“If we have a problem recruiting top college graduates to education, we should fix that problem. Testing doesn’t fix anything, and in this case, a teacher bar exam disguises the need to do something more meaningful to attract and retain the best teachers by creating the illusion of action,” says an English teacher. What do you think about a bar exam for teachers? Weigh in.

Two professors say we’ve got to stop sending messages to young children — especially girls — that math is something to fear. Humans are actually hardwired to think mathematically, they say. Hear The Takeaway segment on the new Math Museum, and math anxiety.

A “bar exam” for teachers — something Gov. Cuomo said he supports — gets a closer look in a recent NPR story in which Randi Weingarten, Arthur Levine, and others say a national certification test could raise the standards of the profession.

Despite the public exchange of barbs and insults, the Bloomberg administration and teachers’ and principals’ unions said they are planning to meet this week to talk about teacher evaluations. One key issue on the table: how to provide meaningful training to principals and teachers in time to implement a new system by September.

A school principal sings the praises of one teacher training program, the urban teacher residency, arguing it should serve as a model for a statewide teacher training system.

It would be unsurprising if this parochial school had a poor academic track record. None of the teachers went to college. All the students speak Yiddish as their first language. The vast majority of the students are extremely poor. Yet for the past decade the principal has coaxed excellence out of both students and teachers.

The principal of the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn argues that any new teacher evaluation system needs to include training and not merely rely on student scores.

An active parent argues that as long as teaching strategies and curricula stay the same, the lofty goals of the Common Core State Standards will not be met.

Schoolbook contributor Arthur Goldstein’s acerbic commentary on facing a new innovation at the start of every school year apparently is shared by many in the teaching profession. Teachers from all over the country echoed his frustration in an outpouring of online comments, and they are still streaming in.

One teacher is weary – and wary – of the annual presentation of new ideas.