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Meeting the Accountability Challenge

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Accountability

Public expectations for the performance of schools and students havenever been higher, and educators are being held accountable for results.Recent initiatives, including the new Elementary and SecondaryEducation Act and Michigan’s new school accreditation framework,reflect the belief that strengthening accountability is the key toimprovement in the education system. The pressures on school districts,schools and teachers to increase student achievement are increasing bythe day. How should educators respond? The Education Policy Centerat Michigan State University has put together this handbook to helpschool board members, superintendents, principals, and teachers answerthis question.

Accountability is nothing new in education. Schools have always beenaccountable to their communities, and teachers have always beenaccountable to their students. What is new is the determined effort tohold schools and students accountable for meeting achievementstandards established by the state. The importance assigned to results onstandardized tests like MEAP has grown, and policies designed to holdeducators accountable for meeting state standards have proliferated.

Too often, policy debates about accountability have focused on thequestion of who is to blame for the poor performance of schools andstudents. Teachers? Principals? Superintendents? School boards? Thisis not helpful. No single group can be held responsible for the success orfailure of Michigan’s schools, and no single group can improve their

performance without the support of others. All actors—from theGovernor to the student in the classroom—are accountable forimproving the performance of Michigan’s education system. Politicians,business leaders, local communities, parents, administrators, teachers,and students must work together to help teachers help students learn.

The question that must be answered in thinking about accountability isnot “Who is to blame?” but “Who is accountable for what, and towhom?” This is a question that educators must answer for themselves,in dialogue with their colleagues and communities. This handbookprovides resources to support a constructive conversation aboutaccountability in Michigan’s schools and school districts.

In each of the chapters that follow, we emphasize that an effectiveaccountability system must have three key features. First, it must befocused on teaching and learning. Second, it must include bothpressure and support. Finally, it must elicit the understanding andacceptance of those who work within it. An accountability system thatdoes not incorporate these critical elements is destined to fail.

The first chapter of the handbook reviews the evolution of Michigan’spresent accountability system. Educational leaders and citizens in ourstate have been wrestling with the problem of holding schools

A Handbook for Michigan Educators

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accountable for more than three decades. We have made some progress,but the continued lack of shared vision and consistent direction meansthat we still have far to go.

Subsequent chapters discuss the accountability of school board members,superintendents, principals and teachers. The goal of these chapters isnot to assign or prescribe responsibilities. Instead, these chaptersprovide the basis for discussion within these groups about what they cando to improve the performance of schools and students in Michigan, andfor what they are prepared to be held accountable. Each chapter includesa series of questions that may help to guide this discussion, along with alist of additional resources for those who wish to learn more.

The handbook grows out of the work of Michigan’s Accountability TaskForce, which brought together leaders from all parts of Michigan’seducation system to develop a framework for accountability in our state.In the two reports published by the Accountability Task Force themembers committed themselves and the organizations and constituenciesthey represent to work together, and to hold themselves and one anotheraccountable for improving the performance of schools and students inMichigan.

For the work of the Accountability Task Force to result in lastingimprovements in Michigan’s education system, the conversations thatproduced these two reports must now be repeated in every school andschool district in Michigan. School board members, superintendents,principals and teachers have to work toward common understanding ofMichigan’s accountability system, and of their own responsibilities andexpectations within that system. We hope that this handbook willencourage and support these conversations, and contribute to thedevelopment of an effective accountability system for schools andstudents throughout our state.

The handbook was produced by the staff of the Education Policy Centerat Michigan State University, under the general direction of JeanniePatrick. Contributors included Courtney Bell, Joe Flynn, BettieLandauer-Menchik, Kwanghyun Lee, David Lustick, Andy Pass, LisaRay, Chris Reimann, Andrew Shouse, and Debbi Weimer. Thehandbook is a resource for local educators, and can be duplicated anddistributed freely. Additional copies are available at cost from theEducation Policy Center. The handbook is also available on the Center’swebsite, at www.epc.msu.edu.

David N. PlankDirector


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A History of Accountabilityin Michigan

Accountability and accountability systems are not new to Michigan’ssystem of public education. For more than 30 years, education leadersand elected officials have attempted to organize, manage and operatepublic schools more effectively, while at the same time demandingimprovements in the quality of teaching and learning in school systemsand in teacher preparation institutions across the state. Michigan’seducation accountability movement has evolved through a series oflegislative initiatives, promulgated rules and regulations, attorneygeneral opinions, and State Board of Education policies. Leadership andadvocacy from state officials and educators at all levels have helped

shape accountability in schools.

Most of the recent history of publiceducation in Michigan concerns theaccountability movement. The idea ofimproving accountability runs through aseries of state initiatives involvingstudent assessment, schoolimprovement plans, the development ofcommon education goals andprofessional development planning.Understanding the roots of thismovement can help educators putcurrent accountability efforts into ameaningful context.

Michigan’s Traditional Accountability SystemIn Michigan, public schools have traditionally been, and still are, heldaccountable in three major ways. Schools are democraticallyaccountable to local voters. If the residents of a school district aredissatisfied with the performance of their local schools, they can replacethe members of the elected school board. Public schools are also legallyaccountable for compliance with state and federal laws, ranging fromstate statutes governing the management of public funds to federalmandates such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Inaddition, educators who work in public schools are professionallyaccountable to their colleagues and to the norms and standards of theirprofession.

These three types of accountability have largely focused on issues ofschool management, not student academic performance. Performanceexpectations for public schools were traditionally decided at the locallevel. Some school boards set high standards for local schools andstudents, while others did not. The state did not directly intervene inthese decisions. Instead, the state held schools and school districtsaccountable for compliance with laws and regulations that ensuredminimum learning conditions for all students – for example, districts arerequired to employ licensed teachers, and to provide at least 186 days ofinstruction each year. However, a growing awareness of the importanceof education to Michigan’s economic future prompted business leaders


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to call for improved levels of performance. This led to efforts by stateeducation leaders and policy makers to articulate specific outcomes andexpectations for public schools and students.

Developing a Statewide Accountability ModelIn 1970, the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board ofEducation held a series of meetings throughout the state to “elicit theopinions and concerns of local educators and lay citizens” regarding aproposed set of common goals for Michigan education. Twenty-twogoals were ultimately adopted in 1971 “as statements of broad directionand general purpose for Michigan’s educational system.” Using theseCommon Goals of Michigan Education as a foundation, the State Boardof Education next initiated a process of public engagement to developperformance objectives and methods for assessing the state’s progress inmeeting these goals.

Throughout the 1970s, this policy framework evolved and becameknown as Michigan’s Six Step Accountability Model. The State Board ofEducation adopted this model as a guide for improving Michiganeducation. The Six Step Model was designed to provide policymakerswith more information with which to craft sound educational policy.One of the key components of the Six Step Accountability Model wasthe Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP). Initiated in1970 as a statewide diagnostic tool for classroom teachers, the MEAPwas originally referred to as “an educational health check for basicskills.” Over time, the MEAP evolved to a higher-level assessment thatbegan to look at specific learning outcomes.

The Shift in Performance AccountabilityMichigan’s Six Step Accountability Model was highly controversial. Itproduced heated debate at the state and local levels among educationofficials, district administrators, board members, classroom teachers andteacher unions. The new accountability model represented a sea change

in education policy in Michigan because it challenged the sovereignty oflocal district control. At the same time, new sources of state and federalfunds targeting specific education issues at the district and building levelbecame available. This shift in funding was an important step awayfrom the local funding for schools that had been the basis for localautonomy.

In the late 1970s the State Board of Education revisited The CommonGoals of Michigan Education and, following extensive public input,adopted a new set of goals in 1979. This new framework reorganized theCommon Goals into two areas: Student Learning and System

Responsibilities. The revisedCommon Goals incorporatedstatements “which describecharacteristics of a quality educationsystem.” Local boards of educationwere “encouraged to utilize thisdocument in developing theireducational goals and policies, andin implementing instructionalprograms.”

In the broader social context, thistime is remembered as a period ofpolitical activism, public debate,

economic change, rapidly growing school enrollments, intensivecollective bargaining relationships and changing expectations for allpublic institutions. Advocacy groups pushed for greater educationalequity and special education and bilingual education initiatives wereintroduced. The accountability movement matured in Michiganthroughout the late 1970’s and 1980’s as educational leaders engaged thepublic in discussions about the future of education in the state andnation. In the early 1980’s the US Secretary of Education published a


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report titled A Nation at Risk, which received wide national attention.The State Board of Education responded with its report, BetterEducation for Michigan Citizens: A Blueprint for Action. The Michiganreport contained recommendations for local and intermediate schooldistricts, the Governor and the Legislature, and institutions of highereducation. The Blueprint for Action reinforced the concept of systemiceducation reform, discussed the components of a quality education, andcontinued to raise expectations for school improvement.

Accountability in the 1990s: PA 25 andSchools of ChoiceThe shift toward statewide performance accountability continued duringthe 1990s. The approval of Public Act 25 in 1990 marked the firstcritical step toward a comprehensive framework for standards basedaccountability in Michigan’s public schools. Then, in 1996, theMichigan Legislature introduced market accountability into the publicschool system through the establishment of charter schools and anexpansion of school choice policies. Choice policies are intended tomake schools more directlyaccountable to the consumersof education, the parents andstudents. Rather than waitingfor the next school boardelection to express theirdissatisfaction, students inmany parts of Michigan cannow move from one publicschool to another, taking theirstate funds with them. Schoolsthat do not meet theexpectations of parents losestudents and revenues.

The key elements of the original Public Act 25 framework included:· School Improvement. Schools are required to develop school

improvement plans, create school improvement teams includingparents and teachers to implement their plans, and to measureprogress toward achievement of plan objectives.

· Core Curriculum. The state established a model core curricu-lum, and proposed learning outcomes for all students. Localschool districts are encouraged to align their curricula with thestate’s core curriculum, and to notify district residents if thecurriculum is not aligned.

· Accreditation. Schools are regularly evaluated on the basis oftheir curricula, staffing, and facilities, and on their compliancewith the requirements of the school improvement process.

· Annual Education Report. All schools are required to publishan annual report providing information to parents and commu-nity members on student achievement, parent participation,accreditation status, and other factors related to the implementa-tion of the school improvement plan. They are also required tohold a public meeting to review the report.

With its emphasis on school improvement and parent participation, PA25 marked a decisive move by state policymakers beyond simplecompliance with minimum standards of time, staffing, and facilities as abasis for holding public schools accountable. PA 25 held schoolsaccountable for developing and participating in a continuous process ofschool improvement that included opportunities for parent andcommunity involvement.

Linking Accountability to AccreditationThe main problem with the accountability framework originally definedby PA 25 was the absence of any mechanism for assessing whether theschool improvement process defined by the law was effective. Did


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schools that participated in mandated school improvement activitiesactually improve? Answering this question required a mechanism forassessing the performance of students, schools, and school districts.

A first move to fill the gap in the PA 25 accountability framework camein 1995 when the Legislature amended the law to require that decisionsabout accreditation of schools take pupil performance on the MichiganEducational Assessment Program (MEAP) tests into account. Forpurposes of accreditation, the MEAP tests are intended to measure theextent to which students have mastered state-defined standards ofknowledge and skill. Aggregated results of the tests also provide ameasure of schools’ and school districts’ success in delivering the corecurriculum and raising student performance to state-defined standards.The MEAP lies at the heart of standards-based accountability inMichigan today.

Accountability Today and TomorrowAs Michigan moves from an economy based on farming andmanufacturing to one increasingly based on information, successdepends on the knowledge and skills of the state’s workers. Publicexpectations about what students should know and be able to do arerising. We now expect our public school system to ensure that allstudents have the high-level reading, math, and critical thinking skillsthat they will need to perform effectively in the new economy. Asexpectations for public schools have increased, key stakeholdersincluding employers have argued that traditional accountabilitymechanisms (democratic, legal, professional) do not hold Michigan’spublic schools to a sufficiently high standard of performance.In December 2001 the Michigan Department of Education announcedthe Education Yes! A Yardstick for Excellent Schools initiative.Incorporating public and professional organization input and the 2002federal “No Child Left Behind” reauthorization of the Elementary andSecondary Education Act, the Education Yes! initiative clearly brings

accountability to the center stage of state education policy. As its“yardstick” metaphor suggests, Education Yes! focuses on establishingcommon standards for measuring student and school performance andreporting results to parents and policymakers. It calls for continuousimprovement in all schools, especially in schools where currentperformance is unsatisfactory.

The Education Yes! accountability initiative reflects the history ofaccountability in Michigan and points toward its future. Traditionalmeasures of accountability based on minimum thresholds of institutionalbehavior – number of days in instruction and employment of certifiedteachers – have been superseded by ambitious goals for student andschool achievement. The future of public education in Michiganincludes a new seriousness about measuring and reporting outcomes,supporting schools and districts that need help and sanctioning those thatfail to respond. It will be essential for teachers, administrators andschool board members to understand what our state’s accountabilitypolicies require of them, and how they can best meet theirresponsibilities.

SourcesThe Common Goals of Michigan Education, Michigan Department ofEducation, September 1971.

The Common Goals of Michigan Education, Michigan Department ofEducation, May 1980.

Education Yes! A Yardstick for Excellent Schools, MichiganDepartment of Education, February 2002. This report is available on lineat: http://www.state.mi.us/mde/off/board/news/educationyesstds.pdf


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Implications for School Boards

Part I: An Overview

Any discussion about increasing the accountability of public schooldistricts might seem odd, ironic or simply frustrating to veteran schoolboard members. School boards are already accountable to state andfederal agencies in many ways. They areresponsible for maintaining balanced budgets,providing special and compensatory educationservices, complying with gender, race anddisability anti-discrimination statutes, andinsuring that their facilities meet state and local

fire, healthand safetycodes.

Nevertheless,it is true thata new type of accountability is nowbeing required of school boards andthe districts they govern. Schoolboards must now be accountable forstudent performance, to be measuredin very specific ways – most

significantly the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP).Other chapters in this handbook discuss the impact of accountability onteachers, principals and superintendents. Each chapter presents three

ways of looking at accountability – as anopportunity for teaching and learning, as a sourceof pressure and support, and as a growing realityrequiring understanding and acceptance on theparts of educators. These ideas can help thepeople in those jobs make accountability workfor them, not against them.

The purpose of this chapter is to help schoolboard members apply these same perspectives onaccountability to their own situations and

responsibilities. The chapter includes questions to prompt discussionamong board members, and a list of references for more information onthe issues raised.

A new type of accountability is nowbeing required of school boards and the

districts they govern. School boardsmust now be accountable for studentperformance, to be measured in very

specific ways.


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Using Teaching and Learning to Improve DistrictAccountabilitySchool boards have always been accountable for student academicperformance; what has changed is the type of accountability required ofschool boards. In the past, a school board responded primarily to itsdistrict’s internal accountability systems – that is, to the people withinthe local community, whether parents, district personnel or local citizens.

Now school boards must respond toan additional, external accountabilitysystem that includes the entire state.With a state economy increasinglydependent upon skilled andknowledgeable workers, and with aschool funding system based on staterevenues rather than on local propertytaxes, all citizens in Michigan nowhave a stake in the preparation ofevery student in every district.

Even with this external accountabilitysystem in place, the local schoolboard is still responsible for ensuringthat the district has an educationalvision and mission in place , and for

overseeing the enactment of that vision and the achievement of itsmission. Issues of enrollment, staffing, facilities and many othersconfront school boards in as many variations as there are districts.Adding student performance to this mix might seem like adding anadditional challenge to an already crowded agenda.

The ideas presented in this handbook, however, encourage boardmembers to look upon accountability as a solution, not a problem.Specifically, improved student performance can serve as a board

member’s moral andstrategic compass innavigating other issuesfacing the board by focusingattention on the question,“How does this issue relateto improved teaching andlearning?” This approachmay not make boarddecisions on difficult issuesany easier, but makingteaching and learning thecentral question on any issuecan lead to better boarddecisions in terms of whatmatters most.

Using Pressure and Support to MeetAccountability GoalsThe virtue of accountability as a concept is its reasonableness: fewwould argue that school districts should be less accountable for studentachievement. The hard part, of course, is translating the concept ofaccountability into practice. The state has identified particularaccountability goals and a strategy for measuring progress toward them –the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP). The EducationYES! process for school accreditation recently adopted by the StateBoard of Education includes many other measures of schoolperformance and student success; still, two-thirds of a school’saccreditation rating is directly linked to the MEAP.

Improved studentperformance can serveas a board member’smoral and strategic

compass in navigatingother issues facing theboard by focusing onthe question, “How

does this issue relate toimproved teaching and

learning?”


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The goals outlined in the Education YES! Process give districts and theiremployees direction and create pressure for everyone to work towardsthem. Pressure is good when it prompts progress toward district andstate goals; to be effective, however, pressure must be combined withsupport that provides district personnel with the capacity to reachaccountability goals. They need the proper curricular materials as wellas sufficient training in the kinds of practices that lead to improvedoutcomes. They need parents and community members to supportdistrict accountability goals and the changes prompted by them. Schoolboards need to prepare all parties for the unavoidable “bumps in theroad” that accompany shifts in policies and practices. Without thesekinds of support, pressure produces stress instead of progress.

Using Understanding and Acceptance toImprove District AccountabilityAchieving any policy goal depends upon widespread understanding andacceptance of the policy by those responsible for implementing it.Simply put, people (such as school personnel) are unlikely to dosomething well if they do not understand it or if they disagree with it. Atthe same time, policymakers (such as legislators) need to understandsomething of the perspectives of those “in the trenches” whose job it isto carry out policy. They need to accept the fact that other peoplenecessarily interpret even the clearest of policies through the lenses oftheir own experiences. This means that an important function of adistrict school board is to provide the continuous, two-way

communication necessary for district personnel to understand what isexpected of them and for policymakers to understand the impact of theirdecisions on the people who are expected to carry them out.

Part II: The Specifics of School BoardAccountability

Only in the context of actual school district operations doesaccountability have any real meaning or value. Still, all school boardsshare some common responsibilities,and the three concepts introduced inPart I can help school board membersmeet them. To be successful – and tosuccessfully meet state accountabilitygoals – school board members mustprovide their districts with three typesof leadership: instructionalleadership, organizational leadership,and public leadership. The rest ofthis chapter will suggest ways thatschool board members can improvetheir leadership in these areas.

Instructional LeadershipAsking school board members toprovide instructional leadership may seem counter-intuitive. After all,they are not professional educators, but community representativeselected to oversee the operation of the school district. Still, the mostimportant responsibility a school board has is to hire and holdaccountable the district’s top educator, the superintendent. School

Q Does the school board provide both the pressure andsupport necessary to ensure that district personnelhave the will and the capacity to reach accountabilitygoals?


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boards demonstrate instructional leadership by clearly defining the roleand responsibilities of superintendents and then holding themaccountable for their performance. Board members demonstrateleadership by making teaching and learning the constant concern of alltheir policy discussions and decisions. At the school board level,instructional leadership means withstanding pressure from districtpersonnel or the community to take up or decide issues in ways thatdistract the board and the district from their primary mission: studentacademic achievement.

In effective districts, students are not the only learners. The concept oflearning communities extends beyond classrooms to include central

office staff andboard members aswell. Professionaldevelopment is asimportant for aschool boardmember as it is fora principal orteacher. Craftingsound districtpolicy requiresextensiveknowledge on arange of issues notusually familiar tothe general public.

Organizational LeadershipInstructional leadership provides clear, meaningful goals to pursue.Organizational leadership establishes an effective environment thatallows district personnel to reach those goals. A critical component ofeffective organizational environments is autonomy. Having establishedclearly the role and responsibilities of the superintendent, the schoolboard should provide the autonomy and support he or she needs tofulfill those duties. By resisting the temptation to micro-manage,school boards can model this important leadership trait forsuperintendents, principals and parents. By leaving the dailyoperations of the district to the superintendent, a school board canconcentrate on meeting its responsibility to provide thoughtful policyand long-term planning. Working with the superintendent, boardmembers should examine how district resources are allocated, andwhether or how they should be re-oriented to promote greater studentachievement. The new federal “No Child Left Behind” act will holddistricts accountable for achievement gains in all student subgroups,not just district averages.

Public LeadershipSchool board members not only represent the community to the schools– they must also represent the schools to the community. While manythings about schools have endured since today’s adults were students,many other things have changed. Both the stakes and the challenges ofproviding quality education to all students in a community have risensharply over the course of a generation. Communities cannot afford to

QHas the school board studied the organizationalenvironments of the district and the schools withinit and compared them to models of effective schoolsand other organizations?

Q Is a shared commitment to improved teaching andlearning apparent in the amount of time spent onthese concerns in work sessions or board meetings?


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think about schools “in the sameold ways” – and neither canschool board members. In theirrole as public leaders, boardmembers have the opportunityand the obligation to increasecommunity awareness of andinvolvement in important schoolissues, including accountability.

SummaryResponsibility for student achievement is not a new obligation for schoolboards, but the commitment on the part of the state to hold schooldistricts accountable for student performance on state accountabilityassessments is something school board members must take seriously.By virtue of their positions, board members have the opportunity toshow the kind of instructional, organizational and public leadership thatcan bring significant improvement to the schools in their charge. Schoolboards should clearly identify the role and responsibilities ofsuperintendents, supply the support necessary for them to fulfill theseroles, then evaluate their performances based on agreed-upon

QHow often do board members, individually or as agroup, go out into the community to speak aboutimportant district issues and to listen to communityconcerns?

measurements. By leaving daily operations to the superintendent, schoolboard members can focus on their responsibilities: to set district policy,provide thoughtful long-range planning, and represent both communityand district with equal passion.


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Resources for School Board MembersEffective School Boards: Strategies for Improving BoardPerformance, by Eugene R. Smoley, JrEveryone who cares about how effectively boards perform, whethercurrently serving on a board or not, will find something useful here,ranging from analysis of why boards fail to presentation of a model forsuccess - the Model for School Board Effectiveness - that is based onreal-life experience. To purchase the full text of the book, contactJossey-Bass at: http://www.josseybass.com or call (888) 378-2537.A useful compendium to this book can be found at the National SchoolBoard Association’s website: http://www.nsba.org/smoley/

Improving school Board Decision Making: The Data ConnectionFrom the National School Board Associationhttp://www.schoolboarddata.org/Includes PowerPoint presentations, quizzes, hands-on training tools andother helpful materials you won’t see in the book for school boardmembers who want to know more about how to use data to make gooddecisions for children in public schools. This site is intended toaccompany, the National School Board Association’s Improving SchoolBoard Decision-Making: The Data Connection. The text can beordered on-line at http://www.nsba.org/pubs/pubs_list.cfm, or fromNational School Boards Association, 1680 Duke Street, Alexandria,Virginia 22314 703-838-6722 703.838.7590 Fax

Making Good Choices: Districts Take the LeadFrom North Central Regional Educational Laboratoryhttp://www.ncrel.org/csri/mgcdist/intro.htmAcross the country, public schools are aiming to improve studentperformance dramatically by engaging in comprehensive school reform(CSR). CSR is different than other reform efforts. Its goal is not to revise

certain components of a school’s operations, but to redirect all theprograms, structures, processes, and policies of the school toward theultimate objective—improving student achievement. The simple fact thatschools are the organizations most directly serving students has keptmuch of the attention centered at that level. However, as external modelproviders have discovered, without the effective support of the district,CSR is difficult to implement. This resource considers the role thatschool districts, led by their boards, play in school improvement efforts.

Designing and Implementing Standards-based AccountabilitySystemsFrom the Education Commission of the Stateshttp://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/33/44/3344.htmThis guide is designed to heighten policymakers’ understanding ofaccountability choices and challenges. It describes the various waysstandards-based accountability systems can be designed and used, andhow they can contribute to state and local education improvement.


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Implications for Superintendents

Part I: An Overview

As public school superintendents are well aware, public schools inMichigan now operate in an environment of heightened accountability.The opening sections in this handbook provide a history and overview ofthis movement. The overview suggests three perspectives on how toapproach accountability – as an opportunity for teaching and learning, as anenvironment of pressure and support, and as a situation calling forunderstanding and acceptance. These perspectives can help everyoneinvolved in our schools cope with the demands of increased accountability.Other sections focus on school board members, principals and teachers andhow these three perspectives can help people in these roles deal withaccountability issues.

The purpose of this chapter is tohelp superintendents thinkpositively about how they canmake accountability policies workto their advantage to improvestudent and staff performance. Thestate’s focus on accountabilitycreates opportunities for superintendents to devise strategies that willimprove learning environments for their students and solidify communitysupport for their schools. These strategies can only work if superintendents

hold themselves accountable forhaving a thoroughunderstanding of the issues theyface and how stateaccountability goals affect theway those issues play out.

Superintendents know that, atthe district level, accountabilityrests upon them. More than at

any time in thepast, the role of thesuperintendent hasbecome that ofdistrictinstructional leader with primary responsibility for studentacademic performance. Superintendents are responsible fororganizing – or reorganizing – the district so that high levels ofteaching and learning can take place. It is up to thesuperintendent to put accountability into action, to create the

meaning of accountability for the staff and community in his or her district.

Accountabilility provides theopportunity for superintendents todevise strategies that will improve

teaching and learning.


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Using Accountability to SupportTeaching and LearningThe goal of accountability is to improve teaching and learning inclassrooms. But it can help to view accountability as being about teachingand learning in other ways as well. For example, to hold accountable is totell (teach) others what is expected of them; determine (learn) whether theyhave the capacity to complete the tasks set for them; then assess (learn)whether they have met expectations. True accountability requires all threesteps: people cannot be held accountable if they have not been told what isexpected of them; they cannot be held accountable for tasks beyond theircapabilities; they cannot be held accountable if the results of their effortsare not measured against the goals set for them.

As the state expands its accountability system to include student academicachievement, superintendents have the opportunity – and the obligation – tolead their districts in a re-examination of district accountability systems.The goal of such a process will be to clarify – in some cases to confirm, inothers to revise – who is responsible for which aspect of studentachievement, whether at the student, classroom, building or district level.The results of this re-examination should be specific, comprehensive andpublic. They should be specific, in that each person involved should clearlyunderstand what is expected of him or her, and how their performance will

be evaluated. The resultsshould be comprehensive, toacknowledge that teachersbear only partialresponsibility for studentsuccess. Parents, principals,school board members andstudents themselves alsohave specific responsibilitiesfor student academicachievement. Each must

understand and accept his or her share of responsibility. For some, thenews that they too are responsible for student achievement will be readilyapparent; for others it may be a revelation. Finally, the results of any re-examination of district accountability systems must be public. Schooldistricts are ultimately responsible to the communities they serve. Opennessand public dialogue builds community awareness and support for thechanges identified and allows for public comment.

Chances are good that the vision of education represented by the state’saccountability system, on the one hand, and that of the district, on the other,will not be perfectly aligned. In such cases it is important forsuperintendents to educate school board members, district staff and thecommunity at large about the similarities and differences between thesetwo visions. Even more important, superintendents must make sureeveryone is aware of the consequences that may result from the differences.Superintendents have the essential if unenviable responsibility of makingsense of community beliefs about schooling in light of the new standardsestablished by state policymakers.

QHow much of the accountability system at work in mydistrict is formalized and understood by all involved,and how much of it is informal? To what extent is theformal part of the accountability system focused onstudent achievement? The informal?


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Using Pressure and Support to MeetAccountability GoalsThe accountability measures established by the state can be seen asobstacles to be overcome – or as opportunities to be welcomed.Superintendents can use the pressure to meet state standards to influenceschool board policy and budget decisions in ways that improve studentperformance.

Superintendents can use the pressure of accountability to workconstructively with teacher and staff unions on issues such as performanceevaluation, professional development and merit pay. Pressure alone,however, is insufficient. Superintendents need to be open to and ready tosupport initiatives proposed by principals and teachers to improve practiceat the school and classroom levels.

Building Understanding and Acceptanceof AccountabilityAs district leaders, it is critical for superintendents to help teachers,principals, specialists and central office staff understand their roles andresponsibilities in improving student performance. These roles andresponsibilities are not new, but explicit acknowledgment, understandingand acceptance of them may be. This goes for all stakeholders in thedistrict, including parents and board members, and community and businessleaders, too.

Over the years, schools have come to mean almost everything to almosteverybody. Schools have been handed an array of responsibilities that candistract staff from their core mission. Now, in an era of heightenedaccountability, the job of the superintendent is to sharpen and redefine thedistrict’s mission, and build shared understanding about what schools areand what they do.

Part II: The Specifics of Accountabilityand PracticeThe three approaches that can help others in the system manage increaseddemands for accountability can benefit superintendents as well.Superintendents can use accountability to refocus efforts and resources onteaching and learning. They canallow the pressure accountabilitybrings to support initiatives thatcan raise student academicperformance. Superintendentsshould also take into account theimportant part that staff andcommunity understanding andacceptance play in determining thesuccess of a district’saccountability system. Below weapply these ideas to three keyleadership roles thatsuperintendents play.

QHow much would district policy and allocation ofresources have to change for the district to realizesignificant improvement in student academicachievement?

QWhich roles and responsibilities in my district areclearly assigned and accepted, and which need to bebetter defined and acknowledged?


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Visionary LeadershipSuperintendents know that a strong vision of what schools should be is aprerequisite for leading a school district. They also know that situationschange, the composition of school boards changes – even asuperintendent’s vision of what is right for the district can change.Change means that shaping the vision of the district is an ongoingprocess. As an educational leader, part of a superintendent’s job iscontinually to teach that vision to others in the system – from boardmembers to staff, parents and the community. Superintendents need toeducate these stakeholders constantly in how the educational vision playsout in their school, at their grade level, and in their areas of special

concern.

Unless asuperintendent’svision is to keepthe district exactlyas it is – its policiesand practices, andits results –fulfilling a visionmeans convincingpeople to change,and change can bea threatening andfrustrating

prospect. Superintendents have to work hard to learn what ideas,practices or lack of resources keep people from making changes so thatthese obstacles can be overcome.

The most important change most districts need to make is to improve thetechnical knowledge base of instruction in the district. Low achievingstudents don’t need more of the same instruction – they need differentinstruction that draws upon deeper subject matter understanding and thelatest research on best practice.

As they communicate their vision to district stakeholders,superintendents can use the pressure accountability brings to motivatestaff to work toward the vision. A well-designed accountability systemwill include both sanctions and incentives. Some players may need anabrupt wake up call in order to recognize the need for improvement.Sanctions can help to sound the alarm in those cases. In other cases,incentives can provide more positive pressure for improvement. Thehardest part will be creating a culture in schools and classrooms thatexpects every student to succeed and every teacher to help make thathappen.

Motivation is important, but by itself it is insufficient; superintendentsmust also be ready to provide the support people need to make thenecessary changes. This can mean significant revisions in districtbudgets or policies. As they help people understand and accept therealities of accountability, superintendents themselves need tounderstand and accept the idea that change does not take place overnight.They also need to make sure that the parents, school board members andstate policymakers holding them accountable understand this as well.

QCan I articulate the changes my district needs tomake in order to achieve the educational visionembodied by state accountability practices? Can Imarshal support for specific district practices Ibelieve should not change?


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Organizational LeadershipVisionary leadership provides goals for the district; organizationalleadership provides the means to reach those goals. Superintendentsmust work to improve their district’s organizational structures so thatthey more fully support teaching and learning. To do this,superintendents must learn as much as they can about effectiveorganizations and how to build and maintain them. What they learn atthe district level superintendents must then teach to their principals at theschool level and to teachers at the classroom level.

The most valuable resource of every district is people. Superintendentsknow that principals are the key to the success of any accountabilityplan. Principals provide the instructional leadership for teachers and

students on a daily basis.Superintendents also knowthat meaningful professionaldevelopment is critical toreaching accountabilitygoals. No accountabilitymodel can be implementedsuccessfully unless time andresources are available forstaff development. Onceinstructional strategies havebeen decided in a school,superintendents need toallocate resources to help

principals and teachers make them work . In designing a districtaccountability structure, for example, superintendents need to work withprincipals to make sure curriculum is aligned with state standards andplan professional development programs for teachers that help themunderstand how the standards should be implemented. Principals shouldbe encouraged to write instructional leadership plans for their schoolsevery year. These, in turn, can provide the basis for regular review ofthe district’s plan.

Working with principals, superintendents can see that support programsare put into place in each building. Providing resources at all levels ofthe system is critical if accountability systems are to serve as a catalystfor positive change in students’ learning.

Another aspect of organizational leadership is leadership training.Districts need to develop internal leadership in order to improve teachingand learning. Superintendents can help themselves by developingprograms to identify and cultivate leaders early in their careers.Incentives can be offered to veteran principals to encourage them toidentify and mentor teachers with leadership potential. District-wideleadership academies can be created where new and experienced leadersand other professionals can work on accountability issues.

Q Do the agendas of school board and staff meetingsreflect a commitment to student achievement as thedistrict’s highest priority?

In my district, is professional development sustainedand closely linked to improved teaching andlearning? Is professional development supportedthroughout the school year in an ongoing, cohesivemanner?

Q


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Effective communication is an essential component of every successfulorganization. Superintendents must keep the school board and thecommunity at large involved and apprised of district progress throughregular reports.

Assessment and Accountability LeadershipAfter they make explicit their expectations for staff and students andprovide the resources necessary for them to fulfill those expectations,superintendents need to measure their progress toward accountabilitygoals. The new Education YES! accreditation standards approved by theState Board of Education include multiple measures of schoolperformance and student achievement. With two-thirds of a school’saccreditation rating tied to results on the Michigan EducationalAssessment Program (MEAP), though, the state has made clear its intentto use the MEAP as its primary measure of accountability. Even withthe Education YES! standards in place, superintendents need todetermine if or which additional assessments will allow them to portraymore completely and accurately the efforts and outcomes that occur intheir district.

The specifics of district accountability assessments may vary as widelyas districts do. Still, all assessment strategies should share somecommon features.

First, expectations for job performance that are based on assessmentresults must be well publicized so that teachers and administrators knowin advance how they will be evaluated. Teachers and principals shouldhave input in establishing reasonable goals and objectives for thestudents in their classrooms and schools.

Second, accountability systems should be centered on studentperformance and student outcomes. As the new accreditation standardssuggest, test scores are more reliable when averaged over three years.Stakeholders need the best possible information about how their schoolsare doing. For this reason, a number of states and school districts haveinstituted value-added testing to measure how individual studentsprogress over time. Value-added tests that are linked to curriculumstandards demonstrate what children have learned and in what areas theyneed to improve.

Third, accountabilitysystems should placestudent achievement in abroad context. Thedistrict should include inits accountability reportsinformation on teachers,buildings and budgets –in other words, whatresources the district hasand how they are used.This information could, for example, include how many teachers have amajor or minor in the fields that they teach, the average length of timethat teachers have been in the district, and the number of teachersattending professional development programs in new technology or newcurriculum materials. Some of this is included in the Education YES!

QAre my district’s current indicators of schooleffectiveness helpful in directing district policies orinstructional practices? Do principals use data fromthe accountability system to evaluate progress intheir schools?


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ratings, but superintendents may wish to supplement data collected bythe state with other information that provides the community andpolicymakers with a deeper understanding of their districts.

SummaryIf teachers and principals are the front line of accountability when itcomes to student achievement, superintendents are the bottom line.There are several ways that superintendents can turn the challenge ofaccountability into opportunity for real change in their districts.Creating a district accountability system that defines roles andresponsibilities in terms of student academic achievement allowssuperintendents at once to pressure and support principals in their role aseducational leaders in their buildings. Superintendents might benefitfrom thinking of their district not as a “school system” but as a “systemof schools.” This shift of emphasis is meant to remind superintendentsthat holdingprincipals toaccountabilitygoals will requireproviding themwith the autonomyto decide how bestto reach thosegoals. As their titleimplies, theprimary role ofsuperintendents isto provide and tokeep everyone elseclearly focused on the big picture, the main goal of all schools: helpingto prepare the students in their charge to become productive andresponsible members of our society.

Resources for Superintendentshttp://www.aasa.org/cas/index.htmAASA has created the Center for Accountability Solutions (CAS) to helpschool leaders gather, use and report meaningful data on student, schooland district performance.

http://www.iel.org/programs/21st.htmlThe homepage for The Institute for Educational Leadership’s SchoolLeadership for the 21st Century Initiative. This initiative’s mission is tospark and assist multi-sector efforts to develop policies and practices andcreate a new generation of education leaders. To achieve its mission, theSchool Leadership for the 21st Century Initiative fosters inter-sectorrelationships, bring greater coherence to these complicated issues andengage the public in addressing the leadership crisis.

http://www.ecs.org/ecsmain.asp?page=/html/issues.asp?am=1The Education Commission of the State’s home address for issues ofaccountability.

http://www.serve.org/assessment/accountability/summary.htmlA page from SERVE entitled, “District strategies to ensure quality.”SERVE is an education organization with the mission to promote andsupport the continuous improvement of educational opportunities for alllearners in the Southeast. At the core of SERVE’s business is theoperation of the Regional Educational Laboratory.


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Implications for Principals Part I: An OverviewThe opening chapter introduced three ways of thinking aboutaccountability – as teaching and learning, as pressure and support, andwith understanding and acceptance – that can help all educators makesense of accountability in productive ways.

The purpose of this chapter is to helpprincipals deal with new accountabilityreforms in ways that enhance theireffectiveness. The ideas presented inthis chapter are based on two stronglyheld beliefs. The first is that schoolleadership, in the person of theprincipal, is a determining factor inschool andstudentsuccess.Goodschoolsrequire

strong principals. The second belief is thatprincipals are already doing many of thethings required by accountability reforms.Seen this way, accountability reforms are notreally additional responsibilities – instead, they are a new way of lookingat practices that are already familiar. Increased focus on accountabilitycreates opportunities for principals to craft new approaches that willinvigorate teaching and increase student achievement.

Principals are at the center ofMichigan’s accountability system.Effective leadership is the key to

improved performance for schools andstudents

Using Teaching and Learning to SupportAccountability GoalsAs leaders for student learning, principals know the critical role thatgood teaching plays in student achievement. They also know thatdeveloping good teaching practice is a prolonged learning experiencethat requires experimentation, nurturing, collaboration, and support.

As they work to improve teaching practices in their schools, principalscan begin by modeling the kind of attitude toward teaching and learningthey want teachers to have. This means, among other things, thatprincipals need to make a regular habit of identifying for themselvesprofessional learning opportunities directly related to studentachievement, participating in them and sharing the fruits of theseexperiences with building personnel. It also means drawing upon the

expertise of fellow principals in other schools toformulate new strategies. Perhaps colleagues cansuggest changes in environment, training orpractice that have resulted in improved studentlearning in their schools. They may be able torecommend ways to introduce these changes toteachers, staff, and parents, and advise how toobtain the support from the superintendent orschool board that these changes will require.


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Principals should take every possible opportunity to inform parents andcommunity members about what the accountability policies are in theirdistrict and how these policies affect instruction in their school.Principals should also find new ways to recognize and reward highlevels of achievement for both students and staff.

Using Pressure and Support to AchieveAccountability GoalsThe Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) is designed tomeasure student learning on state standards. The pressure exerted byMEAP and other accountability measures is meant to encourage alleducators to improve instructional and managerial practices. State andparental concerns over test scores can provide principals with leverage inmotivating teachers to revise their practice when needed.

But pressure alone is not enough. The MEAP can also create anatmosphere of uncertainty regarding assessment outcomes and potentialconsequences should student performance fall short of expectations. Thedifference between feeling excited about innovation and feelingunprepared to change is support. Teachers need that support, and so doprincipals.

Having the support of other principals, the superintendent, and theschool board helps to make the increased pressure of accountabilitymanageable. In order to be effective, principals and teachers must haveaccess to the right resources, professional development and collaborativeopportunities. Principals can use accountability measures to theiradvantage by channeling the pressurethese measures create towardgaining the support they need.

Using Understanding andAcceptance to ReachAccountability GoalsAs the instructional leaders of theirschools, principals need tounderstand and acceptaccountability. Specifically,principals need to understand theintent of policies put in place by stateand district officials in order toeffectively support measures thatwill help students achieve stateeducational goals.

Q Do I make clear to my teachers that accountabilitycounts with me – then support them as they work toimprove their practice?

QIn what ways do I demonstrate my commitment toimproving student academic achievement? Do Iaccompany pressure to change with the supportpeople need to make changes?


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Principals should share their understanding of accountability policieswith teachers and parents to build mutual understanding and acceptanceof state and local educational goals. It is important that all participantsunderstand the accountability system – both the good and bad aspects.Principals also need to continue to work collaboratively with teachers tofind additional ways to involve parents in their children’s educationwhenever possible. Parental understanding and support of educationalgoals are critical factors that improve student readiness and willingnessto learn.

Part II: The Specifics of Accountability andPractice

The concepts of teaching and learning, support and pressure, andacceptance and understanding can help principals create strategies forsuccessfully implementing accountability policies.

Principals are accountable for the leadership they provide. If teachersare accountable for the results in their classrooms, principals areaccountable for the results in their buildings. The rest of this chapterfocuses on three aspects of leadership that define a principal’seffectiveness: visionary instructional, and community leadership.Questions in each section are intended to prompt both personal reflectionand group discussion. At the end of this chapter is a list of resources onthese topics.

Visionary LeadershipThe most important asset that principals can provide for their schools isvisionary leadership. Just as teachers must step back from their dailyactivities to reflect on their practice, principals must reflect on their ownvision of what an effective school looks like. Principals must be guidedby the belief that all children have the capacity to learn at high levels. Tomake these beliefs real, students need an environment that supports andcelebrates learning. They need committed teachers who understandcontent and possess a rich array of pedagogical strategies. They needprincipals who see the whole picture and understand how eachparticipant contributes to, and bears responsibility for, the learningenvironment. If principals are to convey these values to the rest of theeducationalcommunity, theymust work hard tocommunicate aswidely as possibletheir school’svision and goals.Principals need tomeet regularlywith teachers andstaff to make sureschool resourcesand effortsdirectly supportstudent academicachievement.They need to establish multiple lines of communication with parents sothat parents not only understand the school’s goals but are alsocomfortable enough to ask questions and to make suggestions aboutways to improve the educational process.

QHave central office staff and building principalsdiscussed state and district accountability policiesand their effect on schools and classrooms? If not,how could such discussions be initiated?


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Instructional LeadershipAs instructional leaders, it is crucial that principals learn as much as theycan about the state standards that are in place for the subjects and gradelevels in their building. They need to make sure that teachers know whatthose standards require of them at their grade levels. Working togetherwith the teaching and support staff, principals can determine if theschool’s curriculum and textbooks are in line with the standards.Principals can learn from teachers what tools and training are needed inorder to implement an aligned curriculum. Understanding that this is acontinuous process, principals should be ready to make further changesin allocation of time and resources to provide the support teachers need.

A principal’s instructional leadership extends beyond assuring curricularalignment. Principals also need to assess student performance data todetermine if they and their teachers are meeting state achievementstandards. To work effectively with teachers and support staff, principalsneed to bring themselves up to speed on proven instructional strategies

that can be implemented in their teachers’classrooms. Principals should also learnabout alternative teaching strategies thatmay be useful in their school. There aremany ways to teach specific topics;finding the ones that best help a school’sparticular students takes time, patience,and perseverance. Understanding whyteachers use particular strategies iscritical for assessment and improvement.

Assessing the effectiveness of particularinstructional strategies is the first stepprincipals must take to improve teachingand learning. Principals must accept the fact that it will take some timebefore they can determine if changes in strategies have improved studentlearning. Teachers make incremental changes as they teach, attemptingto improve each day. Meanwhile, principals will need to support teachersas they work with new strategies. If teachers agree that a particularmethod is not working, principals must be willing to discard it in favor ofa more promising one.

Principals know that the lack of adequate data is a major challenge increating environments that enhance student learning. Principals musttake the lead in developing and using data sources that tell them what

QCan I state clearly my school’s educational visionand explain persuasively each person’s role infulfilling this vision?

QDo I have a process for meeting collaboratively withteachers and support staff to review state standardsand determine how best they can be attained? HaveI communicated to parents the importance of thestandards and our efforts to meet these educationalgoals?

QDo I talk with my teachers on a regular basis aboutthe pedagogical strategies they are using and why?Do I understand what objectives the particularstrategies used in my school aim to accomplish?


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they need to know aboutstudent achievement andequity issues, curricularalignment, program prioritiesand teaching strategies, andhow each of these affects thestudents in their school.

Whether principals are able to analyze the data themselves to determineanswers to questions about teaching effectiveness or draw upon outsideresources for analysis, accuracy and timeliness are the most importantfactors in using data to decide instructional strategies.

Finally, as instructional leaders principals need to find ways to help parentshelp their children reach achievement goals. Parents and students need tounderstand that schoolwork done at home is an essential part of the learningexperience, and that students need an environment at home that supportstheir academic achievement.

Community LeadershipThe third type of leadership for which principals are accountable iscommunity leadership. Part of the principal’s role is to foster in thecommunity an understanding of the school’s educational goals. This meansthat principals need to know how to communicate effectively with parents,business people and the general public. Principals must enlist parents if

they are to maximize student achievement. Parents want to be involvedwith their children’s education, but many are unable to visit classroomsand help at school because of work schedules. Principals need to make sureparents know the school’s educational goals and have opportunities todiscuss them with school personnel. This will mean working with teachersto schedule some conference and meeting times during evening hours toaccommodate parents who work during regular school hours. Involvedparents are a principal’s strongest allies in creating better learningenvironments.

SummaryThe importance of strong principal leadership to successful studentachievement cannot be overstated. Principals are at the center of schoolimprovement efforts because strong principals are at the center of effectiveschools. Their instructional leadership determines the effectiveness ofteaching and learning in classrooms; their community leadershipdetermines the level of support schools receive from parents and otherlocal citizens; their leadership in creating and maintaining a coherentvision of student achievement keeps everyone pulling in the samedirection. By making accountability work for them, principals can enhancetheir efforts to improve student and school performance.

Q Do the kinds of data I have available help medetermine the effectiveness of the teaching strategiesbeing used in my school? Q

What kind of scheduling changes would improveparental participation and allow bettercommunication concerning student progress? Do Iencourage parents to visit my school when theirschedule allows and make time to meet with them todiscuss concerns? How can I get more members ofthe community involved in the educational life of myschool?


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Resources for Principals“Leadership for Student Learning: Reinventing the Principalship.” Institutefor Educational Leadership. October, 2000. p. 11.

Communities in Schools“Communities in Schools” champions the connection of needed communityresources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay inschool and prepare for life.www.cisnet.org

Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL)The IEL’s mission is to improve education through positive and visionarychange. This institute brings together diverse constituencies andempowering leaders with knowledge and applicable ideas.www.iel.org

Leadership and Learning Network at Ohio State UniversityThe network supports principals in their efforts to raise standards byproviding principals with convenient and fast access to relevant informationand resources.www.osu.edu/urbanschools/principl/welcome.htm

Michigan Association of Secondary School Principalswww.michiganprincipals.org

Michigan Elementary and Middle Schools Principals Associationwww.memspa.org

National Association of Elementary School Principalswww.naesp.org

National Association of Elementary School PrincipalsGreat resources on a wide array of topics including:• Educational Leadership • Curriculum and Instruction• Professional Development • Technologywww.naesp.org/hot.html

National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)www.nassp.org

NASSP Professional DevelopmentTake a look at the variety of educational offerings available. You can findopportunities for yourself and your staff from school reform to leadershipdevelopment and from international opportunities to taking on theprincipal’s role.

NCREL Pathways to School ImprovementFind the latest in education research, synthesized and arranged in varyinglevels of depth to meet your needs.www.ncrel.org/sdrs

Principal Leadership MagazineThis magazine focuses on school leaders’ real needs, offering thempractical, hands-on strategies for improving their schools in a constantlyevolving environment.


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This chapter looks at accountability from the perspective of the teacher.The approach is based upon several strongly held beliefs about teachersand teaching. One is that quality teaching is as demanding as it isimportant. Simply put, good teaching is hardwork. Another is that, because good teaching isso central to student achievement, teachers willreceive the most attention and pressure frompolicymakers and the public alike as Michiganraises its expectations for accountability. A thirdbelief is that teachers are already doing many ofthe things demanded by accountability reforms.

Quality instruction is essential toimproving student achievement.There are many things teacherscan do to influence studentachievement. However, teachersby themselves cannot raise studentperformance to the levelsnecessary for the economic andsocial health of the community,state and nation. As manyteachers are quick to point out,parents, schools administrators,school board members and othersalso play an important role in

Implications for Teachersdetermining student achievement levels. In this chapter we first exploreteacher accountability for student achievement as a matter of teachingand learning that is mediated by support for change and that is based in

understanding and acceptance. Next, weexamine three central contexts in whichteachers work — in the classroom, in collegialrelationships, and with families— and suggesthow teachers can use heightened attention onaccountability to influence student learning byacting in these contexts.

PART I: Understanding Accountabilitiy

Regardless of grade level or subject area, there are several thingsteachers can do to make accountability and the accountability system intheir school and district work to improve student achievement. Thesesuggestions expand upon the three ideas introduced earlier in thishandbook.

Accountability is about teaching and learning.The best news about the current accountability movement is that it putsteaching and learning back in the spotlight where they belong. Teachersnow have the opportunity – and the obligation – to do what they do best:establish rigorous, realistic goals for their students and devise strategiesto help students reach them. By supporting accountability measures

Parents and principals, support staff,superintendents and school board

members must all acknowledge, acceptand meet their responsibilities as well.


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designed to boost student achievement, administrators, parents andcommunity members implicitly acknowledge their own obligation tocontribute to that effort. Savvy teachers will find ways to make thoseacknowledgements explicit, so that everybody winds up working towardthe same goals.

One of the most challenging aspects of working successfully within thenew accountability systems will be for teachers to break down barriersthat prevent them from working together. For far to long, teachers havedesigned curricula andactivities, faced classroomdifficulties and soughtsolutions to pedagogicalproblems in isolation. Tomeet new accountabilitygoals, teachers will need towork more closely with eachother and with schooladministration. Workingcollaboratively will allowteachers to benefit from theknowledge and experience ofcolleagues and provide themwith opportunities to giveand receive feedback oninstructional strategies. Working together enables faculty to recognizelarger, grade-level or subject area patterns in student achievement thatcan help improve the curriculum and student learning.

Accountability provides pressure and support.Teachers are correct in believing that changes in the externalaccountability system increase the pressure on them. This pressure,however, can be very useful to teachers who take advantage of it. Forexample, teachers can benchmark their instructional goals and strategies

against a clearly defined set of responsibilities for the academicachievement of their students, demonstrating to themselves and to othersexactly how they are meeting their obligations.

At the same time, changes in accountability systems give teachers anopportunity take advantage of the pressure for student achievement toencourage others to accept their responsibilities. The key to directingthis pressure is communication. Make clear to students and parents whatyou expect of them. Make clear to your principal and districtadministrators what your academic goals are for your students and whatyou need from them to reach these goals.

Pressure is important for change to occur, but pressure must be linked toadequate support that makes achieving academic goals possible. Suchsupport might be better curriculum guides and materials, targetedprofessional development, or redistribution of district resources. Bothpressure and support should send clear messages to the staff and thecommunity that teachers are serious about helping students meetacademic goals, and that the district is serious about supporting teachersin that effort.

Accountability requires understanding andacceptance.Accountability is about clarifying responsibilities – and then holdingteachers, schools and districts accountable for meeting them. Teachersneed to accept the fact that they are a part of this larger accountabilitysystem. It is important that teachers align their own internal sense ofaccountability – what they expect of themselves, and what they believetheir students, students’ parents and fellow teachers expect of them –with the larger, external accountability systems in which they teach.


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It may seem obvious to say thatteachers need to understand howand for what they will be heldaccountable. Until now, however,most accountability systems havefailed to identify clearly who isresponsible for what when itcomes to student achievement.Even with a state curricularframework, key concepts in coresubjects are at risk of “fallingthrough the cracks” becauseteachers, schools and districts can

have different understandings about who is responsible for coveringparticular material at certain grade levels.

Part II: The Specifics of Accountability andTeaching Practice

Advising teachers to think about accountability in terms of teaching andlearning, support and pressure, and acceptance and understanding canseem vague and empty when discussed outside of the dynamic andhighly varied setting of classroom teaching. In this section we offerconcrete, specific strategies teachers can draw on to influence studentlearning in three important contexts: in the classroom, in their work withcolleagues, and in communicating with parents. While no single strategywill apply across the diverse classrooms and schools in our state,teachers or groups of teachers can make use of these strategies to thinkcreatively and flexibly about how they might be applied or revised intheir schools and classrooms and to devise new strategies for influencingthe learning of their students.

Instruction and Accountability for Student LearningIn the classroom, accountability for student learning can be thought of asa process of continuously improving teaching in the service of studentlearning. To enact this process, teachers answer two questions. First,what do my students know and what can they do in the subject I teach?This question is central to the practice of teaching. Its answer providesthe starting point for instruction as well as the bottom line for assessingthe success or failure of a particular lesson, unit or instructional strategy.Getting clear in one’s own mind what students know and can do alsoprovides a solid starting point for the second central question: How can Ihelp my students know more and do better in the subject I teach? Thisquestion guides teachers in selecting instructional strategies andmaterials in the short term. Teachers can also use this question to reflecton their teaching in order to revise curriculum and instructionalstrategies for the future. To illustrate how teachers can use theaccountability system to improve their classroom instruction, considerthe case of Jane, a fourth year seventh grade science teacher in an urbanMichigan district:

Among students in her school Jane is reputed to be an engagingteacher. She is particularly well known for the unit onelectricity and magnetism, which she has developed and adaptedwith special care over the last two summers. Entering studentseagerly anticipate activities like “build a compass” and “make amagnet-driven motor” as does Jane who enjoys seeing herstudents respond positively to the electricity and magnetism unit.

Last year, the science department collectively reviewed school-wide student results on the MEAP. Jane was surprised and a bitdisappointed to learn that a good number of her students didpoorly on the extended response test item. Though it askedstudents to apply knowledge of electricity and magnetism,something Jane was confident she had helped them do in class,


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many students did poorly onthis test item. In fact, Jane hadgiven them opportunities tointeract with several electricalphenomena, but theseexperiences themselves did nottranslate into measurablestudent learning gains— a keypiece of accountability forstudent learning.

Analyzing student MEAP datahelped Jane answer the first ofthe framing questionsintroduced above: What do my

students know and what can they do in the subject I teach? She knewthey could do certain things, as she had seen them build electricalapparatus and wire circuits in class. But, the MEAP test revealed thatstudents lacked some basic knowledge about electricity. For example,they could not diagnose faulty circuit designs or characterize thefunctional difference between serial and parallel circuits—core pieces ofthe Michigan science curriculum standards.

Jane and her colleague set out to find the particular objectives,vocabulary and real-world contexts the Michigan EducationalGoals for Science Education (MEGOSE) called for. They usedthe MEGOSE standards as a template to analyze the content intheir electricity and magnetism curriculum. In the process theyfound that the lessons and assessments emphasized vocabularywords (e.g. circuit, electrical current) and electrical applicationsin real-world contexts (light switches, lightning), but under-emphasized a key conceptual objective— having studentsdescribe how electrons flow in a simple circuit.

Jane used the standards and student test scores to determine where hercurricula might be improved.

Jane and her colleague decided they would work together to “beefup” the electricity and magnetism unit. In years past Jane hadworked over the summer on this unit adding activities andresearching additional demonstrations. In order to help studentsknow more in addition to providing them an interesting andenjoyable curriculum, this year she would take a differentapproach. With the assistance of her colleague she would chooselessons and activities that were directly related to the statestandards.

Upon reviewing the unit in light of the state standards, they foundthat while the unit’s activities pertained to electricity andmagnetism, they did not all align with the subject matterstandards. In addition, while students had plenty of opportunitiesto engage with electrical phenomena, they had not been asked toformally articulate their understanding of how electricity wasoperating in the various contexts of the lessons. Students had hadcopious opportunities to learn scientific definitions, but these wereinfrequently linked to description and explanation of scientificphenomena.

Jane and her colleague decided to eliminate the loosely relatedactivities, in order to provide richer and more focusedopportunities for students to learn the content in the standards. Inaddition, they revised the core activities in the unit to make surestudents had several opportunities to talk, read and write about theflow of electricity in several contexts.

In the process of analyzing her unit in the context of MEGOSEstandards, Jane formulated two answers to the second framing question:How can I help my students know better and do more in the subject I


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teach? She aligned the lessons in her unit more closely with MEGOSEstandards. In addition, she was able to develop focused opportunities forstudents to use scientific knowledge— to describe and explain a fewelectrical phenomena.

Working with ColleaguesMost teachers work in isolation from their professional peers. Teachersspend the great majority of their formal, contracted time physicallyisolated from their colleagues and in direct contact with groups ofstudents. As a result, they find few opportunities to collaborate withpeers during the workday and rarely experience potentially powerfulpeer collaboration. Accountability for student learning asks educators tobe explicit about their goals,to take action to improve instruction and,ultimately, to influence student learning. Through collaboration teacherscan move toward these goals of accountability by working together ondifficult tasks; pooling their knowledge about students, subject matter,and instruction; and divvying up responsibilities to reduce duplication ofefforts.

Clearly, organizational restructuring can facilitate teacher collaboration.Some schools provide shared planning times, co-teaching assignmentsand shared decision-making processes. Though these structures do notexist in most schools, there are ways that small groups of teachersworking together can organize their efforts to improve their practice andinfluence student learning. One example is collaborative curriculumplanning. Jane and her colleague worked outside of the school year toplan curriculum— analyzing student data collectively, using statestandards to revise curriculum, and sharing planning duties. Thefollowing are examples of how teachers can organize their day-to-dayinstructional activities in order to improve their own practice. Oneexample pertains to elementary teachers and another is based on thedepartmental structure of middle and high schools. These are but two of

many ways in whichcreative teachers with amodicum of support andautonomy can organizetheir efforts to draw onlocal collegial resources inorder to improve theirpractice and influencestudent learning.

Sharing Students inElementary Grades.Generally, elementary teachers are responsible for planning instructionacross the four main subjects— mathematics, science, language arts, andsocial studies— and teaching these subject to one class of students. Todo this well is labor intensive and intellectually demanding. Knowingthe subject, how to teach it, and how to recognize and assess studentlearning in any one subject is no mean feat. What’s more, individualteachers usually have particular strengths and weaknesses across thesesubjects. By “sharing students” elementary teachers can share theintellectual and labor demands of their work and focus their professionaldevelopment efforts on fewer subjects.

“Sharing students” means that elementary teachers partner withcolleagues. Each takes primary responsibility for a particular subject,while entrusting their partner with primary responsibility for anothersubject. Under this arrangement each teacher teaches a particularsubject more than once per day to their own students and to a colleagues’students. For example, in a large elementary school with three sectionsat each grade level, each classroom teacher could take primaryresponsibility for one subject— mathematics, science, or social studies,respectively. Each teaches her respective subject three times— once toeach of the three classes at the given grade level. Under this structure


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each teacher takes primary responsibility for two subjects— each teacheslanguage arts to her own class while specializing in an additional subjectand teaching it across all three sections.

This arrangement can help teachers make progress in at last three ways.First, it can facilitate teacher learning by providing individual teacherswith opportunities to teach the same lesson several times within a shortperiod of time. This allows teachers to teach once, make adjustments tothe lesson based on the first lesson, and teach again. If conductedthoughtfully, this can help elementary teachers analyze their ownpractice and improve their chances of influencing student learning on aregular basis.

Second, under this arrangement the elementary teacher can also devotemore time to planning a given lesson, making planning more efficient.Teachers work under significant time constraints. By planning one

subject for multiplesections and eliminatingday-to-day planning dutiesfor another subject,elementary teachers canspecialize and invest moretime in carefully planningand assessing the lessonsthey teach. Over time agroup of teachers canspecialize in differentsubjects every three or fouryears. By rotating through

specializations, they can build on their subject matter strengths, fortifytheir weaknesses and share lessons learned with their colleagues.

Third, sharing students creates a forum for elementary teachers todiscuss the learning of individual students. Because all teachers at thegrade level have direct contact with all students, the teacher whosuspects a particular child is experiencing difficulty in class will have aknowledgeable colleague with whom to consult. As a result, teacherswill be better able to pinpoint particular learning challenges and designintervention strategies confidently with support from informed peers.

Matching Knowledge and Experience with Teaching Assignments inUpper Grades. By adjusting the ways in which their departments maketeaching assignments, middle schools and high schools can achieve endssimilar to those seen in elementary grades. Often, teaching assignmentsare based on seniority— more experienced teachers select the coursesthey’ll teach and junior teachers are assigned to the courses that are leftover. Logically, in the seniority system, senior teachers seek the easiest,most enjoyable classes. A consequence of the seniority system is thatjunior teachers are commonly assigned to the least desirable and,consequently, most difficult courses. Often this means that juniorteachers are assigned to the lower level classes, which disproportionatelyserve special education and second language students and senior teachersare assigned to honors and college preparatory courses. If teachers hopeto continuously improve instructional practice and influence studentlearning, they must also consider the effect of the seniority system onstudents

Subject matter departments can work together to build schedules thatreflect the instructional skills of particular teachers. Under a system thatmatches experience and expertise with teaching assignment, studentswho need the strongest teachers in their particular subjects will benefitfrom the knowledge and experience of senior teachers. In addition,junior teachers will have a better chance at developing stronginstructional skills early in their careers. Over time, junior teachers cantake on the more difficult courses and learn to work with the mostchallenging groups of students.


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Senior teachers can assist junior teachers in their development andgradual assumption of greater responsibilities and instructionalchallenges. While senior teachers may feel entitled to a smoother, lesschallenging load having “paid their dues” early in their careers, acommitment to improving instruction and serving the learning needs ofstudents asks that we put students’ learning first in our professionalendeavors. Departmental functions can support student learning andinstructional improvement by matching teacher knowledge andexperience with teaching assignments.

The collaborative structures suggested above will not magicallylead to better, smarter teaching and leaps in student learning. Asexperienced educators know, any plan can fail to produce thedesired outcomes however faithfully it is implemented. And nogeneric strategy will cozily “fit” into all classrooms, schools ordepartments equally well. These strategies are just two of manythat professional colleagues can pursue with few additionalresources and without wholesale organizational restructuring.

Working with parentsParents can play an important role in supporting student learning.Yet even well- intentioned parents will not necessarily act inways that support teachers’ particular goals for student learning.While teachers do not have infinite time and resources to work withparents and, ultimately, cannot control what parents do, they canprofitably work with parents in efforts to improve student learning.Below are two strategies teachers use to enlist active parental support.

Communicating Instructional Goals. Teachers can take the first steptowards engaging parents in their goals for student learning by makingtheir goals explicit. Curriculum has changed significantly since theprevious generation was in school and many years separate most parents

from their own educational experience. In some cases parents arehesitant to encroach on what they see as the “teachers’ turf.” For theseand other reasons, parents may not seem like the best partners ineducation. At times they may even seem ill informed, skeptical orunconcerned with what happens in their child’s classroom. Yet, mostparents do care about their childrens’ educational experience, and theycan play an instrumental role in promoting student learning. Beingexplicit about what teachers are trying to accomplish is central to

enlisting parents’ active support. This canbe done in several ways.

Some teachers communicate their goals forstudent learning by hosting regularcurricular meetings with groups of parents.Others send bi-weekly or monthly letters toparents. In some situations teachers canuse email and web pages to communicatetheir instructional goals. Some teacherseven share examples of student work fromprevious years with parents to illustrate thetype of assignments they will use over thecourse of the year.

How any teacher communicates herinstructional goals will depend on many factors, including theeducational and social background of parents. Have they achieved highlevels of formal education? Have they had mostly positive experiencesin school or have they felt isolated and marginalized? Do they speakEnglish? The answers to these and other questions should shape theparticular strategy teachers choose to employ. In some communities it issufficient to send home a letter with students on a regular basis. Inothers, teachers may need to employ an array of strategies in order toprovide all parents a clear understanding of what they are trying toachieve.


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Creating A Clear Role for Parents. After communicating instructionalgoals, teachers can describe clear, attainable roles for parents. There aremany ways in which parents can support teachers’ instructional goals.What can a parent be expected to do to support their child’s learning?The answer to this question, of course, depends on the resourcesavailable to the parent. Some parents have time; others have materialresources and personal expertise to invest in their child’s education.Some parents may feel alienated, confused and unwelcome in schools,particularly if they were not successful students themselves. Thesefactors in part determine what teachers can ask of parents. While someparents are more prepared or interested in their child’s education, noparent is without something valuable to contribute. Consider thefollowing practices some teachers use to engage parents.

A Chair and 30 Minutes. Whatever their educationalbackground, socio-economic level and linguistic heritage, almostany parent can support instructional goals using this strategy.Teachers can enlist parental support by setting the expectation thatall students spend thirty minutes studying in a comfortable, quietplace. Communicating curricular goals to parents can facilitatethis process by helping parents see what in particular studentsshould do while studying.

A Weekly Trip to the Library. While many homes are notequipped with appropriate reading materials, parents can bolstertheir child’s access to texts and support their reading habits bytaking them to the public library. Teachers can also supportstudents’ reading habits by encouraging parents and their childrento visit the library frequently.

A Weekly Trip to the Library. While many homes are notequipped with appropriate reading materials, parents can bolstertheir child’s access to texts and support their reading habits by

taking them to the public library. Teachers can also supportstudents’ reading habits by encouraging parents and their childrento visit the library frequently.

Reviewing Assignments. Some parents can support instructionalgoals by reviewing student assignments. This might mean signingan assignment toindicate that the parentknows it wascompleted. It mightmean communicatingwith parents especiallywhen students showimprovement. Or, itmay mean readingover an assignmentand providingfeedback to the studentbefore the assignmentis turned in.

To successfully enlistparental support requiresclear expectations and attainable goals. The mere suggestion that parentsfollow any of these supportive strategies will not suffice. However, aconsistent message to parents and students that home study is essentialand frequent reminders that it is expected can yield results.


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SummaryAmong the roles discussed in this handbook, the teacher’s— throughproximate and regular contact with students— is potentially the mostpowerful. For this reason, the current discussion of accountability forstudent learning foregrounds the domains of the teacher: teaching andlearning. Though teaching and learning have been kept private bytradition and the isolating structure of the work, we believe they must beopened up and examined. Instructional practice, professional learningand collegial interactions can potentially have a great impact on studentlearning. If we hope to improve student learning, we must learn to makethese matters explicit and public. We urge teachers to accept their rolein accountability system and ask that they do their part to make others dothe same.

Resources for TeachersThe Michigan Curricular Framework: This web site includes thecurricular standards for each subject area.http://cdp.mde.state.mi.us/MCF/

Classroom Implementation of Michigan Curricular Framework: Thiswebsite explains how a classroom teacher might go about aligning herclassroom curricula to the state’s standards.http://cdp.mde.state.mi.us/MCF/Planning/classroom.html

Teaching and Learning for Michigan Alignment: Here you can find adescription of the main strategies the state considers crucial to successfulteaching. To demonstrate how those strategies might be use in aclassroom, there are five vignettes for teachers to talk about in groups.The vignettes cover all grades. There is a set of questions teachers canuse to analyze the vignettes.http://cdp.mde.state.mi.us/MCF/TeachingAndLearning/default.html

Michigan Teacher Network-links to best practices, professionaldevelopment opportunities, and a very rich section on lessons and unitsfor all subjects already aligned with Michigan content standards.http://mtn.merit.edu/

The Assessment Training Institute website provides professionaldevelopment and support materials designed to guide users through thevarious steps in training, development and implementation of school,district, or statewide classroom assessment systems.http://www.assessmentinst.com

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