Teacher Report Cards

There's a storm a-brewin'. Each year there's an annual report called Quality Counts. It's a state-by-state measurement of how public schools are performing. And each year there is both great rejoicing and also great gnashing of teeth in regards to the findings.

Locally, the story is going to be about how Minnesota did in terms of teachers and teaching. Ranked 39th and receiving an overall grade of D+ in the measurements about teachers, this year's report is going to rile up the masses and over the course of the next few days, it will be interesting to see how people react to this disturbing data. Here's a local article describing the findings.

What's going to be especially telling to observe will be how Joe Public reacts to this disparaging news about teaching. If this news came out about students, most of us would say, "We have go DO something!" When it comes out about teaching, will we react the same way or treat it punitively towards the educators?

If you pick apart the data, little of it is about the actual teachers; rather, it's about the systems in which they work. Will this be another "what's wrong with those teachers?" moment or will there be real conversation about real reform. Stay tuned.