The Answer Sheet: accountability


Posted at 06:02 AM ET, 04/12/2013

NY's 2013 'High School Principal of Year' is fighting state over reform
By Valerie Strauss
New York State's new High School Principal of the Year is Carol Burris, a school leader in Long Island who has been a leader in a fight with state officials over reforms

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:02 AM ET, 04/12/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Opposes Test-Based Accountability, School Reform

Posted at 12:31 PM ET, 03/28/2013

Scary reading in charter school bill
By Valerie Strauss
The details of charter school legislation in North Carolina reveal that its sponsors don't care much for holding charters accountable.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:31 PM ET, 03/28/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Charter Schools, Where's The Accountability?

Posted at 11:54 AM ET, 03/19/2013

New nonsense about teachers
By Valerie Strauss
There's some new rhetoric from reformers about teachers and I'm already sick of it.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:54 AM ET, 03/19/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  About Teachers, Accountability, School Reform, Teachers

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 02/27/2011

2 false claims that drive school reform
By Valerie Strauss
"Accountability" and "merit" are compelling concepts, especially when we are talking about adults who are charged with educating our children. But the concepts have been misused in school reform, writes an educator.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 02/27/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Accountability, Charter schools, Guest Bloggers, Performance pay, Teacher assessment | Tags:  accountability movement, charter schools, geoffrey canada, merit pay, michelle rhee, performance pay, school choice, teacher pay, teachers, waiting for superman

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/09/2010

Kohn: Remember when we had higher standards? Neither do I
By Valerie Strauss
When, Alfie Kohn asks, haven't we been complaining about low standards in public schools and calling for accountability? The answer: Apparently, never. A golden period never existed.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/09/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Alfie Kohn, Alfie Kohn, Alfie Kohn | Tags:  accountability, alfie kohn, common standards, education system, nation at risk, reagan administration, school reform, standards

Posted at 01:52 PM ET, 12/05/2010

When teachers are their own worst enemies
By Valerie Strauss
An educator/author argues that teachers, however unwittingly, helped create the accountability movement that is now "choking" them.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:52 PM ET, 12/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  accountability movement, california standards test, common core standards, common standards, criterion-based tests, public schools, school reform, standardized test, standards movement, teachers

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 12/01/2010

First blame the teachers, then the parents
By Valerie Strauss
An educator warns that after teachers have been sufficiently scapegoated for the troubled public education system, parents will be next. And she offers an alternate framework for which to reform schools, one of responsibility rather than phony accountability.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 12/01/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  accountability, arne duncan, department of education, school reform, teachers

Posted at 09:30 AM ET, 10/23/2010

Building teacher accountability from the ground up
By Valerie Strauss
Educator Anthony Cody spells out the practices that help improve instruction and that build teacher accountability into schools.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:30 AM ET, 10/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  accountability, anthony cody, national certified teacher, school reform, teacher assessment, teacher magazine, teachers

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 08/13/2010

Data, testing, accountability: The wrong words for reform
By Valerie Strauss
Language matters, and Sam Chaltain writes that we need to find new words to more accurately describe the changes we seek for children. Enough with data, testing and accountability.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 08/13/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  accountability and data, hamlet, sam chaltain, school climate, school reform

Posted at 04:29 PM ET, 07/14/2010

A weird accountability system in Texas
By Valerie Strauss
In the category of “data will set your school system free, unless, of course, the data In the In the category of “data will set your school system free, unless, of course, the data doesn’t doesn’t tell the literal truth, ” we have the Texas Projection Measure. It’s a tool that awards schools credit for students who have actually failed state-mandated tests but who are expected to pass sometime in the future

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:29 PM ET, 07/14/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Research, Research | Tags:  accountability measures and school, data driven reform, gerald bracey, texas accountability measures, texas education agency, texas projection measure

Posted at 03:31 PM ET, 06/25/2010

Extremism in school reform is not a virtue
By Valerie Strauss
A longtime educator says it is time to recognize the complexity of the challenges presented by ailing school districts and to avoid simplistic, extreme positions which seem so popular today.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:31 PM ET, 06/25/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  charter schools and teachers, colorado and teachers law, eliminating teacher tenure, merit pay and teachers, teacher tenure, teacher tenure and reform, teachers and accountability, teachers pay and test scores, value of teacher tenure

Posted at 05:30 AM ET, 06/24/2010

A better way to evaluate students and schools
By Valerie Strauss
Here is a proposal for a robust and effective assessment and evaluation system for students and schools that would include three key components: limited large-scale standardized testing, extensive school-based evidence of learning, and a school quality review process.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:30 AM ET, 06/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Standardized Tests | Tags:  accountability in schools, accountablity, assessment, fairtest, how to assess statements, how to evaluate schools, monty neill, multiple measures and student assessment, student assessment through multiple measures, teacher evaluation system, the accountability movement

Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 06/16/2010

Ravitch: 'Are we in an era of National Stupidity?'
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch looks at the accumulating evidence revealing how our "accountability policies are a great fraud," and asks: "Are we in an era of National Stupidity or National Insanity?"

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:00 AM ET, 06/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch | Tags:  Arne Duncan, Diane Ravitch, accountability and nclb, accountability movement, accountability policies, bridging differences, diane ravitch and deborah meier, holding teachers accountability, how to hold teachers accountable, narrowing the curriculum, president obama and education bluerpint, president obama and school reform, teachers and merit pay

Posted at 03:10 AM ET, 06/06/2010

A school that did the right thing
By Valerie Strauss
A principal writes about the gamble his Ohio public school took by taking in an 18-year-student who could have hurt the school's accountability record.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:10 AM ET, 06/06/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  george wood, school accountability

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 05/21/2010

How to combine learning, assessment, accountability
By Valerie Strauss
By Lisa Guisbond and Monty Neill.... It’s a great irony of the current accountability movement that policies like No Child Left Behind starve our children of time to think, create and learn in order to measure them with simplistic tests.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 05/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Standardized Tests, Standardized Tests, Standardized Tests, Standardized Tests, Standardized Tests | Tags:  accountability and nclb, accountability movement, assessment and accountability, fairtest, lisa guisbond, monty neill, no child left behind, standardized tests

Posted at 05:00 PM ET, 10/28/2009

Rich: Make students accountable for more than grades, test scores
By Valerie Strauss
By Dorothy Rich. We talk about teacher and parent accountability. But what about the accountability that students have for their own education?... When I visited Japan, I saw young students required to help clean their schools every day. Why should adults keep children from giving back, from participating, from being involved in their education?

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 PM ET, 10/28/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Accountability, Dorothy Rich

Posted at 11:30 AM ET, 09/25/2009

Accountability in Education: High Hopes and False Promises
By Valerie Strauss
Right now, accountability is being presented as the great problem solver. Yet, one big problem is that the teacher and the school are the ones being held accountable. It would be easier if it worked that way, but it doesn’t. Instead, real accountability is an ever changing mix of a multitude of factors including teacher competency, student motivation, and parental responsibility.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:30 AM ET, 09/25/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Dorothy Rich, MegaSkills, accountability