The U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, recently wrote about school reform in America’s schools in a piece titled “School Reform Means Doing What’s Best for Kids”. Duncan discussed that “we need a culture of accountability in America’s education system if we want to be the best in the world”. He also points out that many high school graduates across the country are not ready to enter the real world, whether that is getting a college education or getting a job, and demand for change by business leaders and elected officials is inevitable. Parents will demand better options for their children when they realize their schools are not getting the job done. Teachers will hold each other more accountable when they are evaluated and shown to be doing or not doing their job to the best of their ability. Institutions will be held responsible for producing highly qualified educators that can help transform our school system. Students should not be the only ones held accountable for their education. Teachers and administrators play a vital role in the educational system and should be held responsible for the education of their students.
In any situation, the quality of work is always increased when you are held accountable. Think about the math homework that your teacher asked you to do in middle school, knowing that it would not be collected for a grade. Did you focus on it the same way you did on a graded test? Did you complete the homework at all? In most cases, probably not. There was no accountability and therefore no motivation to complete it. If more educators were truly held accountable for their performance in the classroom, it is highly likely that the quality of our education programs would increase. The bottom line is that educators are preparing students to be the “leaders of tomorrow” and we can not afford to give them a half-hearted education due to lack of accountability.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I agree accountability is the necessary change we need to improve our education system. Being held accountable, unfortunately in many cases alters the quality and effort one puts forth in their work. Society is becoming less accountable, in essence, a blame game. Everyone wants to blame someone else who wants to blame someone else. It appears the area of teaching isn’t any different. I can recall hearing teachers on several occasions state if they don’t reach a particular concept in one grade that the student will get it next year, nonchalantly. The teacher is unaware if the teacher next year will cover the subject or take the same approach she did, putting it on the next teacher. This idea however, never seems to concern them, the students are out of their class and “someone else’s” responsibility. As teachers, the students should be our main concern whether they are within our classroom or not. If this teacher was held accountable I’m sure her approach would be significantly different. The students would receive the education they deserve and are entitled to resulting in a better education system. Superintendents, school officials, principals, and most importantly teachers must be held accountable for the quality education our students receive.
I also agree that teacher/school official accountability is one part of the change that we need. However, I also believe that we need more accountability on the part of the children's parents. Many parents today either do not discipline their children or they actually model bad behavior for their children to repeat. A teacher can send a child home with homework but if there is no supervision at home that child is more likely than the next child to not complete that assignment. In my opinion, accountability starts in the home and unfortunately it seems that we are seeing less and less responsible parents these days. In some of our education classes we were told that the biggest factor that helps a child to succeed in school is parent participation. That is also what I believe.
Nora Stewart-Ricks
I agree with you, Nora. Accountability begins at home. In many cases, much of the burden of accountability falls entirely on the shoulders of the teacher. A teacher can only do so much. I also agree with Stacy. I think much of the time, their is a blame game. It is easy for society to blame the education system for what is happening in our society. Maybe in some cases we need to begin to say that what we are teaching at school needs to be taught at home. In school, children are being taught character words and about how to be a good citizen but if parents are not modeling this type of behavior, then their children may feel as if that is something that is not important. We have been talking about "change from the inside". I suppose parents could be considered the outside but what they teach their children becomes part of what is inside the child and the child is part of that "inside" where change is supposed to come from.
I agree with you guys. Accountability is necessary for change in our education systm. Playing the blame game gets you no where and is not productive at all. Parents do need to take greater responsibility in the education of their child. I also believe that accountability should begins with the parents at home. People talk about all the problems with the youth of today. I feel that the children are just modeling the behaviors that they see. Teachers can be good role models and be good influences, but it is going to take parent support to make a lasting change.
Post a Comment