I read an article posted on Twitter called "Williamson County snubs student teaching - Teachers fear effect on their evaluations" by Julie Hubbard and posted by Diane Ravitch (http://tnne.ws/tZbm5s). I read this article because Tennessee recently changed their teacher evaluation system and Iowa is looking at changing its system, however, part of that was put on hold today. The article talks about how teachers are not accepting teachers because they fear that their test scores will be lower.
This is another example of how competition can cripple a staff or even a profession. The obvious problem is that the next generation of teachers will not be prepared because they don't receive the necessary experiences prior to obtaining a job. Another factor of this evaluation system creates a competitive environment within a staff. A staff that is not working towards team learning and a shared vision limits its overall potential which only penalizes the students in its system.
There is a need for improvement in education, but these types of teacher evaluation systems are more damaging than helping. One of the biggest problems in education is that we have politicians creating policies for education and yet they have no background in our field. Similarly we have school boards heavily involved in school districts and these members also have no background in education.
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