Poll on Teacher Evaluation

In an online poll from December 2009 to February 2010, visitors to TeachersCount.org were asked whether or not they thought 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.