🚀 go-pugleaf

fred_s@netcom.com (Fredrick Scott) writes:
>And what "competency tests" do those wonderful private schools out there
>administer? 

A little concept that is totally foreign to public schools - how well
your students learn.  They will also, on hiring, test a math teacher
to see if he/she knows math, recognizing that a degree is not the
whole story.

>I don't know why exactly teacher's unions oppose such tests but
>if I were a teacher, I might be insulted by them and be somewhat sceptical of
>the so-called "great success" to which you refer.

Since the major goal of teachers unions is to make sure incompetency
is not grounds for firing (that could set a bad precedent) this is
quite understandable.


>Private companies do not
>feel the need to regularly test their engineers, executives, accountants, and
>other professionals on subjects such people are expected to know to do their
>jobs competantly.

They do it every day - productivity and results.  How well does the
person do the job they are hired to do?  No matter how much seniority
I have, if I suddenly cease to do my job I will be fired.  In
teaching, the results are how well the students learn.  Since teachers
unions will in no way allow teacher pay to be tied to something as
trivial as student success, concerned parties are forced to resort to
artificial measures, such as competency tests.


>So why don't you take a clue from those who advocate the
>wisdom of the private sector - if such tests were an econmical and cost-
>effective way of insuring the quality of your personnel, everyone would use
>'em.  But somehow, noone else seems to...

I can see a government bureaucracy job just waiting for you...
-- 
"We don't care.  We don't have to.  We're the government."