TEACHER EVALUATIONS AND “DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY”
If student test scores are going to be part of a teacher’s evaluation, then I suggest we have a very sophisticated scoring system when it comes to the evaluation process. I am suggesting that we use a “degree of difficulty” system which would be similar to those used in a diving competition. In a diving competition, the difficulty of the chosen dive is factored into the scoring for the diver. A diver might perform a particular dive flawlessly, but because it wasn’t a very difficult dive to complete, the diver’s score might not be as high as one would expect. If a diver has some technical style flaws in a dive, but the dive was a very difficult one, the “degree of difficulty” factor would boost the score that otherwise would be low.
Each student in a teacher’s class should have a “degree of difficulty” assigned to them. Hopefully we would have enough common sense not to reveal that degree of difficulty to anyone other than the teacher, the evaluator, and the scoring organization. After the student’s tests are scored, the “degree of difficulty” multiplier would be applied
