Teacher Accountability

I did a project in one of my classes on the issue of teacher accountability. Is it fair to let our students' standardized test results be the center of control for it? It is indeed a sticky situation. Most teachers jump to the gun and say absolutely not, but throughout my research, I found some teachers who liked the idea. It is truly difficult to decide how teachers should be held accountable. In a perfect world, you would assume that it could be based on the students' achievement levels and test scores, but in this world there is a lot of factors to affect that.

It simply isn't the same for all teachers. You have teachers in wonderful white middle class schools, and you have teachers in Title 1 low socio-economic schools. Unfortunately, these two schools are going to have dramatically different scores, no matter how well the teacher performed. Another factor is Special Education. One teacher may have one inclusive child, while another may have six or seven. Again, unfortunately these teachers are going to have a difference in scores.

The teachers I ran across in my research felt that teacher accountability based on test scores was a positive thing for a few reasons. (Mind you, these teachers were teaching in a white middle class school). First, they felt this was a good thing for those teachers who don't care. We all know that there are teachers out there who only choose this profession to have "summers off", or to have the same schedule as their kids. This way, they are forced to teach properly and forced to make sure their students are learning what they are supposed to be learning. They also felt this was a positive thing because it gave teachers a roadmap for the year' instruction. It is easy to get sidetracked and stay on a particular subject for longer than expected, but with standardized testing, teachers are forced to cover all of the standards in a particular time period. This way, students across the board are truly getting the same education.

When I become a teacher, I do not want to be "forced" to do these certain things. I want to WANT to do these things. I do not want to care about my accountability, I just want to worry about how well I am performing, and if my students are getting what they deserve. I know that many classrooms these days are environments of stress because the teachers and students both are worried about the standardized tests coming up. I feel that if I do what I am supposed to do, and have fun while doing it, then my students will ace the test, and I will ace my test as well.