One of the hottest issues today in education is accountability. Students across the nation are required to take exams in classes as a prerequisite for receiving course credit or a diploma. But can a student be held accountable for something never taught to them? What if the instructor does not know the content and therefore cannot teach it? What if the classroom management style is of such an extreme that the students cannot learn in it? Is it okay for a teacher to simply lecture and/or assign work strictly from the book while never taking the time to communicate it effectively to the students or periodically checking for comprehension before the big test? Do repeated high failure rates send a red flag up to an administrator that the teacher's form of assessment is not viable? If students do not master the concepts are they left behind never to catch up? Are parental complaints taken into consideration? What if the teacher comes to work smelling of alcohol? Is it ever okay for a teacher to say, "Your so stupid and lazy; you'll never pass my class. What if the teacher is incompetent?.
"Research confirms that teachers are the most important factor in a child's education. But unlike other professions, teachers get paid the same no matter how they perform. There's no incentive for improvement " (Despite"). For many years teachers were not held accountable for student achievement but times are changing. However, despite all the efforts of raising colleges of education's standards, nationwide testing, and on going observations, incompetent teachers are still around. Tenure laws make it near impossible to dismiss a poor instructor. The cost of processing such a dismissal could be as high as a quarter million dollars. Statistics from court proceedings indicate a lengthy process that generally favors the teacher. The current system is just not working. In any other business, documented incompetence leads to dismissal.
