Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
You make a valid point, the problem is the solution to the problem is more testing. The testing is used just as much to determine which teachers are doing their jobs as it is to see how the students are progressing.
The easy solution to me is to test the kids every year at the end of the year. And then after their test at the end of the year see how the students have progessed from last years test. Of course some classes are easier to teach than other (an inner city school class is harder to teach than an affluent class). So you would compare a teachers progress to another teachers progress that taught a similar class.
In every profession there a people that are not meant for it and often they have to be pushed out. That is just the reality of life. I went to public elementary schools and had some teachers that shouldn't be there. You also need incentives to get people to do their jobs.
With proper testing we know which teachers to give bonuses to and which teachers to get rid off. Of course testing is not perfect, but I know of no other way to get rid of bad teachers and of no better way to determine an incentive program.
Anyone that has been in business knows that a bad department can suck up an infinite amount of money without getting better. If you can't figure out a measuring device and way to incentivise success there is no end of miseary such a department can bring to an organization. So throwing money at the problem is not a solution.
If someone can come up with a better way to improve the system without testing I am all ears. But to date, I certainly haven't heard of such a system.
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By the way, one interesting element of all this is that in order to test in this way, you have to have a consistent national curriculum. Do you think curriculum ought to be a local decision, subject to local control (so, for example, some localities might want to include Canada in their history lessons while others might want to include Mexico)? Or is it time for the national government to be setting curriculum for all schools?
