LTE: A-OK with Grier

Jennifer Mathieu Blessington writes that she is leaving HISD for imposing assessment tests that measure students' — and teachers' - performance. I note with interest that Blessington, while criticizing the status quo of assessment tests, offers no alternative for measuring teacher performance other than to note that "in years past my colleagues and I were allowed to create our own tests to see how our students were doing."

 

It's ironic that she would reminisce fondly about the complete lack of accountability in years past that contributed to the failure of our school systems in the first place. That reminds me of the attempt by education reformers more than a decade ago to have teachers in Texas take a high school equivalency test in order to qualify to teach. The teachers' unions protested loudly, and it disappeared. I thought it strange to think that teachers would object to proving that they have the barest minimum of education in order to be allowed to teach our kids, but it's consistent with their insistence to be held to no standards at all.

 

If teachers like Blessington want to be taken seriously, they should come up with rigorous performance standards already common to most other professions, instead of complaining when others like Superintendent Terry Grier fill the vacuum by imposing standards on them.

 

Pete Smith, Cypress

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Letters-Teachers-and-leadership-1690907.php