navigating education
Accountability is double-edged sword
By Michael Miller WNC Parent columnist
“Accountability” is a buzz word that has driven public education policy for the last 20 years. As with many pieces of legislation, those that address accountability have been given names that paint a false promise to the general public. Names like “No Child Left Behind,” “Race to the Top” and now the “Excellent Public Schools Act” are all smoke screens for the average voting citizen. After all, who would want to leave any child behind? Who doesn’t want excellent public schools that “win” the race to the top? But, as with any legislation, it is important for parents to know how these laws impact their children where it counts; in
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the classroom. Unfortunately, all of the laws mentioned have aspects to them that have been detrimental to public education and the students it serves. There isn’t room here to get into specifics of current legislation, but if you’ve been paying attention to the news since last May, you have some idea of how such legislation isn’t necessarily creating “excellent” public schools. For most lawmakers, these are attempts at holding public schools accountable for how they use taxpayer funds. Since the 1990s, the yardstick by which the effectiveness of a given school is measured has been some form of standardized testing; All of this in the name of accountability. Now, don’t get me wrong. Schools and school personnel should be held accountable for quality instruction. You will find very few, if any, educators that would shun accountability. However, the approach that our state and federal government has taken
has created cultures in schools and school systems that have had unintended and harmful consequences. At no time has this been more apparent to me as through my transition from 15 years in the public school to the private school sector. During my time in the public schools, both as a teacher and administrator, I witnessed what legislation based on accountability has done to our schools and students. It has created a culture of fear in which schools are often paralyzed in making the right decisions for their students because they have to check with any number of “higher ups” in case the results don’t go as planned. Those “higher ups” are often driven by “accountability” and are too afraid to take the risk of allowing a school or individual teacher to take a risk for the benefit of the student. In the private sector, we are accountable to our parents. If we are doing a poor job educating their children, they
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