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letters | evaluating teacher evaluations

No big surprise in school system’s mixed ratings for Boston teachers

CONGRATULATIONS TO the Globe for successfully obtaining the teacher ratings compiled by the Boston public schools (“Ratings range high, low for Boston teachers,” Page A1, Nov. 21). Unnecessary secrecy of this information serves nobody’s interest. I was struck, however, by the reporter’s suggestion that too low a bar may have been set for performance ratings in some schools. If the rankings were reversed, would that be evidence of too high a bar? There is no way to know.

It also struck me that the reporter found it necessary to note that “ratings for administrators were even more glowing.” It seems that is to be expected in most workplace hierarchies, where the higher-ups wield more power than those below.

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Essentially, the teacher ratings reflect what I would expect in any organization with hundreds of employees: about 80 percent proficient at the job, and about 20 percent outliers, performing significantly better or worse than their peers. Do we need complicated, expensive evaluation systems to document what seems obvious? Raising or lowering the bar may serve differing constituencies, but would, I think, do nothing to improve teaching or learning.

David Amirault
Amesbury