Holding Principals Accountable

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

“Accountability” is a buzz-word that gets thrown around whenever people talk about education.  During this campaign, you are sure to hear about “fiscal accountability” and “holding teachers accountable.”  You might even hear about “holding students accountable,” too.  But what does this kind of jargon actually mean in terms of what the School Board can accomplish?

Of course the Board must be fiscally accountable, and as such all the schools must be, too.  That’s why I have developed a plan for “Proportional Cuts” - outlining a new vision for how to organize monetary workflows.

And of course teachers and students should be accountable.  But if you ever hear Board Members or candidates talk like this, what do they mean?  It is outside the scope of the Board to observe and evaluate the hundreds upon hundreds of teachers working in the district.  And how are Board Members supposed to hold kids accountable?  Personally administer tests to the thousands of kids in the district?  This jargon is exactly that:  fancy words meant to sound good while not offering substance.

Our district’s building principals, however, are a finite group of people.  It would be easily within the scope of the board for implementing, in conjunction with community input, simple systems for evaluating principals and holding them accountable for what happens in their buildings.

Most teachers are dedicated and hardworking scholars.  But every once in a while, for example, we may hear stories about bad teachers holding onto their jobs for too long.  Typically, people will do something vague like blame “the union.”

But no teacher should keep a job without satisfactory job evaluations from building principals.  This is just one example about why it is so important to engage our principals more directly and effectively.

The evaluation process should not be punitive, however.  Instead, the Board should set a review process that is constructive, providing opportunities for the kind of data-driven feedback that can provide a guide for helping principals bring our district to excellence.