Are Teachers Making the Grade?

By: Ben Tracy
Topics: Observations

Ben Tracy is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

As kids, we all remember those dreaded tests. We read our text books, memorized key ideas and phrases, and then hoped we could remember it all when test day arrived.

But what about the teachers giving those tests? How do we know whether they are passing or failing when it comes to doing their jobs?

For the most part, in this country, we don't.

That is because for decades, teacher's unions have fought to not have their performance linked to their student's test scores. They say one day of standardized tests is not a good way to evaluate an entire year of a teacher's work. So, a teacher's job performance is generally assessed by their principal who sits in their classroom once a year (at most) and watches them teach.

Now a growing number of experts and even democrats (who generally have sided with the teacher's unions) are saying we need more accountability. They say test scores may not count for everything, but they do matter because it's one of the only ways to judge how much students are learning.

In our story for our series "Reading, Writing, and Reform," we explore this issue and the debate raging in Los Angeles after the Los Angeles Times posted rankings of teachers online based on their student's test scores. One teacher we talked to was branded a "least effective" teacher. She says the test data is unfair. One parent we talked to says ineffective teachers need to be helped or moved out of the classroom. In the end, they both agreed that it's about the kids.

Watch the video below:

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by loudpipes3 October 1, 2010 10:19 PM EDT: oh no. Schools will continue to get funding. They always have. They always will, from wherever.; Reply to this comment


by skeezix06 September 23, 2010 7:06 PM EDT: And how do you plan to send the kids to all these charter/private schools after (1) the billionaires and millionaires get bored and look around for new ways to spend money because they're bored with paying for schools or they died and their heirs aren't interested and (2) the republicans keep trying to cut services and inevitably school funding gets cut below a level of maintaining the facilities, equipment, and students? What then?

Prediction. Public education will be dead. If you have money, you can pay for your child to go to school in a private school. If not, that's you and your child's tough luck.; Reply to this comment