Monday, March 10, 2008
It seems that after decades of predicating students' futures upon performance and aptitude testing, public school teachers may get their turn.
Brewing in Congress is a measure to amend No Child Left Behind to include performance testing to ascertain whether teachers should receive increases in pay. To help myself wade through this delicacy of an issue, I bought a recent issue of Time that explains this subject with finesse.
This issue is worthy of debate for high school and college aged students. First, the underlying idea that students have to jump through educational hoops from the ages of 12 through 18 to be deemed “valuable” is made clear. In other words, states constantly evaluate and test pupils with standardized weights, measures and formulas to determine if one is superior, normal or inferior in conjunction with government benchmarks.
These tests ignore what many critics cite as pivotal to student success in high school: Teachers are often omitted as contributing factors to students' successes or lack thereof. Often, teachers en masse like to lay blame on lackluster parents, socioeconomics, senseless bureaucracy and student apathy as reasons for high dropout rates or low college acceptance rates.
I agree with those parameters as catalysts for failure as well. However, when did it become acceptable for a special interest (read: teachers' unions) to dictate the debate by completely removing any accountability from themselves?
I realize that the entire presupposition of special interest is to argue for the betterment and protection of itself, but I smell something disingenuous here.
Maybe performance testing or measuring would not lead to Armageddon, as some outraged union members would like Congress to believe. Consider this fine institution, the University of Kansas for example. I don't know all the intricate details, but professors, GTAs and TAs undergo a process where feedback is at least possible. Comments can be made regarding the effectiveness of a professor's tests or a course coordinator's tact in arranging a coherent class. Furthermore, if the University were to notice that the Humanities and Western Civilization department and its professors were going way off track, it would act quickly to help correct that situation.
By now, I've come to the conclusion that the secondary public school system remains worlds apart from the post-secondary public school. Yet, I feel I should carry caution with so potent a pronouncement. I support teachers.
After all, it was they who taught me the difference between who and whom, what defines a noble gas and how to prove an equation. In concert with my loving mother, a good majority of my public school teachers and aides inspired me and probably helped mold me into the college student that I am today.
There remains an idea that still vexes me.
Should I consider my good fortune simply as luck? What about myriad students not so blessed by Lady Fortune to pass by competent and caring teachers?
Therein lies the danger of this debate. It appears rather impossible to overhaul a system that is wrought with so many variables (disproportionate class size, poor salary, student behavior) that lend to teacher attrition.
As for the college kids, the problematic testing days are over, save for the LSAT, GRE and MCAT.
Well, wait a minute, maybe the educational hoops just become so big that they no longer can be seen.
Williams is a Coffeyville junior in English and pre-law.
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