Teacher evaluations aren’t so simple

There is so much to address in your April 17 front-page article, “Is the way teachers are rated effective?” The article implies that there must be something wrong with the evaluation system because Nevada teachers are not considered ineffective at the same rate that students are not considered proficient.

Setting aside the arguments about the validity of standardized testing for the moment, I propose an analogy. What if all doctors were evaluated on patient outcomes? Seems valid to me. You go to a doctor to get better. If he accomplishes this task, I live and he gets a high evaluation. Well, then let’s compare the ratings of doctors based on this premise. Seems that all family practice doctors would be better than the best oncologist.

Don’t like that analogy? How about a more telling one? If we evaluate public defenders based on case outcomes, the best of them would be considered infinitely inferior to the worst prosecuting attorneys because guilty outcomes and plea deals far outweigh not-guilty verdicts. An evaluation system that doesn’t take all factors into account and merely measures outcomes would certainly lead you to draw the conclusion that these attorneys are ineffective.

The truth of the matter regarding public education in Nevada is that we have the highest student-to-teacher ratios in the nation, by far. We have a very high poverty rate relative to other states. Our students come to school less skilled and often have parents who are less educated than those in most other states in the country. All of these factors combine to make teaching in Nevada a very tough profession. Are all teachers in at-risk schools effective? Unlikely. Are all (or most) teachers in at-risk schools ineffective? Absolutely not.

Failing to account for this demographic data and implying that there must be something wrong with the teachers if the students are not achieving does a disservice to teachers. Test data should be reviewed. Test data should be used to address areas of student weakness. However, test data is a very poor measure of teacher effectiveness.