1. By Douglas Reeves

2.  Teacher accountability systems often use test
scores to measure the effectiveness of
instruction. When these systems simply look at
scores achieved by students in the fall semester
versus those achieved in the spring, an incentive
exists to make students score low on the first
test. If the benchmark is low, then the chances of
showing progress increase. However, this
approach does a disservice to students. Teachers
and administrators may also purposefully make
fall tests more difficult than spring tests, which
artificially increases scores but demonstrates no
real gains in learning.

3.  Instead of using test scores, levels of rigor can be
used to show teacher effectiveness. With this system,
actual grades may change very little, but student
performance may greatly improve. For example, in
the beginning of the school year, students might be
required to write essays using a single source for
support. At the end of the year, they might be asked
to produce full research papers bringing together
many sources, which would require more
sophisticated thinking, synthesis of ideas, and
advanced information-gathering techniques. The
course work is more rigorous, and students are
learning at a higher level than before, even if their
actual letter grade remains the same.