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Brian McBride

After three World Cup appearances with the U.S. team, MLS star and current Chicago Fire forward Brian McBride credits his high schol English teacher and soccer coach John Erfort as the person who taught him to remain grounded by helping him focus on his studies.

“When I first met Brian, he was more comfortable on the soccer field than in the classroom,.” recollects Mr. Erfort. “Once he discovered learning could be fun, however, he made great strides both as a student and as a soccer player.”

Behind Every Famous Person is a Fabulous Teacher.

Be Counted

The TeachersCount “Be Counted” poll asks a new question every six weeks about an important issue in education. We'll take the poll results, along with your comments, and use them in press releases to the national news media. You can also read past poll results right here on TeachersCount.org. To suggest a topic for a future poll, email us.

Poll on Teacher Evaluation

In an online poll from December to February 2010, visitors to TeachersCount.org were asked whether or not you think teachers should be evaluated based on student performance?

A total of 142 respondents, 124 described themselves as educators, participated in the poll. The participants choose from the following responses:

  • I completely agree that schools should use student performance to determine teachers’ pay. It will help to entice teachers to improve and reward dedicated educators.
  • I somewhat agree. I support the idea of rewarding proven teachers but it is very difficult to evaluate student performance. Standardized tests are not a fair way to evaluate teachers. We need to develop a better measurement for student success.
  • I disagree. Teachers’ pay should not be determined by student performance.

45% of the respondents said that they somewhat agree that teachers should be evaluated based on student performance. 42.2% of the respondents felt that teachers’ pay should not be determined by student performance. The final 2.8% of the respondents agreed that teachers should be evaluated based on student performance.

Of those who identified themselves as not educators 72.3% somewhat agreed, 16.6% disagreed and 11.1% agreed. Amongst educators 41.2% somewhat agreed, 46% disagreed and 1.7% agreed.