Teacher Accountability

As I've noted in previous posts, good teachers are the key to good schools.  Budgets, curriculum, facilities--all take a second place to excellent teaching.  A recent article in The Economist entitled "Lessons learned" gave an overview of recent movements set on improving teacher quality.  In 2009, Hillsborough County, Florida, won a grant from the Gates Foundation to transform the way it evaluates, develops and rewards its teachers. The Superintendent Mary Ellen Elia, while being fair to unions, has launched a method of evaluating teachers. An extended quote:

Teachers will be judged on their pupils’ progress, as well as evaluations by a principal and by a peer. Teachers with high ratings, based on three years of data, will have higher salaries. Bad teachers will see their salaries shrink. A struggling teacher will receive further training. If he continues to be ineffective, Mrs Elia will act to remove him.

This particular case is worth reflection.   The elements of reforming poor and mediocre teachers, and thus poor and mediocre schools, are all here.  Teachers are judged on three things: pupil's progress (the accomplishment of predetermined objectives through test scores), evaluations by a principal and evaluations by a peer.  When these three elements are present, enough information over a 3 year period helps determine whether a teacher gets a salary increase or should be sent to remedial training, or fired.

Having been the husband, brother, and son of public school teachers my whole life, I've heard stories of grossly ineffective accountability for teachers. Great teachers go unnoticed but do it "for the love of teaching," whereas ineffective teachers stay put or bounce around the district and never leave because of tenure.

Again, I'm an amateur on the subject, but teacher accountability seems to me the central element in building a successful school.  The administrator's central role must be to hire great teachers, and then to give sufficient accountability to ensure that great teaching is the norm in any school. Budgets, text books, problem cases--all of these must take a back seat to finding and encouraging great teachers.  Those who want to leave an indelible mark on a school district or a school would be wise to follow Mrs Elia's example.