Evaluating Michigan Teachers

The Michigan House of Representatives has passed a bill which, by the 2015-2016 school year, would make student achievement a whopping 50% of a teacher's annual evaluation. Such data will also then play about 22% of a principal's evaluation.

Measuring teacher success is a difficult proposition. There are many and varied items which affect how well a child will perform academically. Home life, personality ability and interest, and indeed the instructor's own ability certainly fall into the mix. It also goes almost without saying that the area where the school is located makes a difference as well. Public schools also suffer from something which private schools do not: private institutions can ship out the troublemakers, while public schools must somehow contend with them. At least for a longer while.

As such, it isn't particularly easy to determine how much a lack of educational success is the fault of the teacher or the pupil. Further, there is always the question of the exact measure of success. Surely a teacher's ability to get ideas and information across to a student hinges to a great degree on the child's willingness to accept the effort. It is all too easy to say that a good teacher inspires, considering that many young minds simply are not willing to be inspired. Not everyone can be reached, idealistic and political views to the contrary.

While it is important to effectively measure teacher performance and weed out poor instructors, it is also important to remember that teachers aren't exactly assembly line workers. The products simply don't roll down the line on cue to have additional and necessary parts added on on schedule. Teachers often are hurt by unwilling learners through no fault of their own.

The best answer to analyzing teacher performance would be a system which allowed for the expulsion of the truly unruly even at a relatively early age, giving instructors the chance to work as close to exclusively with the willing as possible. But we as a society are too obstinately altruistic to allow that. In the end, given what we have, it is best to proceed with caution. Making student performance count for half a teacher's assessment seems absurd if applied with a trowel, regardless of the school or district in question. We will only be throwing some unfortunate instructors under the bus for the sake of playing to the public.