In her article "Want to Ruin Teaching? Give Ratings" (October 14th, www.nytimes.com), Op-Ed contributor Deborah Kenny exposes the risks of state-run teacher evaluation systems and talks about the tremendous damage that tenure inflicts to education in the United States.
I wasn't aware of "tenure" until I watched "Waiting for Superman" (2010), the eye-opening documentary by David Guggenheim that explores the educational system in this country and shows all the problems parents face as they want their kids to get the best out of it. Tenure is perhaps the worst of those problems, since it eliminates accountability and perpetuates bad teaching and poor learning.
In terms of teacher performance, I think that students are a great indicator not only in terms of exam grades, but also on a more qualitative level: can the teacher listen, is he or she kind, clear, creative, good-humored, supportive and passionate? Those aspects are as important as the final grades students get. Nowadays, it is easy to find what students think in places such as www.ratemyprofessor.com. I have been using this site to get to know professors before I even choose my college courses. So far, the reviews gave me a very good idea of what to expect from them.
Link to article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/opinion/want-to-ruin-teaching-give-ratings.html?ref=opinion?hp
No comments:
Post a Comment