Tell us what you think should be the next focus direction for enhancing our public education system in the near future.

Student test score performance is indicative of teacher performance, and teacher’s job security should be awarded based on their merit alone, not seniority, as in any other profession. Make teacher tenure in public schools a relic of the past.

Reform the system so that students can evaluate their teachers based a variety of factors (ie teacher’s availability outside of class time, teacher’s use of multi-media materials, degree of class discussion) like the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) which is used for colleges and universities across North America. Reward teachers based on these results.

Teacher performance and student achievement is the result of the proper teaching conditions (ie, school funding, class sizes, training, materials). Reform the public school system to make a better learning environment for the teachers to work with.