Real Teacher Merit

Now that I have tried to agitate that teacher merit or, better said, effectivness is not measured in any meaningful way by student standardized test score results, let me explain what real teacher effectiveness looks like in the classroom.

A great teacher inspires and encourages, always finding ways to open up the minds of students to the great potential that resides in them.  The best teachers do that...they poke, prod, and inspire.  They provide real opportunities for development.  No testwill ever measure such a critical  and necessary quality.

Those teachers who care as deeply about the well-being of their students as they do their content were, and are, worth more than any test of any sort.  Show me a decent, caring, fair, honest and humane instructor and I'll wager a bet your child will prosper.  Do you really think a test can, in and of itself, do this?

Those teachers who broaden horizons and expose our children to what is within their grasp as well as those possibilities outside of their previous experiences are worth their weight in gold.  I want to see a teacher who can instruct about U. S. History from various vantage points; cultural differences, social norms, traditions and how we are viewed by other societies.  That is, they 'tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.'

It is all of the above qualities that have much more to do with teacher merit/effectiveness than the results of a standardized test.

Dick