Teachers Should Be Tested Like Students

Teachers Should Be Tested Like Students

Education is an important component of life today, but it has also become one of the costliest activities for the United States government. In 1993, public spending on education was around 6 percent of the national income, totaling $375 billion; an amount larger than social security and national defense. However, educational experts and the public claims that such a huge investment does not correspond with the quality of education offered in schools. In fact, the huge investment in education does not correspond to improved performance by students. So, to effectively monitor education quality and performance, a number of measures have been used including adoption of evaluation tests by educational institutions. However, in order to truly improve the quality of education, I believe it is necessary to test teachers like students through similar student evaluation tests, or student led evaluation of teachers in an institution.

Standardized tests have been used for years to test student progress in schools. However, they are delayed in controversy as to whether they accurately measure student progress. One main benefit is that these are tests that can be used to track the progress of an individual progressively and objectively over several years, and inform on overall progress. Additionally, standardized tests are important because they point out weaknesses in education systems and poorly managed schools. Therefore, it is my opinion that if these tests can uncover such discrepancies in the education sector, then they need to be used to evaluate teachers as well, uncovering poor and ill-trained educators. Thus, poor teachers can be further trained so that they are at par with other educators, and this will ultimately improve education standards by routinely identifying the weak in the education sector.

In order to also identify poor and weak teachers, a second method to test teachers needs to be introduced. Student led evaluation of teachers is necessary to not only rate teachers, but also give them a say in how teachers need to be evaluated. In a study to check the class and teacher context on student achievement, it was found out that student performance improved while under the teaching of effective teachers, regardless of method of tutoring, with teachers perceived as caring or giving being the ones who perform better with students. Thus, in a student led evaluations, it can be possible to tell teachers who are perceived as performers, and are performers by statistical conclusions from tests, and evaluations from students.

Testing of students is not only designed to show progress of students, but also point out weaknesses in the education system. However, testing in schools also helps students stay on toes, always ready for an exam or test. In the same manner, when teachers are tested like students, they will not only have to perform in class, ensuring that students are performing, but they will be forced to innovate and improve teaching quality. Thus, old teaching methods may be discarded, in favor of modern techniques such as the use of slides, videos and so on. Thus, the fear of evaluations, just like it does for students, will be a driving force for teachers to improve the quality of education.

Evaluation of teachers is meant to improve education quality by pointing out weaknesses and system failures in the education sector. However, most evaluations are not effective, or are partial in their coverage. Thus, it is necessary that teachers are tested like students so that real, progressive and tangible results can be gained. Standardized tests for teachers can be used to show weak or poor teachers who have not grasped their material effectively, so retraining can be carried out to remedy it. Student led evaluations can incorporate findings from a student’s perspective, and then used to inform the overall evaluation, while the fear of evaluation by teachers can spur innovation, and lead to better education quality. In conclusion, it is clear that evaluation of teachers is necessary in order to ensure that the investment put in education booms with the performance of students. It simply makes no sense to test students, to check on their progress and performance, but fail to test teachers, yet the parameters and environment that define the roles and expectations of the two are basically intertwined.