Teachers in Michigan are now feeling the effect of the test scores of their students on their performance evaluations.
Sue Rutherford in a statement said that the tests act as a snapshot of the who the teachers are and what they are teaching their students.
The snapshot is now used to measure not only the learning curve of each student but also of their teachers.
However, Rutherford is not happy that test scores are used to evaluate teacher’s performances. As the director of the MI Education Association, she believed that test scores are not enough to reflect a teacher’s teaching skills or capability.
She added that a teacher’s performance must be evaluated based on different factors but not heavily reliant on scores during exams.
From the previous year, student’s exam results are comprising the 25% of a teacher’s evaluation score and this year, it is moved up to 50%.
Rutherford added that as she talks to teachers, they told her that this new evaluation scheme is causing them to lose their momentum as teachers and what they should be teaching. It seems like teachers are forced to focus on giving tests that will get their students a high score to get a better evaluation result.
Apparently, the results of these performance evaluations are used when there is a need to reduce the number of teachers in the district. You can check www.wnem.com for more.