Thank you for your responses to our question, “What is the biggest challenge facing education today?”
The challenges in education are multifaceted. Your thoughts on insufficient resources, teacher shortages, increasing equity for all students, and an absence in accountability for both parents and students have been heard. Thank you for voicing your passion on issues that must be dealt with in order to enhance our schools. Your insights continue to guide our thinking about policy and how it affects practice, a vital consideration for anyone passionate about improving public education.
Certainly this is a period of intense debate. Recently the fervor on the topic of whether to tie student assessment data to teacher evaluations has gained national attention. In a conversation last week, we agreed that teachers generally want to be held accountable and supported by a fair evaluation system. The Fellows’ opinions varied, however, in terms of whether that evaluation data should be shared in a public forum.
In an effort to further expand our understanding of how teachers weigh in on this issue we have the following questions:
What elements do you believe make a fair evaluation of your professional practice? Should the outcome of that evaluation be transparent to parents and/or the public?
Please share your comment below.
For some resources on how ED has proposed to support great teaching click here.
Also, to hear the thoughts and opinions of the past Fellows on these and other issues click here.
With great hope for the future of education,
Antero, Edit, Jemal, Jeff, Katie, Laurie, Leah, Linda, Lisa, Nick, Pam, Patrick, Tracey, Stephanie and Steve