Billybob, your post included several significant truths.
1. Education Standards declined over the last century.
2. Teachers should meet or exceed standards based on the performance of their students to earn raises.
3. All Students CANNOT learn equally.
Achieving Measurable Performance Standards that target Goals where All Students Meet Achievement Standards, Educators lowered those Standards to the Lowest Common Denominator instead of endeavoring to raise Student Achievement Levels to meet more rigid and optimal (impossible for all students to achieve) standards.
A realistic Student Achievement Measurement System must allow for lower Student Performance for students that are (in fact) unable to attain optimal goals.....sorry Mom! But, the integrity of any Student Achievement Measurement System needed to fairly measure Teacher Performance must include a valid Student Learning Ability Assessment System on which to base the progress of Student Achievement allowing variations according to each student’s attainable goals.
Some States, like NY in the past (unsure if still in effect) utilized a State Regents Examination System where Student Achievement is Measured annually for Key Subjects through the High School Years (9-12). Teacher Performance was measured by requiring a minimum specific percentage of their students to pass these exams for the subjects the taught or teachers faced review or other consequences.
However, NY schools also provided different Programs for students assessed with different learning abilities: Advanced; Academic; General; and Retarded or Special Kids Groups.
Advanced and Academic Student Groups were assessed annually by Regents Examinations with students passing these exams annually receiving a Regents Diploma (required for College Admissions) as well as a Standard Diploma (meeting requirements for Technical School Admissions, Employment or Military).
I am not even close to a professional educator. I would set myself on fire and jump off a cliff, first. However, I spent the majority of my career as a Director/Manager in the medical field. I was tasked with setting performance goals for my staff, evaluating staff performance annually, and initiating training for staff to help them to meet learning requirements. There were no socio-political games in play that required different standards for different socioeconomic, ethnic, language, sex or religious categories for employees. Note- neither do Military Training Programs. My opinion is that these counterproductive burdens that smother the Academic System are self imposed through Research and Studies initiated by professional educators themselves and then smelted into Law through in collusion with Political Action Groups. What a steaming crock of excrement!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We have to have some type of assessments of students and teachers to protect the public's investment, but as we've seen many resist them. Testing for assessments has lead to cheating scandals here and interestingly an all out uprising in Mexico that's lasted several years now.
Education Reform Sparks Teacher Protest in Mexico
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/003172171409500811?journalCode=pdka
Mexico’s Uprising Against Education ‘Reform’
http://progressive.org/magazine/mexico’s-uprising-against-education-‘reform’/