My dad is in his second year teaching regular Algebra 2 in HS. He sees a wide variety of kids come through, of those who just dont care, and would rather do drugs during the lunch period, the kids who havent learned basic concepts from previous math classes and dont care, and those who genuinely try.
His first year he would help those kids on the bottom end of the spectrum who did not want to be there at all, helping to brute force their way through. It was beyond time consuming, this year he comes in at 0630 and leaves at 1830-1930, he stays for the kids that want to try and learn.
Having helped grade his tests, it is rather scary the basic concepts which are not understood by the students.
In this realm it is a two way street with the teacher and student, my dad is willing to help these kids out and those willing to seek out help he will go to lengths to make sure they understand, other teachers he work with come in at the last minute and leave as soon as class is over.
It is also student's attitudes, which after talking to some former teachers at my HS it has just gotten worse over the years. I was in uniform for a presentation to the career department and went over to see an old teacher and a kid asked if i was in a costume.....
Another example is the benchmark. My dad has been teaching two years and his students have been scoring higher on the benchmark than a teacher who has been at it for 25 years.
The Administration.... a big problem. It is the design course structure which is really putting the handcuffs on teachers. They are having to teach 2 concepts in one class period, which leaves little time to go over questions from the previous lesson, as well as answer questions related to the lesson being taught, and also having to pick up the slack for concepts not taught to the students previously.
Also having the schools worry about the benchmarks leaves the teachers in a rut of to teach the concepts or to teach the benchmark.
And finally... an email was sent at the end of the last school year from the admin saying that all teachers will pass all ESL students no matter what their grade.
As skim said, you can have bad and good teachers, but it really comes down to the students and the admin. Students not caring, but teachers willing to help, and the admin putting handcuffs on the ability of teachers to use class time effectively.