So I actually teach high school US History, and Econ/Gov. in a public school in a large urban school district. You think what? You think we are well paid? You think we have an easy job? You think we have a fat pension? Get a grip.Our job has among the lowest pay to education ROI . I am a Cal Berkeley Grad, many of my colleges are Stanford , Santa Clara etc. They are no dummies. They are fathers and mothers and single people living alone. Our work load is unbelievable.
You try individualizing education to every learner and having a class with RSP and 504 kids (legal requirements for individualized educational plans), and, having AP ‘sandbaggers’ in the same class. Include then your own cynical children that are taught to chide education and antagonize all while texting senselessly and involved in sports( and allowed to leave early). Oh include all the kids that come and go due to poor attendance, passes to specialists on campus (required by law), or any number of other academic supports, including parents pulling their kids out to leave early on vacations. Add kid on prescription and illegal drugs, and every distraction of adolescence. You think we are what? Overpaid? Compared to what? My pension will be small and most of it was my own contributions. I am not eligible to may full social security earnings (20 years in private sector) because of a social security offset law that f’s over people that came from industry to the school district defined benefit program. I’m sorry, you sound most uninformed.
I can only recommend that instead of jumping to your opinion, gather good data first. As I tell my students, good data is the salt, and should be in more abundance, the opinion is the pepper and should be used most sparingly.

While I strongly believe teachers should be evaluated using student achievement, the present student standardized tests have several major problems in terms of teacher accountability.

First. High scores for students that tested even higher the prior year is NOT the mark of an effective teacher. Their scores should have improved, even if already high. Proficient scores for students that tested in prior years as below and far below basic IS the mark of an effective teacher, even though her average class score might be lower than the first example.

Second. Teachers are taught to do pre-tests and post-tests in units to check on growth and mastery. With the high stakes testing, at least in my area, teachers are evaluated on ALL the students in their class(es) in April/May. It does not matter if it is the first time a child has been tested, so it is not always a measure of growth. If a district is stable with few students moving in, this roughly works, but, if there is a large percentage of transients, then it matters. Our area has farm workers and a military population, both of which are transient. I believe that teachers should only be evaluated on children who have had a baseline established in the same standardized testing system the prior year, and NOT on students in the class for less than 4 or so months (since Christmas break basically)or who do not have a baseline established.

Third. Another overlooked problem is that the material tested is close to grade level. There is little incentive to have a true gifted program because the schools get more credit for bringing up failing kids than educating bright kids who come into a grade already knowing 92% of the curriculum.

Regarding ‘teaching to the test’.. teachers who only teach to the test will not have students perform particularly well. Effective teachers use projects, drill, massive encouragement to achieve through hard work. They are role models themselves and they drive their kids hard. Each moment of the day is spent reinforcing and building foundations while continuing to introduce more concepts. Exceptional teachers do not merely teach to the test. They are also much more likely to arrive early, stay late, spending 10+ hours at work, then grading at home. Those teachers will have higher scores compared to baseline scores.