The XX Factor: What women really think.

How Do You Measure a Good Teacher?

Obama's practical commitment to education is heartening, Meghan, but I am curious to hear how he plans to measure the efficacy of public school teachers. You quoted Obama saying, "If a teacher is given a chance, or two chances, or three chances, and still does not improve, there is no excuse for that person to continue teaching." Obviously a deadbeat teacher like the lazy Stuyvesant Latin teacher you described, is not what we want for America's youth.

However, I have a friend who teaches in a much less-esteemed New York City public school. She teaches a high-school basic literacy class, and her "improvement" as a teacher (and her school's improvement as an institution) is measured entirely with test scores. She described to me a student whose test scores did not improve over the course of a year, but his comprehension of literary themes and ability to participate actively in discussion of books was far deeper in June than it had been in September. It was something that wouldn't show up on a test, but for that student it was a real victory.