Are Teachers Responsible For Student Performance?

According to a poll recently conducted by the Associated Press-Stanford University

, the majority of Americans think that students are responsible for their own poor academic performance. But teachers are also being assigned some of the blame for problems with America's education system, or that is, bad teachers. Additional information obtained by the poll claims that while many feel the average teacher compensation is too low, "an overwhelming majority of Americans are frustrated that it's too difficult to get rid of bad teachers."

These conflicting ideas represent the bigger picture of U.S. education reform efforts- there are two sides to every education issue and public opinion is often split on the cause of a problem, as well as what to do to solve it. While 78 percent of people polled think that school administrators should be able to more easily fire teachers whose students perform poorly, only 7 percent of Americans feel that teachers are overpaid and 57 percent think they are underpaid.

Controversial methods of evaluating teachers have been put into practice recently like measuring teaching effectiveness through student standardized test scores. Some schools are even considering making teacher rank information available to parents and the general public. Teachers unions have fought to keep this data private, claiming that student test scores are not a true reflection of teaching ability.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said that "poll results show that parents understand that teachers are not to blame for all the woes in public education." But, one of the main obstacles facing education reform is that each party involved- parent, teacher, student, administration, and government- accepts blame for poor student performance yet points blame elsewhere, too. About 71 percent of Americans polled said that it should be easier for poor-performing schools to fire principals and administration. Weingarten suggests that "collective responsibility must start. This should be a wake up call to education leaders and policymakers that all of us have to do our part."

by: Emily Sismour

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