Valutare gli insegnanti

Un articolo interessante sull'accanimento - che rasenta il fanatismo - con cui si valutano gli insegnanti negli USA. In questo caso i soggetti della ricerca non sono i docenti universitari, ma gli insegnanti della scuola primaria e secondaria. "Last week, the New York State Education Department and the teachers’ unions reached an agreement to allow the state to use student test scores to evaluate teachers. ... New York's education officials are obsessed with test scores. The state wants to find and fire the teachers who aren’t able to produce higher test scores year after year. But most testing experts believe that the methods for calculating teachers’ assumed “value-added” qualities—that is, their abilities to produce higher test scores year after year—are inaccurate, unstable, and unreliable. ... Of course, teachers should be evaluated. They should be evaluated by experienced principals and peers. No incompetent teacher should be allowed to remain in the classroom. Those who can’t teach and can’t improve should be fired. But the current frenzy of blaming teachers for low scores smacks of a witch-hunt, the search for a scapegoat, someone to blame for a faltering economy, for the growing levels of poverty, for widening income inequality". Diane Ravitch su nybook.