Accountability
Begins at the Beginning
by Kathie F. Nunley
The
cry for accountability is louder than ever. Across this country
communities, districts, and states are asking for more accountability
in schools. States want districts to prove their validity in
quantitative ways. Year-end state mandated exams are becoming
the rule rather than the exception. Administrators and teachers
are feeling increased pressure to bring test scores up and failure
rates down. The classroom teacher is faced with the dilemma
of teaching the curriculum without teaching the test per se.
(Although teaching the test is not a problem, as long as the
test is valid and reliable - but that's a separate article.)
One of the biggest problems with the accountability cry is that
it tends to focus down to the teacher, and then stops there.
Accountability
for learning needs to go one step further - to the student.
Amazingly, students have never been held accountable for day
to day learning. End of unit tests or chapter tests have implied
accountability, but as most classroom teachers can attest, that
is a wild assumption. Students do not see the relationship between
learning activities and accountable learning.
Ask
a student to defend a homework assignment and then sit back
and watch their shock! Why, it has never occurred to them that
they were supposed to have learned from the assignment. They
thought they were just supposed to "do" it.
Here's a typical first time oral defense of homework:
Teacher: So tell me Sarah, what were some of the experiments
which lead to the discovery of the double helix structure?
Sarah:
"huh?"
Teacher: The homework from last night...I see here you did answer
that question. I believe it was the first question in the section
- what research helped lead Watson and Crick to their model
of DNA?
Sarah: I don't know...I just wrote it down.
Teacher: Do you remember anything about what you wrote?
Sarah:
No, I was just trying to get it done.
Teacher: Well tell me something, anything, that you learned
from your homework?
Sarah:
Well, I don't know...but I did it, doesn't that count?
Unfortunately, no one should be surprised by a conversation
such as above. Somehow, in public education, the relationship
between class and home activities and learning has not be clarified
to students. Amazingly, as silly as it sounds, students do not
know that are supposed to learn from daily schoolwork. They
have become accustomed to getting credit for "doing" assignments
with no accountability, so that is what they do.
All assignments in my classes require an oral defense. As people
who have followed my work know, I consider oral defense the
cornerstone to my teaching methodology. Accountability must
begin at this level. When students realize credit is not given
if learning does not occur, a paradigm shift begins. Their simple
and innocent response of "You mean I did all that for nothing?"
opens up the lines of communication about school, assignments
and learning. Because, let's be honest - if they learn nothing
from the activity, then it truly was done for nothing.
(originally
written in 2004, this article may be used in any non-profit
print publication so long as it is used in its entirety including
the bottom author credit paragraph).
Kathie
F. Nunley is an educational psychologist, author, researcher
and speaker living in southern New Hampshire. Developer of the
Layered Curriculum® method of instruction, Dr. Nunley has
authored several books and articles on teaching in mixed-ability
classrooms and other problems facing today's teachers. Full
references and additional teaching and parental tips are available
at: http://Help4Teachers.com Email her:
Kathie (at) brains.org
Dr Kathie Nunley