If Student Test Results Determine Your Future

Is a student best summarized by a test score?

I would give you a minute to think about that, but I know I don’t have to. You answered right away. Whether you’ve taught for just a year or you’re on the verge of retirement after a long and fulfilling career in the classroom, you know the answer. And that answer, to state the obvious, is no. Students are not best summarized by a single test score, just as no person is best summarized with a single word. And before some of you more clever types start offering up examples to the contrary, ask yourself if you’d be happy having the rest of the world summarize you with just one word.

Therefore, is a teacher best summarized by the results of a single batch of tests?

Again, take a moment, even though I don’t think you need it.

Sound off on the topic of student test scores being used to determine teacher effectiveness in the comments section.


4 thoughts on “If Student Test Results Determine Your Future

  1. Test scores should not be a part of a teacher’s evaluation. There is more to student progress then test scores. In Maryland, the test for the 2013-2014 school year (the state test) does not align with Common Core. Yet another reason why this is a bad idea.

  2. In the School District of Philadelphia for the 2013-14 school year, student scores will count as one-half of the teacher evaluation for the year.

  3. Look, nobody will want to teach in a low income area if we are evaluated on test scores. It’s a proven fact, studies over and over have shown, that the kids from a depressed socioeconomic background come to school with a vocabulary deficit that is nigh on to impossible to ever make up.
    People need to quit blaming teachers and start looking at how we can improve schools. Success or failure doesn’t rest on teachers alone.

  4. While the idea doesn’t make me jump with joy, I can’t say that I am adamantly opposed to it like so many teachers are. As long as it continues to be based on the growth that students make from the previous year, I can’t say that it’s all that bad. I am all for hard core data that shows teacher effectiveness- after all, our job is to ensure that students are proficient in the standards that are given to us. If these tests measure that, there shouldn’t be a problem, right?

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