Software developer performance in the US has been terrible for many years as well.
The cost of software has been going up while the output has not been improving? Um, what?
Maybe we should institute some standardized tests?
Big companies already do this. They typically have very rigid processes for evaluating consultants/outsourcers and pretty much just follow the numbers. For higher end work it's trickier, but for standard stuff (build X screens in Y CRUD app) it works well.
The only real difficulty in measuring the output of individual developers is heterogeneity. Last year I built a search engine, this year I'm building a realtime data framework (and other stuff). That's not a problem for teaching, since the output of teaching is homogeneous (and is defined by the syllabus).
> That's not a problem for teaching, since the output of teaching is homogeneous (and is defined by the syllabus).
The syllabus is typically defined politically, which is anything but homegeneous. In fact, pretty much everything surrounding the teacher is defined by politics, which makes it a huge problem.
Until we're mature enough to get rid of the politics surrounding the teaching of even core subjects, like science, we're screwed.
And I don't blame the teachers one bit for walking away.
What you teach is INCREDIBLY political. My mother had to have a multiple meetings with her principle because as a 2nd grade teacher, with a biology degree, when one of her students asked about bird beaks when watching birds eat from a feeder she mentioned evolution. The school wants to keep evolution safely inside the 10th grade biology course where you can send in a note to skip it.
Without tenure, for have a factual enriching conversation with her students she would have been fired. She's going to retire soon, and is worried about teaching because "her generation" only went into it because they didn't fight to get what at the time were men's jobs. Today a 4.0 college grad with a biology degree would never teach 2nd grade.
The syllabus is typically defined politically, which is anything but homegeneous.
Please look up the definition of homogeneous - being defined politically has nothing to do with it. All calc 1 classes are the same, and some politician demanding that pi=3 doesn't change this.
Fortunately, math hasn't been caught up in the same horse manure that science, history and language instruction have been, all of which have ongoing political surroundings.
Additionally, the modern teacher has to deal with and put up with rather a lot of things that aren't directly related to their subject areas, but are politically determined.
FYI, denotatively, homogenous and homegeneous have different meanings. Connotatively, they are somewhat interchangeable. I suggest you look up the meaning of "thesaurus" and "pedantic". Or skip that and ask yourself, did you understand what I meant?
That's far from the only real difficulty in measuring developer output.
Large companies generally have very low standards for software quality and employee productivity, so they are hardly proof that the problem is easy.
Some obvious factors that make it hard to evaluate both developers and teachers:
- An important part of the output is in effects on the team
- The true test of the output often comes years down the line
- The work is done out of sight of the evaluators
- There are many confounding historical factors
- The profession is subtle and hard for outsiders to evaluate
- Poor management often limits worker effectiveness
And in many ways, teachers have it worse. Teaching is much less like writing software than it is like management.
The cost of software has been going up while the output has not been improving? Um, what?
Maybe we should institute some standardized tests?
Big companies already do this. They typically have very rigid processes for evaluating consultants/outsourcers and pretty much just follow the numbers. For higher end work it's trickier, but for standard stuff (build X screens in Y CRUD app) it works well.
The only real difficulty in measuring the output of individual developers is heterogeneity. Last year I built a search engine, this year I'm building a realtime data framework (and other stuff). That's not a problem for teaching, since the output of teaching is homogeneous (and is defined by the syllabus).