The Problem with One-Size-Fits-All Approaches to Teacher Quality
by Frederick M. Hess • Mar 9, 2012 at 8:08 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
Today's debates over teacher evaluation mostly just leave me tired. On the one side, we've got "reformers" who've accurately identified real problems, suggested sensible principles (like we should work to identify teachers who are better and worse at their jobs)... and then rushed to champion crude, inflexible policies that turn good ideas into caricatures.
On the other side, we've got teachers and "public school defenders" who aren't content to challenge simple-minded solutions, but who argue that we can't really distinguish good educators from bad ones...and ought to instead spend lots of time worrying about whether teachers are happy.
I've no use for either camp. I don't want to split the difference, find a "middle course," or any of that. I think th