Since the passage of No Child Left Behind Act 12 years ago, teachers are judged based on standardized tests and their students’ scores. The tests are often used as a measure for schools to determine if teachers should keep their jobs. The whole teaching profession is being shamed as inadequate. Joe Nocera, opinion columnist for the New York Times newspaper, by examining a thinker named Marc Tucker, argues for a new way to approach educational reform.
To begin with, Nocera addresses reforming and reconstructing our current schools. The current form of teacher accountability, is well known, but has little support. The system we have adapted to, judges our teachers and views them as simple minded. Tucker points out in the report, Fixing Our National Accountability Problems, that having standardized tests judging our teachers is not giving students a better education. Nocera uses Tucker’s quote: “There is no
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Nocera argues that teachers are professionals and need to be treated as so. Teachers are just as well paid as other professionals, they have a career ladder, go to elite erudite schools to learn their skills, and are quite intelligent. Tucker also suggests that instead of abolishing standardized tests, have fewer of them. This way students are accountable for their scores, not teachers. Motivation for students to improve, such as -Tucker suggests- posting average schools in the newspaper. This teaches students to be responsible, teachers can only do so much. But, just as we must hold students responsible for their actions teachers must also be accountable for their actions. Tucker asks us to start treating the teaching profession like a law firm. Each lawyer or partner holds each other accountable rather than the outside forces. This is good for bettering the firm-schools as well as implement an incentives method. Student-teacher accountability is important to fixing our