Education Quagmire

The Seattle teachers' union posed the following question in a survey to candidates in the recent school board election. The answers of the winning candidates (recently inaugurated to the board) follow.

What does accountability mean for teachers? For superintendents? For school board members?

Irene Stewart:

For all three, accountability means saying what you’re going to do, doing it, and then reporting the results of what you did and what you’re going to do in the future. All of the information must be accurate, and if any step is missing then accountability is lacking.

Brita Butler-Wall:

For anyone, accountability means walking the talk--ensuring that your actions are in alignment with your words. Within the district, it means having mechanisms so that those we interface with can help us in this effort. Our 'critical friends' are very valuable to us but are not always perceived this way by the current Board.

Darlene Flynn:

· Agreement with stakeholders about goals and outcomes to be measured
· Development of a strategic plan to get there
· Alignment of resources and implementation of plan
· Collection of feedback on the effectiveness of the plan implementation
· Adjustments to the plan as needed to improve outcomes

Public education is the only sector of the American economy where "accountability" is defined as "permission to fail without consequences".

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 10, 2003 07:00 AM