Homework 4- Are Teachers Doing Their Job Well?

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 are usually evaluated by students and/or administrators 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 much work a teacher does and how well they do 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.