From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Mon Oct 11 1999 - 13:34:00 MDT
From: "John Clark" <jonkc@worldnet.att.net>
>I'm almost embarrassed to point out the obvious but the only way
>to tell a good teacher from a bad one is to see how well they
>teach. Have all students in a given grade take a standardized
>test, this would really be a test of the teachers not the
>students. Teachers with students in the top 20% would get a raise,
>those in the top 5% would get a big raise, those in the top 1%
>would get rich, those in the bottom 20% would get a pay cut ,
>those in the bottom 5% would get a big pay cut and those in the
>bottom 1% would get fired.
This puts the onus on the teachers, instead of the students where
it belongs, besides it won't work, the bell curve remember....
teachers will have some students at both ends of the spectrum, with
most in the middle. Teachers will also "teach to the test", also a
bad idea. White upper class suburban schools will do better on
average (as they do now) and teachers will refuse to work in
schools they know to be bad....
Maybe hyperlearning is the answer, instead of grades, you identify
reading level, lower level students receive extra classes, which
means they have to stay in school longer, so they're motivated to
learn. At the lowest levels, require the parents to come in for
weekend classes with the kids..... The idea being to raise all
students to a specific proficiency level.
The good news is that hyperlearning systems are very cost effective
as software...
Give every kid a Thinkpad......
>I'm sure the National Education Association would really hate this
>policy and that's pretty good evidence it's a good idea
I'm sure they would hate it, but we disagree as to why....
Brian
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