Evaluating Teachers

Whenever the question of merit pay for teachers arises, I hear teachers claiming that it is difficult to evaluate their work. I don't agree. To clarify, I think it is generally difficult to evaluate intellectual or creative work, but it is probably no more difficult to judge teaching than any other intangible work. I understand that standardized tests should not be the only measure, but it should be part of the equation.

I think I've read where New York does about 50 percent standardized tests and 50 percent evaluation from the principal. That seems a reasonable formula. Some might argue that principal evaluations are subjective. The way to solve that problem is to have more people involved in the evaluation.

At universities, we rely on committees to evaluate each other's teaching. Why can't secondary and elementary schools do that? The principal would select a committee of five or so of the best teachers and they spend time evaluating the teaching of others as well as the teaching of those on the committee (where the person being evaluated of course does not participate).

In many cases, it's not that difficult to identify better and worse teaching. Let's take my son's English teacher last year and this year. Both taught Shakespeare. The one last year had them listen to a recording. The one this year draws names out of a hat at the first of class and allows those students to choose a part. Each student then reads his/her part with others following along. They stop regularly to discuss what is happening. Then they watch the portion of a film that corresponds to the section they just read. Which technique is superior? That's easy. Moreover, adopting the second technique is EASY. Without merit pay, teachers can be extraordinarily lazy, painfully so. I wonder which teacher enjoys her job more? Wouldn't an evaluation and pay for better teaching make everyone's life easier and not be that difficult to implement?

Generally, I'm an underdog kind of guy, and that should potentially extend to unions. But the more I learn about teaching unions--and that's the only one I know anything about, to be sure--the more dismayed I become. Unions do seem to be the enemy of learning and improvement, to the extent that they oppose evaluations and merit pay.