98% of our school teachers are rated “satisfactory.” Clearly, rating systems that pass pretty much everybody are a fraud. Worse, such pass/fail evaluations don’t give teachers enough feedback for improvement. So why would we ever expect them to get better? Why would anyone who’s called to teach want to work under these conditions?

via Bill and Melinda Gates on Teacher Evaluation – WSJ.com.

I have a lot of conversations with a good friend who is frustrated with the system as well. I hope Bill and Melinda can come up with something from the work they are doing.