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"You know, a quarter of our teachers are very good. If you could make all the teachers as good as the top quarter, the U.S. would soar to the top of that comparison." -- Bill Gates
Someone should probably point out to Mr. Gates that his statistical approach to teacher evaluation doesn't allow for all teachers to be as good as the top quartile. If they were, there would still be a top and a bottom 25 percent as there is in any other field. There's nothing wrong, of course, with trying to raise the bar on teacher quality or trying to attract and retain good teachers within the public school system. But if Gates' reform strategy is to make all teachers equal in skill, he's barking up the wrong tree.
Gates reveals more of his misunderstanding of the teaching profession and school reform in general in a Newsweek interview given jointly with American Federation of Teachers president
