Two months after a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education told a national teacher’s convention in Florida that he didn’t know how to increase parent accountability, lawmakers in the Sunshine State introduced a bill that would require teachers to evaluate parents of early elementary school children, according to a CNN report.
Parents would receive a “satisfactory,” “needs improvement,” or “unsatisfactory” rating based on their communication with teachers as well as their child’s attendance, homework completion, test readiness, and sleep schedule, states CNN.
It’s easy to imagine that this would upset many parents, but many teachers are also unhappy with the proposed legislation—mainly because it would create more work for them, writes Maureen Downey on her Get Schooled blog.
Downey—a parent, professor, and education reporter—argues that the push for parent accountability detracts from the more important issue of improving teaching skills. She also wonders: “Is there any evidence that grading parents would improve outcomes for kids?”
An anonymous contributor to The Province has a slightly different take on why grading parents is problematic: “When it comes to public education, it is the parents as taxpayers who foot the bill. They are, in effect, the employer. The teachers are their employees.”