Chapter 14 Response to: Teachers Being Held Accountable

by April

You brought up a good point about every student being different. Another problem I see with these tests is that they don't show progress over time. A teacher may have done a wonderful job helping a student make progress over the course of the year. They may still be below grade level but they might be a grade level or half a grade level higher than they were when they entered the class.

Also, it doesn't take into consideration what the student did or didn't learn in previous years. At one point a teacher complained to me that they couldn't teach their students the grade level material because they were having to make up for the fact that teachers in lower grades weren't teaching material the way they should have (according to this teacher). So, it seems to me that a 4th grade teacher or a 10th grade teacher could be held accountable for the test scores of students that he/she only taught for one year and maybe even made great progress with.