Teachers Effectiveness Debate


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The issue of the week in the House appears to be testing. In the Senate, it’s teacher quality. At least that’s the conclusion you can draw from reading the reactions to yesterday’s


introduction of the All Children Can Achieve Act. The bill is mentioned here. The bill follows many of the recommendations of the Aspen Institute’s Commission on NCLB, which would require


schools to use students’ test scores to evaluate their teachers. New York City Chancellor Joel I. Klein likes the bill because it focuses on “teacher performance, not on teacher


credentials,” according to this Associated Press report. The NEA’s Joel Packer responds that allowing uncertified teachers into classrooms is “experimenting with children, and then two or


three years after the fact seeing if these teachers are doing a good job.” In this story from the New Orleans _Times-Picayune_, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., highlights seed money in the bill


that could be used to lure the best teachers to the lowest-performing schools. The Senate is bound to duke it out over testing. But the reaction to this bill shows that teacher issues will


be a big battle in NCLB reauthorization.