Two On Teachers

It’s not about the election but Marc Tucker has a piece very much worth reading about teacher quality:

No one believes that high SAT scores or ACT scores, or high high school grade point averages by themselves guarantee that a candidate will be a good teacher. Everyone I know believes that a passion for teaching and an ability to relate well to young people are very important characteristics of good teachers. But these are not mutually exclusive qualities.

And Raegen Miller turns in a Center for American Progress analysis on teacher absenteeism you should check out.

4 Replies to “Two On Teachers”

  1. Baloney.

    My degrees in mathematics, physics, and atmospheric physics nearly killed me. They make me extremely valuable.

    The rest of you policy whatevers are a dime a dozen.

    And that is a widely accepted opinion.

    The american public is not fooled. Our policy “experts” are boobs.

  2. The intellegence on knowing yourself and how to suceed is the most valuble, then again that is opinion

  3. While I agree that using Act/Sat scores along with rating the passion of prospective teachers and how well they will relate to students might seem like a good idea in theory, I have serious doubts about how practical it would be and worry about how many possible future great educators might be dismissed because they didn’t score high enough on standardized testing. I have a very good friend who wanted very much to be a PE teacher and a football coach after high school. His ACT scores were below-average and he struggled to be successful in HS. However, he did not give up and worked very hard to obtain his teaching degree. He has been teaching/coaching for close to twenty years and is one of the most popular teachers in his school. If this policy had been in place when he was going to school, we might have missed out on a great teacher as he would have been forced to pursue another career. I agree that teachers need to posess a certain amount of intelligence, but it would be hard to lump everyone into one category and require them to attain a certain score on a test that they take while still in high school.

  4. I too disagree with this theory. My brother is a dedicated teacher and a favorite among his students. He teaches stage design, metals, and woods. He has touched the lives of so many troubled youths who were unable to excel at anything other than what they were able to do in his classroom. He has prevented so many children from skipping school, dropping out, and turning to drugs.

    What makes my brother’s story amazing is that he struggled with ADD and dyslexia as a child. He never got good grades and he barely broke 900 on his SAT scores. Yet, he has a successful career and he makes a difference in so many lives. Obviously, his potential cannot be measured by standardized test scores.

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