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Mr. Huff, I have to disagree with you. Teachers are not fully responsible for how students score on a test. This measurement system is flawed at its core. Did the private schools use PARCC, Star. NECAP etc? If so, were the numbers significantly higher than the public schools? A test score does not truly measure how a student learns. Teachers can tell you much more about a student than a Star test will show you, which is why teachers are required to test students separately from Star for a more accurate picture.

That being said, there are many issues beyond classroom instruction that affect test scores. Hunger is a huge factor. Not sure about you but when I am hungry, it is harder for me to test. This is not a teacher controlled responsibility. Safety, heck if I were worried about my safety at home, about being warm, about having my basic needs met, my test scores would likely drop. Poverty is the biggest impact on the quality of education in the public school.

A teacher cannot meet every need of a student in the classroom and poverty has a definite impact on student performance. It is not as cut and dry as a teacher should be held accountable for how a student scores on a test. In fact, recently a New York court ruled against teacher pay being directly dependent upon test scores.