The hiring of teachers seems like an extremely straightforward process to an outside eye. An adult with at least a bachelor’s degree applies for a teaching job, schedules an interview and talks to some administrators. By some measure of relative competence and understanding of what the job requires, a new teacher is hired. Sure, quite a few teachers have more experience and take their job to the next level, but the current systems in play to hire and keep teachers in their positions can be simply too relaxed. The administration needs to allow for more review of staff beside just a few observations a year.
The students at Athens understand that there are many processes in play to hire a teacher. Still, it seems that the only consistent form of review teachers have is the three planned and one unplanned review sessions each year by administrators and one other colleague. A teacher has the ability to completely change their style of teaching just for the class period they are being examined. Yes, one of the examinations is impromptu, but that still only measures how adept a teacher is in making themselves seem impressive at a short notice.
What is created by the current system of reviews is an obvious dichotomy between teachers that actually care enough to successfully apply a lesson plan in an innovative way and teachers that either hardly teach the subject matter or do so in a lazy and inefficient way. It is simply unfair that some teachers can exemplify what Athens Drive wants to represent while others do the bare minimum. The fact that some of the best teachers at Athens will never get recognized for their skills, outside maybe earning a Teacher of the Year award, is just disappointing.
The best course of action for administration at Athens Drive would be to employ more ways for other members of the Athens Drive community to offer input on who they believe are successful at their jobs. Who understands the effectiveness of teachers more than the students they are teaching? Athens Drive should have in place some form of survey at the end of a class that allows students to offer their input on how effective their teacher was. No student would decline having their opinion heard and having some impact on Athens, especially if they knew the comments would be anonymous and have no negative impact on them. It is only fair to the group that makes of the majority of Athens Drive to allow them some say in who continues to teach them.
Of course, these surveys do not need to have a huge impact on who is employed at Athens Drive. These are the careers of people, and students can always dislike an exemplary teacher simply because of a poor grade or disagreements between the student and teacher. The survey would allow administration to look at which teachers need additional review and which should be commended for their efforts.
One of the biggest attractions of Athens Drive is its outstanding diversity in the way its teachers look at their job. It is important that teachers are given the freedom they want to teach the way they want, without having to submit their lesson plans each day or sit in for multiple academic reviews; this allows a healthy environment at Athens Drive. Nevertheless, students would appreciate being able to put some input into administrations review of teachers. Without detracting from a teacher’s freedom, giving students surveys to review their teachers will make teachers more inclined to perform better at their job.