I'm a programmer but I took a three-year hiatus from programming to be a science and technology teacher. So I speak from having some teaching experience. Obje

I'm a programmer but I took a three-year hiatus from programming to be a science and technology teacher. So I speak from having some teaching experience. Objective measures like the ones proposed are a siren song. They sound really good on the surface, but a deeper look reveals these problems: * You only get what you measure. Whatever is not measured falls through the cracks. So this means that the teaching goals have to be really good. Historically, they are not, as they are driven more by politics than by people who are talented at teaching. * Some of the value that teachers add is in intangibles which are harder to measure. These important intangibles will fall by the wayside. Also, the administration has a large impact on student and teacher success. Imagine being a programmer and having your performance judged on a project that was mismanaged by an incompetent project manager. I'm not saying we should have no objective measures; I'm just giving a word of caution that this is a complex issue that's not easily solved. Reductionist approaches like these are bound to fail; more holistic approaches that focus on the student-teacher-parent relationship are better.