Teacher Interview.

With Mr. Ramaswamy.

1. What do you feel your impact is on the student body?
Quite a bit, I think: I influence their attitudes, their work-ethic, their careers.

2. Do you think the school spends its money wisely?
Too generic a Q! The school COULD be wiser: Id like more to be spent on academics, less on sports.

3. Is there any specific way you think the school can improve?
Keep the library open longer; make it easier it fire bad teachers; make the school year and day longer.

4. Do you think the school should be stricter with their graduation requirements?
Yes, students rise to the higher expectations made of them.

5. Do you think seniority is a good basis for cutting teachers?
No, merit should be! The worst should be dismissed.

6. How do you feel about “No Child Left Behind”?
Positive: it had brought accountability to the centre of the debate.

7. In your opinion, how should a teacher be evaluated?
Examine the IMPROVEMENT in TEST SCORES the students make, relative to students of comparable demographics.

8. Do you think money is the answer to schools improving?
A higher pay shall attract a better quality of teachers: Norway, Sweden and Singapore recruit teachers from the TOP of their class and pay them VERY well; the U.S. from the bottom [really!].

9. Do you think the number of kids in a classroom positively or negatively affects a student’s learning abilities, and why?
Depends on the level: for a good teacher teaching an upper-level class, numbers are irrelevant. To be true, individual ATTENTION shall suffer...but teaching quality shouldnt!

10. Do you think your students’ standardized test scores reflect you as a teacher?
Yes! The CSTs measure the minimum basic requirement for students to know before they progress.