Based on your 20+ years of teaching, how would you measure a teacher’s success?
A fair question. I was always pleased when my students did well on their standardized tests. But since I taught a nonessential subject—jr. high history—standardized tests were dropped because of the expenses involved. (No, the tests aren’t free and after a while one can start to question whether the expense is worthwhile). I always measured my own success as a teacher by what my graduates told me of their high school experiences. If they said that high school history was easy compared to my classes, then I figured I had done my job well.
But let me ask you a question, if I may. Of all the teachers you had, at all of the levels of education you attained, how many of them do you remember fondly? If you are like most, you can count them on the fingers of one hand. You know what I mean, the ones who somehow made a connection with you and many of your fellow students. What made them stand out? Test scores?
In my opinion, teaching well is so much more an
art than it is a science. All that making good test scores the be-all and end -all of schools is that in the future there will be no remembered teachers, because they will interchangeable clones of one another. Everyone will be mediocre.