Educators: To Teach or To Test? A Proposal for Taxpayer Evaluation

The topic of education is often a controversial one. Taxpayers in particular often concern themselves with ways to assess the educator to ensure their hard earned tax dollars are being put to good use. I believe that in order to create a way for taxpayers to be sure that teachers are doing their jobs well, we must first assess what a teachers “job” truly is. There was once a time that an educator’s job was to teach, and many believe that this continues to be a teacher’s only responsibility. In today’s society however, an educator’s job description has been extended dramatically. Now teachers must act as conflict mediators, counselors, social workers, and even life-coaches. This is not to say that the extension of responsibilities is a negative thing, in fact, I believe that it is crucial to the success of today’s adolescent; but how can we truly assess whether a teacher is successful if we are unclear on what exactly is being measured? Something that most people can agree on is that the overall responsibility of the teacher is to ensure that students achieve success, thus a teacher’s job is to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

So what does it take for a student to be successful? Well, this will vary depending on their location. Inner city youth face different challenges than that of suburban or rural youth, so their curriculum should reflect that. You would not teach a caveman to fish if he lives in a desert, nor would you teach hunting skills to an herbivore. In my opinion, school districts should begin by developing a curriculum that has a core foundation but also caters to the surrounding population. Once a cohesive curriculum is developed, it is then that an accurate assessment of the educator can be created.

For too long we have been expecting educators to “teach to the test” as a way to rate their performance. This does not allow taxpayers to see who is a good teacher; rather it shows which students are not good test takers. In addition, too often tests portray what a student doesn’t know rather than provide them with an open opportunity to show what they do know. While testing should count as a small percentage of the assessment of an educator, I believe that other things such as teacher evaluations should also be taken into consideration. Now it is no secret that most students will only give high ratings to a teacher that dishes out A’s. So to ensure the integrity of the evaluation, students can be asked a variety of questions from the professionalism of the teacher to the approachability of the educator. There can also be questions that pertain to the curriculum as well. This will provide us with a way to differentiate between what is the educator’s responsibility and what is the responsibility of the material. Teachers may be provided a number that corresponds with their evaluations to protect their anonymity. The evaluations can then be utilized as a great way for taxpayers to see what the students actually feel.

Some taxpayers may not be satisfied with the voice of the students, and may only listen to solid data from standardized tests; we must cater to these taxpayers as well. In addition to evaluations, tests should be created that compare students to themselves rather than solely comparing them to their peers. If a student takes an exam annually, his or her results can be compared. This ensures that taxpayers are viewing the progress of the individual student, and are able to view that progress as success on the educator’s part.

Unfortunately, there is no solid solution for taxpayers to ensure that teachers are doing their job well; if there were a solution it would have already been implemented. The fact of the matter is that while there may not be one “right” answer, many different ideas can be combined to create an assessment that works for the community. Through a combination of evaluations, testing, and professional development opportunities, we can ensure that teachers will be able to excel professionally and allow their students to prosper. We must trust our educators, and support them as much as possible. After all, it takes a village to raise a child.