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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't understand why some posters are saying to disregard things like test scores. Are low scores not indicative of the student performance and the level at which a teacher can teach?[/quote]

Isn't there an argument that test scores don't speak for how well truly kids are prepared?[/quote]

I am just so shocked that people don't know this already.  It's not argument - it is incontrovertible, much-proved fact.  Test scores have NOTHING to do with teaching.  They are most influenced by the student's home environment.  When I taught at low SES school we used to compare scores each year.  What percentages passed, which ones didn't, and so on.  We gave a test in the second week of school to see where we were starting, and would compare that to the test at the end of the year.  Whatever we started with was what we finished with.  We found that a kid who got 60% in week 2 would likely pass at the end of the year, but below that was iffy, and anyone in the 25% range rarely passed at the end of the year.  It was consistent every time.  There were exceptions, of course, and god knows we put 110% of our effort and resources into the ones in the low range, but nothing helped.

Even worse, whoever got the special ed group or the esol group that year would always have a low pass rate, no matter what they did.  And whoever was lucky enough to get an average class always had a good pass rate, and would be the first to admit they did nothing special and just got lucky with a good class.  And from year to year one teacher could get low scores (with a low starting class) and then the next have the highest score (with a class that was high from the beginning).

We were incredibly well-trained and well-educated, and we worked 60-70 hour weeks.  You could not find better teachers, but the school had a 3 and always will.

It's so sad to see that only teachers really understand the futility of this ranking system, and parents are so gullible and ill-informed.[/quote]

I think you misunderstood my question. I'm the one who asked about the level of teaching. I'm not asking or even suggesting that the level of the teachers are not good at schools with low scores. Absolutely not! I'm asking about the level at which one can teach a class where there are students who received 25% on the week 2 test that you mentioned. You answered my question, though, when you stated that you put quite a bit of effort into that group. You're the teacher, so correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you be able to teach higher leveled material if you didn't have kids who scored so low on the test? That's my concern regarding schools with low test scores. FWIW, I don't think that test scores are linked to a teacher's ability to teach.[/quote]

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