancements in the field of education. We presently
live in a society where changing technologies require more diversified
approaches to curriculum and assessment. To elevate teachers in such a way will
be a step backwards because it will disengage and alienated students. Standardized
test scores do not fully capture student learning, and measures of student
growth do not represent many aspects of a teacher’s effectiveness. Some
advocates argue that parents have a right to know if their child is in the
class of a teacher who has been identified as ineffective. Similarly, parents
might want to know if their child has been placed in the class of a
particularly effective teacher. Teachers need to be treated as professionals, which
means their privacy should be protected. Publicly releasing teachers’ evaluations
with names attached has the potential to antagonize teachers and make them less
willing to collaborate with districts and states in future reform efforts. Parents
and the public have a right to know information about teachers, but teachers’
privacy needs to be protected.
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