U.S. public wants an easier way to fire bad teachers

Half say that teachers’ salaries should be based on their students’ performance on statewide tests and on the evaluations they receive from local school officials.

About 1 in 4 say pay should be determined solely by school administrators’ ratings, while fewer than 1 in 5 say salaries should be based only on how well students do on statewide testing.

While eager to send bad teachers packing, just 35 percent of respondents said a large number of bad teachers is a serious problem in America’s schools, and only 45 percent say teachers’ unions are to blame.

In contrast, more than half are critical of parents and federal, state, and local education officials, and 55 percent say the inability to recruit and keep good teachers is a big problem.

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Larry Cuban, a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, says some of the public’s negative views come from frequent criticism from policy makers and in news reports.

“It’s become a throwaway line: ‘Oh, sure, U.S. schools are lousy,'” said Cuban. “I think we have schizophrenia in the U.S. that we believe all U.S. schools are lousy—except the schools we send our kids to.”

To help school districts cope, the Obama administration has begun programs like the $4 billion Race to the Top initiative, which gave money to 11 states and Washington, D.C., in exchange for promises of innovative reforms to raise student achievement and improve graduation rates.

Part of the requirements for getting the money included a teacher performance pay program and better use of student achievement data to make sure teachers are doing their jobs.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the poll results show that parents understand that teachers are not to blame for all the woes in public education.

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