For starters, what would be the criteria? And just as important, who would choose?
In addition, consider the following: It must be remembered that educators have absolutely no control over the "raw material" with which they are required to work and therefore perform.
Students may come from homes where parents are experiencing a divorce.
They may be foster children who have been in multiple homes in just a short period of time. There are students who are in state custody for multiple reasons, any one of which is not conducive to learning. Other students are only in the public schools because the juvenile court judge gave them the choice of school or jail.
All students come to class with varying degrees of ability; in fact, as many degrees of ability as there are students. Then there are others who qualify for federal designation as "special needs" students and must, by federal law, be accommodated so they may have the opportunity to maximize their potential. Those accommodations almost always differ with each student.
Unfortunately, some students have experienced the loss of a grandparent or parent. There are students who enjoy the learning process and take every advantage of every opportunity while there are others who simply find some required classes a waste of their time.
Most Utah classrooms have a challenge meeting the needs of students whose first language is not English.
We can't forget that these are young people. Although one may have a class of the same age, they are, nevertheless, at different stages of physical, emotional and intellectual development. And, of course, there are students with a warm and loving home environment who somehow are coping quite well with their youth, school and growing up.
Now, for the clincher: The above (and more could be said) represent one class, probably of 35-plus students, meeting at the same hour, in the same classroom with one teacher.
So, how does one measure performance in the classroom? I believe that the correct answer is it can't be done. Not fairly. Not adequately. Not without subjectivity. Not with any value.
There is no standard by which to measure. Do the "hinges" fit properly? Is the proscribed "tolerance" acceptable? Does the product "sell" because of its quality?
I suppose educators could begin giving more students an A. That would look good; performance would seem to be more than sufficient. As nice as that may be, however, that solution would only cheat students and their parents who, justifiably, expect more.
Please don't misunderstand, I believe that the public schools should be engaged in making every effort to reach every student they can. But education is not an assembly line process where quality control can be and is closely monitored.
The "products" of the public schools are the students who move on to successful and happy lives. That measure only comes years after the fact.
---
* ROLAND H. WILLIAMS retired after 32 years teaching in Utah public schools. He lives in Orem.
