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A few words on accountability.
January 14, 2006
When a student graduates from high school, yet cannot read, the question is "how did this happen?" Usually the response from the educational community is to shrug their collective shoulders and say, "We have no idea, but it's worthy of study."This apparently is quite an imponderable, for kids have been graduating for years without basic skills (or maybe they have basic skills but little else), and there doesn't seem to be any consensus on how or why it happens.
The usual suspects are trotted out: the parents are uninvolved, or the home is broken, or the neighborhood is poor, or the kid is unmotivated. Or maybe the fault lies with the school, but then the blame shifts to lack of funds and large class sizes. In rare cases teachers are included in the realm of possibility, but then the diagnosis is usually a fumble: proclamations for "highly qualified" teachers take no account of a teacher's ability to teach.
Sometimes superintendents get so disgusted at student failure that they institute high-stakes testing programs, but it is often too late.
High stakes testing (such as an exit exam which must be passed to earn a diploma) can be useful if the school system is doing its level best. But what if it's not? What if Johnny simply isn't being taught well? This means the magnifying glass needs to shift away from external unchangables (like Johnny's homelife, or the school budget), and focus on the actual day-to-day teaching.
This means examining teachers, but apparently this is impossible. A student simply interacts with too many teachers in his school career for anyone to be able to determine exactly why Johnny can't read or do math, or so the assumption goes.
Failure in the Real World: When a bridge fails, there is an investigation into the circumstances so that it can be prevented in the future. Possible reasons are poor design, substandard construction, shoddy maintenance, and exceeding design specifications, just to name a few. Even if a bridge fails in spectacular fashion (such as the Tacoma Narrows' Galloping Gertie), an analysis can be performed to figure out exactly why.Even plane crashes, which usually destroy most of the evidence that could help investigators, can be examined in detail. In the majority of cases, there's a clear determination of the cause. When the cause is a design flaw, the design is changed. When it's pilot error, training is improved (and often pilot training specifically addresses scenarios which can lead to disaster).
In no case is failure tolerated or left unexamined.
But Schools Are Different: Examining failure is not so simple with education. For starters, what a teacher does on a given day, in a given lesson, is not cut-and-dried. Contrast this with measuring the ability of a steel beam to resist torsion, or the temperature and pressure at which jet fuel becomes a conflagration.
In addition to the teaching-as-art aspect of the profession, there's also the problem of human interaction. As we mentioned above, by the time a student graduates, he's come into contact with so many teachers and support personnel that it would be impossible to place blame if Johnny can't read or do math.
For example, say Johnny graduates without the ability to manipulate fractions. Sure, the high school's giving him a diploma, but you can't exactly blame his 9th grade Algebra teacher, his 10th grade Geometry teacher, or his 11th grade Algebra II/Trig teacher, can you? Teaching fractions isn't covered in any of those courses.
So what we have is one of those mysteries that looks like it may never be solved. Too many variables, too many unmeasurables and intangibles.
Schools are No Different: The preceding four paragraphs were a defense of the status quo, and we don't believe them for a second. Sure, they have elements of the truth, but they gloss over the important parts, concealing the cold reality: accountability for failure is possible with schools.
If Johnny was never taught fractions, what did Johnny do in 4th grade math? Who was his math teacher and why was Johnny passed on to the next grade? If Suzie has only 6th grade skills, but is a sophomore in high school, why was she promoted repeatedly above her level of scholarship? Who were the principals of the schools which permitted that?
Schools can claim "we have no idea how that happened" but this is really a lazy way of saying "we haven't paid any attention." Being that education is a process that is people-centric (as opposed to an engineering analysis of structures and forces), this means we need to examine people.
There is a Better Way: The solution is a universal system of standardized testing, which we call ATESLA: Annual Testing for Every Student, with Longitudinal Analysis, (which we've discussed before). Simply stated, instead of having several widely-spaced standardized tests, some of which are "high stakes," test every kid every year, so that there is no excuse for not knowing that failure exists. Longitudinal analysis will permit measurement of the year-to-year growth of student skills.
In addition to universal testing, the names of a student's teachers, along with subjects taught, need to be part of a student's record. This is extremely controversial, tying teachers' names with student records. Real accountability, down to the level of individual teachers, is simply not done in today's big-city school districts, which can depend on the sheer size of the district to provide a level of anonymity for teachers.
For example, American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino, who dropped out of school after 9th grade, revealed that she's functionally illiterate. Sure, she didn't graduate from high school, but what we want to know is who taught her in Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade, along with all the rest of her teachers who promoted her every year without teaching her to read.
These teachers have names, along with their principal.
You want accountability? Measure students every year, and start taking names.
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Great article. I have a couple of of questions --
Our district for years has tested second graders through either graders and several years ago we add three end of course exams (English II, Algebra I and Biology). NCLB through last school year only required reporting on grades 3, 5 and 8 and English and Algebra in high school.
Tennessee is also the home of value added testing. It is called TVASS. Is this the type of testing you are recommending? I know several states have other versions since the TVASS depends upon its creator to be interpretted.
Anyway, great idea to link the teachers with the students. I firmly believe teachers need to be held accountable. Value added testing might be the basis for building a program that does this.
Great articles -- I read the link on the testing format, too.
Elizabeth January 15, 2006 06:41 AMElizabeth, thanks for your kind comments. You are correct in saying that No Child Left Behind didn't require testing every child every year up to last year, but the point isn't what's required by federal law, it should be common sense in every under-performing school and school district (and state) in the country. The Feds shouldn't have to mandate good data gathering by school districts.
The Tennessee system sounds like it's what I'm talking about, but I'll have to look into the details. But basically the concept of "value-added" is one that should be especially useful for schools (especially middle and high schools) which serve at-risk populations. When you serve students that might already have a poor education, it is useful to see how much value you're adding.
chett January 18, 2006 04:54 AMGood grief, what makes anyone think that a teacher is accountable for such things as promotion? If a student finishes 3rd grade with no reading skills, a problem may well be their teachers, but the real problem is the principals who allowed incompetent teaching. And don't give me that old canard about bad teachers being impossible to fire. Most teachers don't belong to unions, and competent principals fire bad teachers every day. Incompetent principals don't,
Ultimately, the worst problem is the school boards and administrators who not only allow, but actively promote social promotion for students who are essentially illiterate.
And what about parents who have no idea their child is illiterate? Are they potted plants?
Putting the onus on the teachers is insane. They are the people in the system to whom no one listens, they have no power to hire or fire, no decision making powers, and no abilities to effect their working conditions. Yet, we blame them for these problems. Not terribly rational.
Mike January 18, 2006 09:33 PM"And what about parents who have no idea their child is illiterate? Are they potted plants?"
Not that I'm giving parents a pass here but my own daughter was believed to be well above average in reading when just in the first grade. Her teacher sent the books home and I taught her to read as the teacher instructed, by method of memorization. The fact that I read with her every single night as suggested only helped cover the fact that she wasn't even really memorizing the words by sight but the stories themselves.
I learned of her illiteracy in the face of much opposition when I decided to introduce some books that I chose for her from the library myself. Her teacher not only did not appreciate my "confusing" the situation by selecting books myself (that she hadn't had an opportunity to completely memorize) but continued to defend the method of memorization (and passing students who can't read on in hopes that they'll eventually pick it up) even as I attempted to use methods that are tried and true because they conflicted with her own. I received letters complaining about how I taught in my own home even though she really was quickly becoming one of the best readers in her class. It would seem that waiting on a child to "sound it out" took too long and just immediately spitting the story out was better even if she really wasn't reading and couldn't recognize the very same words in a different book because that was faster. She also assured me that not only was it ok that nothing my daughter wrote made any sense at all but I would only hinder her love of writing by trying to teach her to string a few letters together in a mannner that actually made sense.
This was one of the best teachers, in my opinion. A real sweet lady who I really liked. I sure wasn't going to let my daughter's education be sent to hell in order to not offend her though.
Yeah, I now homeschool. And my daughter's been on an adult reading level so many years that even I am tired of bragging about it. Still, I must mention that she was said to be learning disabled right after I insisted her illiteracy be documented and is now in the 97th percentile according to standardized tests.
My point is, if the methods aren't working and a majority of teachers continue to defend this (along with everything else under the sun that isn't exactly conducive to a good education) then yes, they must be held accountable for that.
I think Chett is a terrific example of what change could really be brought about when one does not automatically make excuses. I have two more children nearly school age, give me some teachers who don't insist on the status quo and I'd consider public education an option. I'm certainly not going to sacrifice their futures, to twist the knife of ridiculousness, to a group of people who then choose to call me "a potted plant" and insinuate that I'm somehow to blame for the educational failures after I've entrusted them with something as important as my child's education.
It's just too much...
The only thing that needs to be reformed in education is where the responsibility lies. In our current system schools and teachers are under pressure to prove that students are learning or improving. This alone makes public education one of the worst institutions in the world. What we need to do is find a way to make students accountable for their own education. As long as state tests are just a reflection on the school, the data is meaningless. Tests like the CSAPs are a huge waste of money.
Chris Flynn March 6, 2006 02:03 PM