How do we hold educators accountable right now?
It’s a very strange question to ask as I’m currently watching teachers work harder than they ever have.
But of course, as we continue to try to do something that no one has ever done before, our state departments of education want to make sure that we are holding educators accountable.
The accountability measures usually rear their ugly heads right about now, and this year seems to be no different. As far as I can tell, I’ve never seen anything else that qualifies as more different than what is going on right now.
Professional development plans, student learning and growth objectives, and observations must all be completed. Otherwise no one would be able to tell if teachers and administrators were doing their jobs.
Does anyone think that a teacher cares right now about whether they rate as a 3.25 or a 3.45 this year? Do we think that instead we should rate their level of exhaustion this year compared to a typical year?
I know that I’m going to judge teachers by the extraordinary efforts they are taking to reach and connect with kids right now.
But scores must be recorded. After all, we must have accountability!
We will record scores because we have to, and make sure that all of our paperwork is in order.
But just like every other year, we will know that these things have nothing to do with actually helping teachers to improve or be held accountable to their students.
It’s simply a false sense of accountability.
Rich