Not fair to judge teachers based on student test results

If a teacher could be judged on student test scores, the world would be a better place. Bad teachers would be easily identifiable and the good ones could get raises and be applauded by the entire community. Teachers would be the heroes again and life in the United States of America could return to that peachy-creamy time our grandfathers always talked about. Oh, life with a good educational system and great teachers: what a dream!

It is, after all, a dream.

Teachers cannot be the sole factor of whether or not a child receives a good education. That is not to say that teachers do not hold a certain amount of influence over a student, but there are elements such as family life, socioeconomic status, friends, culture, individual nature, and the school(s) attended that determine how much of an “education” a child gets.

First of all, a standardized test score is not an accurate depiction of an individual’s intelligence. For instance, standardized tests cannot grade my ability to conjugate irregular Spanish verbs or test me on how well I can play Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Society places linguistic and artistic value on those skills, yet the Iowa Test is unable to assign such a score.

What about those well-versed in the lexicon of math but who are unable to appreciate the beauty of Shakespeare? Surely the allure of Kant and Dostoevsky is no more important than the symmetry of Pythagoras.

Why assume that all teachers are suspect instead of trustworthy? Look up any study that suggests the decency of teachers in relation to their pay. They all say the same thing: there is none. If there is one thing that everyone knows about teaching, it is that it is a horrible profession: lousy pay, loud kids, rigid administration — sane people do not go into the lion’s den, but naive, optimistically altruistic people do. They suffer the blows of public education every day and society thanks them for their service by scorning them for their students’ bad grades on some absurd standardized test.

The best teachers in my life have been the ones who forced me to write endlessly and learn the gracefully ludicrous behavior of language. Conversely, my best friend has always enjoyed the presence of crazy scientists who enthusiastically teach their subject. We have different perspectives on different subject and thus value them differently. I hesitate to put a greater effort into science when I would much rather learn the French word for “biscuit.” My lack of interest in science is not the teacher’s fault, so why punish a good teacher for my apathetic approach to his chemistry quiz?

Parents who value their child’s education, whether rich or poor, will make sure that homework is completed on time, good behavior is executed in class, and making the honor role is a positive achievement, not just grounds for mockery be peers. Parents who cannot concentrate on the education of their child may have more things to worry about, namely feeding and housing said child. To put it simply, poverty clearly places restrictions on education.

Of course there are students who break away from this stereotype and disprove the whole system. Those are the students who go farther in life because they want it more and are willing to put themselves through hell in order to persevere. But, generally speaking, most students do not explore beyond their social groups. There is occasional mingling with others but most stay where it is comfortable: with the society of their likes.

As far as labels go, there are three types of public schools: those with mostly high socioeconomic status, those with mostly low socioeconomic status, and the peculiar ones that have a good mixture of the two aforementioned groups: magnet schools. Arbor View High School would fall under the first category because it is relatively new, has many AP classes from which to choose, and a great many clean-smelling cellos.

This school has, on average, good test scores from its students as shown by CCSD’s website.

On the other hand, hypothetical “F High School” is located in the bodily-harm section of town with drug addicts crowding the streets and parents who encourage their children to abuse alcohol to drink away their troubles. No matter how good a teacher is, there are going to be issues with teaching these kids. The very few will assimilate and become perfect pupils, but those students will not be able to offset the balance of terrible test scores of the other students.

A teacher must be judged on his teaching ability within the confines of the population he is given. The trouble is that a bad teacher at Arbor View would likely go unnoticed because of the students he has. Similarly, a good teacher will be unable to shine at F High School because of the few students willing to be taught.

With the multitude of factors that go into a child’s education it is impossible to place full accountability, good or bad, on a teacher.

Jillian Holbert is a senior at the College of Southern Nevada High School on West Charleston. Her teacher is Bruce Shocket.