Each school district in New York must evaluate teachers on a scale of “ineffective” to “highly effective,” with ineffective ratings two years in a row being grounds for firing. This is thanks to a 2010 law that allowed New York to win $700 million in the federal grant competition, Race to the Top.

According to the law, 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on standardized tests and “rigorous, comparable” measures of student performance, with the other 60 percent based on subjective measures, such as the assessment of a principal.

It’s no stretch of the truth to say students in grade school are being ill-prepared for college work, as well as generally lacking what many would term “quality education.” But is testing such as this a real answer?

Students could simply flub the test to get back at teachers they didn’t like, for one. This is an extreme example, but not one outside the realm of possibility.

More likely, teachers will focus heavily on the material that appears on the exams. The students will essentially be tested for ability to prepare for an exam, rather than on an all-encompassing base of knowledge.

Maybe teachers will go above and beyond to help troubled students learn and progress. But more likely, quality teachers will find themselves forced to teach in a mechanical fashion, with creativity taking a back seat.

Given the state of education today, perhaps further standardizing grade school education is what must happen to prepare youth for the future. Maybe teacher evaluations will make teachers better.

But with this proposal, why not have a book published with exactly what must be taught to each and every student? Couldn’t each day be laid out to create an optimal learning environment?

Now that’s a scary idea.