Teachers know it, parents know it, and even students know it, but there seems to be no consensus across states, districts, and schools about how to measure it and ensure that it is measured fairly. I'm talking about teacher evaluations. Having an effective teacher at the head of the class is the most important in-school factor influencing student learning and teacher evaluation systems are supposed to assess just how good teachers are in the classroom, with the goal of helping them improve as needed. But many teachers report that they are not evaluated often enough and, in some cases, are not even evaluated in the subjects they teach.
Research shows that students with high-performing teachers can progress three times as fast as students with low-performing teachers. Students deserve access to highly effective teachers in every subject, including (but certainly not limited to) math, science, language arts, history, civics, music, art, foreign languages, and physical education. To help teachers understand their own performance and help them improve, they deserve a fair and accurate assessment of their skills. Teacher effectiveness is dependent on accurate and fair evaluations based on multiple measures, including their students' performance in the subjects they teach.
Unfortunately, too many school systems use student test scores in math and language arts as a measure in evaluating teachers in all subjects and disciplines. Unfair? Yes, of course. This evaluation strategy results in