There is constant talk about how to improve our schools.  One concept that seems to be circling around and around is to fire the bottom 5-10% of teachers.  In other words, every year the lowest performing teachers would be fired from every school district.  This concept is expanded and explored in an article in the Washington Post.  Click here to read more.  So is this idea valid?  Of course, the author has his own conclusions and so do I.

There are certain areas of the country where teacher shortages are an issue.  There are too many kids and not enough qualified teachers to teach them.  How would firing the bottom 10% help those schools?  There are disciplines, special education for example, where there are always openings.  How would firing the bottom 10% help those students?  

There is a joke about medical school graduates: what do you call the guy who graduates last in his class at med school?  Doctor!  If you continue firing teachers every year just to meet a quota (5-10%), you will end up getting rid of some good teachers.  I know that good is often the enemy of the best, but how many "bests" can there really be?  Is it realistic to expect that everyone perform on the exact same level all the time?  I think not.  Maybe we should start asking why these teachers are at the bottom and how we can pull them up to the top.