Evaluating Teachers Unjustly

Opinion

By Thomas Saura 

Husky Herald Reporter

   Port Huron Northern is a school that prides itself on its effective and high quality teachers. From the new-blooming teachers getting their chance to shine to the educators with the strongest tenure that can be achieved, Port Huron Northern has a wide selection of the brightest teachers in our area.

   To get and maintain the job as an effective teacher can be quite challenging, however. From creating rigorous assessments to challenge students to developing engaging teaching strategies, it is no surprise that a teacher’s job can go from a near promise to a lost dream in a matter of a confusing lesson plan.

   That is why the new evaluation process, implicated last year, has become such a problem for teachers recently. It is a new piece of adversity for all teachers to face, with the fear of a target on their back, it is no wonder why most teachers are on the edge of panic and paranoia disorders.

   So who decides these decisions that could result in a life-changing event for all teachers, tenure applied or not? What comes into play during these evaluations? What decides whether a teacher is considered ‘effective’ or not?

   The evaluation process is a strict rating system on many of areas teachers are supposed to focus on. Some points include: creating a positive working environment, including entrance/exit passes into lesson plans, and the most dreaded of all – keeping students engaged.

    Let’s face it, it is not a ride up easy street trying to fully engage 32 students while having to juggle lesson plans, grading, answering questions, among other responsibilities that teachers are delegated to. It is easy for us students to forget how the little things we do can create a large impact on a teacher’s evaluation.

   Yes, we impact the evaluation and it is a larger impact than one would think. Next time you are in a classroom with an evaluator, notice they are not just taking notes on the teacher, but on you. Every time you pick up that water bottle as the teacher is discussing what y = mx +b, you are not engaged. Every time you look off into the corner of the room, you are not engaged.

   Little things like this that slip over our minds, and that teachers just do not have the time to stop during a lesson to correct, are the things that could possibly put teacher’s positions into jeopardy. Does this sound fair and just? I do not believe so.

   Not every teacher is superhuman; they have just as many responsibilities as these evaluators, just in different forms. I believe the evaluation system needs to be cut back, for the sake of the teachers who are beloved for their personalities and teaching strategies, that are effective because the student says so, not a piece of paper.