President's Perspective
360-degree accountability
Mar 27, 2008 4:47 PM
Accountability is the rallying cry in education these days. For some, demands for accountability are meant as a challenge to educators, especially unionized educators. Their assumption is that teachers don’t want to be held accountable.
That’s not true, of course. We are not afraid of being held accountable. The problem has always been the lack of an accurate, fair and transparent accountability system that takes into account all the aspects of good education.
The DOE’s School Progress Reports are a good example of the kind of accountability system that simply doesn’t meet that standard. Using complex statistical algorithms, it measures each school’s success and holds the school’s educators responsible for the results, without regard for all the contributing factors that are out of their control. And success is defined almost exclusively by students’ scores on two standardized tests. Then when the educators ask society — or even the district — to take some responsibility, they get charged with avoiding accountability.
In order to break this catch-22 cycle, and following the directive of our Delegate Assembly to try to come up with a better accountability system, I recently proposed a different way to evaluate schools — a way that’s just as rigorous but is much broader and holds everyone responsible. I think it reflects our values, the things we know (in one of my favorite expressions) make a school a place where educators want to work and parents want to send their children. It asks such questions as:
Is the school safe and orderly? Does it have a thoughtful, cohesive approach to student discipline? Is there a positive, collaborative environment for learning?
Are there adequate resources? Is there a rich instructional program that educates not just every child, but the whole child?
And yes, do the children meet academic standards and do they continue to make progress?
To reflect a fuller picture of the school, our proposed system awards not one grade but four, for Academic Achievement, Safety and Order, Teamwork for Student Achievement and DOE Accountability to the School. This more comprehensive assessment helps parents and staff identify areas that are strong and areas that need work — but areas that we know correlate with student achievement.
You can read more about our proposed system elsewhere in this newspaper or on our Web site at www.uft.org/news/issues/
press/accountability-system. Take a look at the prototype Accountability Report for your school’s level and see if we have captured the indicators you think are important.
But I want to focus here on just one aspect of those reports, perhaps the most controversial aspect: the DOE’s accountability to the school. After all, accountability flows both ways — from the school to Tweed, and from Tweed back to the school. Both must fulfill their complementary responsibilities to ensure that students learn and achieve.
Even in the current structure, which gives schools more autonomy, the Department of Education must exercise responsible oversight. And it must provide the resources a school needs to succeed.
Right now, it’s failing to do that.
That’s what more than 10,000 caring people, despite an unrelenting downpour, came out to say last Wednesday at City Hall. And say it they did, loudly and urgently. Students said it, elected officials said it, community and union leaders said it, parents said it and most of all UFT members said it. The turnout was phenomenal, in spite of the weather, and the folks inside heard the message clearly.
Even under normal circumstances, it is the city’s responsibility (a responsibility it shares with the state and, to a lesser extent, the federal government) to fund our schools adequately. In this case, that responsibility should rest even more heavily because the mayor agreed as part of last year’s CFE settlement to do so. In other words, he made a promise. And one of the things we teach our kids is to keep your promises.
What does it say when we break promises to our students? We can explain ad nauseam — how times are tough, how we’ll try to make it up to them. But what they hear is, “We don’t care about you enough to keep our promise.”
This promise meant a lot more than money. It meant smaller classes, better middle schools, more learning time, and more services for English Language Learners and kids who are falling behind. It meant safer schools and more protection from bullying and more guidance supports. It meant a chance for kids not just to dream their dreams but to realize them.
We’ve seen it happen before. Every time the fisc shrinks, kids get the short end of the stick. This time was supposed to be different. This time those in charge made a promise to safeguard the kids. Now they must be held accountable.
We understand that the fiscal joyride of the past few years is running out of gas. But promises are not only for when they are easy to keep. The true test of character is keeping your promises when it’s hard to do.
Sometimes that requires hard choices. So far, the chancellor has not been willing to make those choices. He hasn’t been willing to reconsider the no-bid contracts, the expensive consultants, the gargantuan computer systems meant to support the even more massive testing program. Sadly, he has not been the advocate the children need when times are tough.
We are holding the state accountable, too. Last month hundreds of UFT members went to Albany, again with parents, with the same message. There, the outlook was more heartening.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno vowed not to allow children to be hurt. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver went even further. He has introduced legislation to restore the promised school aid by adopting a modest, temporary tax increase for those who earn more than a million dollars a year.
It seems only fair that those who most reaped the benefits of the joyride should now help to protect schoolchildren from the damage. Without that protection, an $800 million cut — the current anticipated funding reduction — can do a lot of damage. What we have seen happen in our schools in recent weeks is only a small taste of what’s to come when those cutbacks are multiplied five or six times over.
It’s fine to say, “We’ll do better next year.” But our children cannot wait. They don’t get do-overs. They are not like Flat Harry, able to spring back in three dimension after being steamrolled.
They, too, deserve accountability, especially from those who are responsible for their futures.
