SURVEY ON INCOMPETENT TEACHERS
It’s time to put an end to this nonsense that incompetent teachers are the cause of a so-called “crisis in education” in this country. Let’s find out just how many incompetent teachers there are in America. I realize not many people can agree on what constitutes an incompetent teacher, so I will propose a criteria for incompetence. A judgement of incompetence will be determined by the principals of our schools. Evaluation is a huge aspect of a principal’s job, so I will trust in the opinions of our principals. We must send a survey to all the principals in the country. The survey will have the following questions.
1. Are you an elementary, middle school, or high school principal ?
2. How many teachers are in your school ? How many of those teachers do you judge to be incompetent?
3. In what type of community is your school located? Affluent ? Middle class ? Impoverished area?
4. How many years of experience do your incompetent teachers have ?
5. How many of your incompetent teachers are you trying to remediate, how many are you trying to get removed from the classroom?
6. What is the average length of time it takes to remove an incompetent teacher ?
7. Do you believe the “crisis in American education” is the result of incompetent teachers? Yes or no ?
Let’s get the Principals Association to back this survey. The principals do not have to identify any teachers and the principals could remain anonymous if they so desire.
I’m confident you will see something like the following results: The amount of incompetent teachers in affluent areas would be about 5%. Middle class areas about 10%. Impoverished areas about 15%.
The largest number of incompetent teachers will have the least amount of experience.
The principals would rather try to remove an incompetent teacher than to try to remediate them.
The average amount of time it takes to remove an incompetent teacher is one full year.
Most principals do not believe that the crisis in education is the result of incompetent teachers.
Let’s get this survey going. I’m confident the average amount of incompetent teachers in any given school is about 10%, just like the rate of incompetency is in any given profession. Are the number of incompetent teachers high enough to have affected hundreds of children? Absolutely. Are the number of incompetent teachers large enough to have caused a “crisis in education” on a national scale ?Absolutely not. It’s a terrible shame that any child would have to put up with an incompetent teacher, but let’s not confuse a typical level of incompetence in a profession with a so-called “national crisis”.
