Indiana not maintaining teacher quality

A 1.33 GPA won’t get you into grad school. It certainly won’t be impressive to any future employers. And it may even result in loss of funding from dear old Mom and Dad.

Let’s face it, a D+ average just isn’t that great.

But according to a recently released study by the National Council on Teacher Quality, that’s what American schools earn when it comes to retaining good teachers and removing the dead weight. Citing lack of merit pay and the ease of earning tenure, the council awarded Indiana a D for its measures to ensure teacher quality.

We’re at the back of the class.

The report reveals many systemic flaws in our nation’s teacher evaluation process – namely, the reliance on a seniority-based, rather than merit-based, system of advancement that awards years served rather than proven progress.

After earning tenure, the report asserts, teachers can be confident of retaining their jobs. In fact, the report reveals, only 13 states have laws allowing teachers who get multiple bad reviews to be fired. And just 26 states require teachers to draft an improvement plan after a negative evaluation.

Clearly, stronger review is needed.

This newest critique is but one of a chorus criticizing America’s education system. The problems in our educational system are many and complex, and we at this editorial board are neither arrogant nor foolish enough to suggest a complete answer to our nation’s educational woes. However, we find that in the area of teacher evaluation, one thing is clear.

Teachers must be evaluated on effective performance.

We admit, effective performance is tough to measure, and we want to make clear that standardized tests, though valuable in some ways, cannot be the full measure of a teacher’s efficacy. There must be a comprehensive way to evaluate teachers holistically.

And while some claim that such evaluation methods will be difficult to develop, we invite you to recall your own high school days. Imagine the crowded halls, the lockers, the classes and the hormones. Look back on the teacher who spent valuable class time on self-indulgent tangents or playing movie after movie.

 Though you were made to log meaningless hours under his or her watch, was anyone fooled? Did any student believe they were receiving quality instruction – and did the teacher feel he or she was offering it? Would any colleague or administrator rate such a teacher as effective?

In this way, it seems a standard already exists.

We know when we’re being cheated, but we shouldn’t have to get used to that feeling. Until a needed, substantive overhaul of our education system can take place, individual schools and administrators must be given more power to evaluate, review and fire ineffective teachers without obstacles like tenure and bureaucratic red tape, which only harms students.

You need to bring your grades up, Indiana. Or else we’re taking away the car.