Week 13: Accountability



Increased accountability measures from various levels of government imposed on schools has led to the deprofessionalization of teaching. The education field is more focused on outcomes rather than process. Students, teachers, and even entire schools are evaluated on a moment in time rather than evidence of progress.

Teaching has become less about pedagogy and cultivating lessons to build critical thinkers. Curriculum has been doled out factory-style by textbook companies and education management companies. The teacher talent pool is shrinking for a multitude of reasons, and now it’s not uncommon to find a teacher without certification leading a classroom.

How did accountability get us here?

To be clear, I’m not arguing that accountability should not exist in education. Rather, that accountability should look differently in the education landscape.

Alfie Kohn writes “In the Case Against Grades”, “collecting information doesn't require tests, and sharing that information doesn't require grades.” Accountability has been reduced to quantitative metrics, reducing student matriculation to arbitrary numerical guides of understanding. I’m usually not a fan of old studies, but I find little to dispute with the findings of 1980s and 90s education pyschological studies. They’re clusions are:
  • Grades tend to diminish student interest in the material - students are motivated by not failing rather than the thrill of picking up a new concept. Grades have changed how students engage with materials.
  • Grades preference the easiest possible tasks - grades reduce intellectual risk. It forces students to confine to a rubric to do well. Talk about killing creativity on the part of the students.
  • Grades reduce the quality of thinking - “is this going to be on the test?” a question a veteran teacher is all too familiar with. Students are only concerned with material that will impact their grade.
Student achievement has been reduced to what can be done well according to some goal set by some outside force. Usually it's workforce development, and for public schools in low income communities of color it's low skilled work that requires no creativity or critical thinking. Yet, in a tight labor market, companies demand those skills. No one wins.

How did accountability get us to the deprofessionalization of teachers? Accountability became strongly linked with high stakes standardized testing, curriculum development that left a lane wide open for textbook companies, then anyone can teach and implement a curriculum, unions and school districts are at odds and veteran teachers are being replaced by temporary unqualified teachers. Trickle down accountability tactics.

Education is tied to humanity. It’s not a product like a chair, where there is one outcome, the ability to hold the person sitting in it. Humanity is complex and requires the next generation to operate within it and that requires creativity, risk taking and critical thinking. Skills that are not developed in this current education landscape buried in accountability reforms.






Do you agree? Did I make some logical jumps to reach my desired conclusion?


Am I being to hard on young teachers coming from programs like TFA?


Would Diane Ravitch be proud?

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