Peer Pressure

By David Ruenzel

For scores of teachers in Toledo, April is the month of reckoning. They are nearing the end of a controversial process known as peer review, a form of teacher evaluation born in this northern Ohio district in 1981. For six months, they have been under the scrutiny and tutelage of colleagues handpicked by the district. These so-called "consulting teachers" have observed their classes, questioned their habits, probed their weaknesses, and in some cases, befriended them.

Now, on this Monday morning, the day of judgment has arrived. In an undersized conference room lined with folding chairs, the consulting teachers step before a nine-member board of review and state whether their charges are fit to be teachers. In the typically colorless world of public school bureaucracy, this moment qualifies as high drama. Careers hang in the balance: If the consulting teacher recommends dismissing someone, termination almost always follows. Though the teachers and administrators who make up the board can choose to ignore a consulting teacher's advice, they never have.

Today, most of the testimony features happy stories and good teachers. One of the teachers discussed takes such an interest in her kids and their learning that she's compared to Karen Valentine, the oh-so-eager teacher from the long- ago TV series Room 222 . Another commands such respect from his kids that his system of rules and...