Subject: Re: Report cards on teachers
From: mdowney@ajc.com
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:19:37 -0400

Mr. G,

Many of your comments about the shortcomings of teacher evaluations and the shortcomings of the administrators who do them apply to other industries as well. (I could say virtual the same things about journalism. My friends make the same complaints about law and advertising.) Yet, somehow all these other industries conduct performance-based evaluations and measure employee merit and have been doing so for decades. And it has worked. As a longtime education writer, I can tell you that public schools in Georgia are facing a serious threat from vouchers. If public education does not change, I think we will see vouchers eventually - and I fear that will undermine any chance of reform or more financial aid to schools. I will also tell you that many superintendents complain to me about teacher quality. It is a concern of more than just journalists. By the way, I want more for my children, your children and everyone else's. I visit many schools and I can tell by walking through the halls and visiting a few classes whether the belief system is that the students - no matter how poor, no matter how many came to school without breakfast, no matter how many come from single-family homes — are capable of great things or if the belief system is that it's hopeless. The difference rests entirely with the principal and the staff. Between undergrad and graduate school, I taught high school. I know the challenges. But I also know that teachers have to be seen and treated as professionals, and that means meeting the same sorts of evaluations that other professionals meet.

Maureen Downey.