Teaching Transparency - Thinnk this would work in Thailand???

Posted by Richard Crespin

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Riddle me this: What does every successful summiting of Mt. Everest have in common?

Good weather.

“Any day now, 6,000 elementary teachers in Los Angeles will see their names published online, along with data showing how much their students improved on standardized tests. The Los Angeles Times has promised to release the information to help parents measure teacher effectiveness. The database has sparked a national debate on how to evaluate teachers.” (Source: NPR).

Many teachers and their union, the United Teachers of LA, have protested loudly. So many different factors outside the teacher’s control, they say, go into student performance, that it’s unfair to judge teachers in this way.

Welcome to the world the rest of us live in.

In any industry, job, or role, countless different factors outside your control ultimately dictate outcomes. When summiting Everest, you’re largely at the mercy of the weather. When running a company, you’re largely at the mercy of the prevailing economy. But none of that stops us from judging these outcomes. Sure we might “grade on a curve,” cutting a CEO some slack if profits go down in a recession or rescuing trapped climbers if the weather turns bad. But we don’t stop counting profits and losses or give someone credit for summiting Everest when they didn’t, even if the weather was terrible.

My dad spent his life as an educator. He was a teacher, a principal, a superintendent. So I sympathize with the plight of the educator. As someone who spends much of his time developing ranking and evaluation methods, I certainly understand measures have flaws. But that’s not a reason to stop, or never start, measuring.

Accountability begins with transparency. To hold you accountable, people need to know what you’re up to. Teachers, particularly public school teachers, play a fundamental role as public servants educating our children. They are stewards of our future. Their work should undergo serious scrutiny. If we want the future CEOs, politicians, and leaders sitting in classrooms today to grow up to be accountable citizens, then we need teachers to model accountable behavior.

I grew up knowing first hand, how little the average teacher makes, particularly compared to a CEO. I would offer, though, that objective measures are something that highly paid people have in common. Movie stars, athletes, and CEOs all get paid, at least in part, based on clear metrics: wins, losses, dollars, cents.

So, teachers of LA: don’t fear transparency. Not only is it part of your civic duty, it may be the key to a pay raise.