Public schools get their funding from taxes.
That means, that the people of every town and city pay for schools’ funding.
This includes maintenance, books, technology, and even employees. All teacher
salaries come from taxpayers of that particular town or city. With this being
said, there are times when taxpayers question if their hard earned money is
being wasted on teachers who are not doing their job well. Also, not every
taxpayer has a child or relative going to school in that district so they are
not informed as frequently as a family who has children going to those
particular schools. A combination of test scores, teacher evaluations,
and parent surveys can be a way that taxpayers can be sure that teachers are
doing their job well.
Standardized test scores are open to the public. For example, on the Rhode
Island Department of Education website average NECAP scores for every town are
available. Can taxpayers judge whether or not a teacher is doing their job
correctly based only on test scores? I do not think so because it is extremely
hard to prepare students for this standardized test, along with the rest of the
curriculum for the school year. However, this is a way taxpayers have known if
teachers are doing their job well in the past.
A more effective way, in my eyes, that will really show taxpayers if teachers
are doing their job well is by sharing teacher evaluations and parent surveys
with the public. Teachers could be evaluated by administrators and department
chairs throughout the school year. An average of all the teacher evaluations in
each grade could be offered to the public onto the school’s website showing, on
average, if teachers are meeting standards. Taxpayers may be able to relate to
this process if they are evaluated at their job. Parent surveys could be the
best way in which taxpayers are informed about how well teachers are doing
because it may seem to them as the most honest. These surveys could include
questions about how concerned teachers were with their students and if teachers
kept parents involved so they knew how their child was doing in class
throughout the year. Also, I think that parents would want to know not only if
their child is falling behind but if their child is succeeding or doing very
well. That is very important because some teachers only give the bad news to
parents and not if they are exceeding in the classroom. The average answers to
these yes or no questions could be published alongside the teacher evaluations
to show taxpayers how hard teachers are working and also how well they are
doing their job.
With a combination of test scores, teacher evaluations, and parent surveys I
truly believe taxpayers will be able to see how well a teacher is doing their
job. Parents can see what they should expect from their child’s teacher in the
future if the present teacher is not up to every standard. As a taxpayer with
or without children attending these public schools they can see how well their
money is being spent. I think that these three different ways altogether rather
than just test scores will give taxpayers more of an idea of how well a teacher
is doing their job.
