P3. Should Teachers be Evaluated Based on Test Scores?

Lately, many states have been throwing around the idea of evaluating teachers partially based on the test scores that students receive on major exams.  The Obama administration has also encouraged evaluating teachers based on a combination of test scores and classroom observations.  New York City has already implemented this plan, but instead of combining both, they just used the test scores to create their evaluations.  The scale was based on the rate of improvement from past years in relation to this year on a student to student basis.  If a student improved their score greatly, it would improve a teacher's evaluation.  However, I do not believe that this is a fair practice.  This is not a great way to measure how well a teacher does what they do because test scores always waver depending on the content within them.  One student may find the test easy one year and do incredibly well, and then have a bad day the next and do poorly.  While students should have a role in it, this system makes the evaluation a little too centrally based on them and how they feel that day.  All students take tests differently, and some test well better than others.  I don't believe that this is an accurate measure of how well a teacher teaches the material because of this reason.  A teacher can just teach based on the exam, without adding any additional information to make it interesting, but is that really good teaching?  Are the kids going to be able to take anything away from that in the future?  I don't believe that they would be better prepared for the future if a teacher taught solely in this way for a better evaluation, but this is what this policy is promoting.  Maybe teacher evaluations need a little bit of an update, but I don't think that this is the right way to do this.  There are just too many flaws with this system that make it unfair.  Teachers often have a profound impact on their students, serving as role models and giving them guidance, and I feel like this system might take that aspect of the classroom away.