Have you ever wondered if your teachers were graded as regularly as you are? Some students feel that they received a poor grade in a certain class simply because of the teacher but that may not be all true. In New Haven, Connecticut, the school systems have started to analyze their teachers. The teachers union agreed "to a new teacher evaluation system that aims to reward excellent teaching and to retrain or remove poor performers" (editorial 1). The teachers are rated individually and if the evaluator feels that the teacher could use some improvement, they are directed to specific help. The evaluator looks for three things while "grading" the teacher. They consider the overall student growth, the instructional abilities of the teacher, and if the teacher has high expectations for their students and strongly believe that they will all do well. In the chance that teachers receive an extremely positive report, they are given the option of promotion to a higher leadership position. So far the results have been favorable, "Of the 1,846 teachers rated, 75 were notified early in the 2010 school year that they were in danger of being terminated" (editorial 1). Of the 75 that were notified, 34 immediately resigned or retired but 40% of those that remained have already received help and are on the track to improvement. 

I think that the author of this article was very familiar with her audience. She wrote not only to citizens of New Haven, Connecticut, but to everybody that has an opinion of teachers. I also think the author was in favor of the new rating system as she used words such as "strong", "effective", and "constant feedback" to describe the success of the new system. I agree with the author and the school system in that teachers should be graded and given a chance for improvement, if needed. I think the author demonstrated a very positive attitude towards the recent decision in New Haven regarding to the evaluation system. Throughout the article, the author continually praised the evaluation system and demonstrated faith in it, "This shows that good teaching can indeed be taught, and that with genuine effort school systems can upgrade the teacher corps in a fairly short period of time" (editorial). 

New Haven's Teacher Improvement Plan

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/opinion/new-havens-teacher-improvement-plan.html?scp=1&sq=new%20haven%20teachers&st=cse