Educate For A Change - Accountability for Teachers and Students

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EDUCATE FOR A CHANGE and ACCOUNTABILITY for TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

The “Educate For A Change” mandate embodies a simple and very effective accountability system. One component of the mandate yields all of the instructional program accountability our school system ever needs: the Proficiencies Profile.

The Proficiencies Profile replaces the traditional report card, and it becomes a permanent part of each student’s cumulative record. The Proficiencies Profile is a permanent record of each student’s progress through the sequence of competencies listed in the Standards of each discipline. Benchmark standards may be marked on the Profile as either being “Achieved” or “In–Progress.” Standards listed that have not been introduced have no designation.

One of the less obvious but most innovative aspects of the Proficiencies Profile is that in order for a Standard on the student’s profile to be marked “Achieved,” the teacher of record must in fact, “certify” that the student has indeed attained the objective, and that the student possesses the competency describe in the Standard.

Therein is the ultimate accountability system: when a teacher “certifies” that a student has met an educational benchmark goal, the teacher is now on record as stating that he has observed that the student has clearly demonstrated the possession of the knowledge, skill, or understanding required in the Standard.

If, after promotion to the next level of study, a student consistently fails to demonstrate the possession of a pre-requisite competency, it is appropriate that both the designated teacher of record and the student be called to account.

From an administrative standpoint, a lack of teacher competency can be easily determined if there is a consistent pattern of problems in “student assessment and benchmark certification.”

This implies that teachers who certify competencies of students must back up their assertions with hard-copy evidence of student abilities. This implies the necessity of student portfolios as long-term repositories of student work and quantitative data that clearly demonstrate that the student possesses the competency in question.

The portfolio becomes an unquestionable defense for a teacher who is called to account, but if portfolios consistently lack clear evidence of students' competencies, it should be sufficient grounds for administrative action.

If clear evidence of student achievement is on file, then the student must be called to account for the discrepancy. If the discrepancy is resulting in low or non-achievement in the current placement, the student and his family must decide if the student can catch up in the current placement, or if the student would benefit by being placed in the previous course of instruction. A student with only one specific discrepancy could probably catch up easily. A student with many discrepancies would probably benefit from being reassigned to the previous course.

When this kind of accountability is practiced as the norm, teachers and students will give due diligence to their respective responsibilities, and will work together cooperatively to reach objectives.

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