Many of you are probably unaware of this, but teachers in New Jersey must now adhere to a rigorous evaluation process (instituted by Governor Chris Christie and his team) in order to measure their overall effectiveness in the classroom.
While evaluations, in both the private and public sectors, have been practiced religiously for decades, I’m not sure they’ve ever been utilized to this degree.
Over the duration of the school year, teachers will find themselves observed 18 times in 10 months – rated as effective or ineffective. When the final results are tallied, enough ineffective scores are grounds for dismissal.
This evaluation process got me to thinking – why isn’t the rest of the working world adopting such a lofty measurement system?
I’ll tell you why. Because if this evaluation process – designed to weed out individuals who aren’t effectively performing their job – were ever truly implemented at the government level and in the private business sector, you’d find unemployment levels shooting through the roof.
Many often say that American children lag behind their foreign counterparts. But maybe it’s time to stop blaming the school system and instead blame society for supporting, allowing and frequently rewarding people for always slacking off.
If our teachers must adhere to such a high standard of measurement, why shouldn’t everyone else? I say we start with the United States government.
