The Real Problem Regarding Teacher Accountability

For the past two decades, the standard and accountability for teacher led instructions, also known as teacher accountability, have dominated the political discourse in the United States. This movement, sparked immediately from President Bush’s No Child Left Behind act, adheres to three common principles: The first holds to the improvement and national standard for academic structure or what is required for student learning. The second is the focus on analytical and statistical tracking of student growth and data, often measured by statewide examinations. And finally the third, which looks deeply the educator’s tactics and teacher, led instructions for both student engagement and student success.

On the face of it, these three principles seem relatively logical and well intentioned for the betterment of education equity. However, like any perfect plan, there are always changes and flaws during the process. The idea of keeping teachers and students alike for unrealistic expectations has driven our education system down a incredibly misguided and unintended path. This problem has even escalated in which teacher retention rates have continued to decrease year after year where reportedly more than 50% of new educators are said to leave the classroom before their five-year mark. With this type of fluctuation and lack of consistency, we have to ask our selves if what we are doing for our educators and our children is the right thing for their futures.

When it comes down to it, the problems merely are not the standards themselves. Rather it is the teacher accountability associated with the standards. Yes, there is a specific spectrum in which teachers should be evaluated. But can we truly put the initial blame on educators who go above and beyond for our students? Are they the reasons why our education system is failing? The answer here is simple. It is NO. They are not the reason. Yes they have an impact, but the overall concept of putting them at fault for an almost impossible task is something we need to grasp as a nation.

At times, educators, and even students, have viewed the word accountability to be synonymous for the phrase “do work.” This type of negative connotation, over worked, and under appreciated phrase that “accountability” has is what is leading to the exit of both new and veteran teachers. This problem escalades quickly with disrupted systems, lack of cohesion, and long-term negative effects on both the schools and their students.

So what is teacher accountability? Why does this play a large role in their work?

Teacher accountability, by definition, is when educators are committed to provide quality programs and welcome accountable lessons that are strategic, effective, and achievable in producing meaningful results. With the new national Common Core State Standards, teacher accountability has changed. While there is some merit to the new standards such as stronger executed lessons, the overall concept and judgmental critiquing overlooks the natural and organic student engagement with these common core academic models. Many educators argue that the standards and new curriculum is merely to teach for the test than to teach for the student.

While I unequivocally agree that teachers must take partial responsibility for their student’s achievement, we also need to be aware that there are other external factors at play. Teachers oftentimes do not have any control on the lack of resources or unrealistic timing and expectation that is asked from them day-in and day-out. This burden from the local media and the national political agendas have distorted this problem to be solely about the teacher, when in reality factors such as poverty, community, the entire education system, and much more all play a part is our student’s success. When these factors do play a role, everyone seems to take a blind eye by the surrounding elements and look for a quick and easy escape goat.

To alleviate this problem, we need to move away from the blame game and look at the impacting problems educators go through each and every day with their students. While we cannot deny that we will be faced with some individuals who have taken a backseat to the field as a whole, we also need to recognize that a vast majority of teachers are in the classrooms from 6 am to 5 pm preparing, teaching, and aiding our future leaders. What we as a nation and as a whole need to do is that we have to be realistic about the problems. These problems cannot be solved simply with a new agenda or a new representative. Rather, it needs dedicated and invested individuals who are willing to put the time and effort in making this a tangible goal.