Accountability
Written by: Georgianna Starr, CITC Math Teacher, Begich Middle School
In my years of teaching, there have always been staff meetings, peer observations, administration evaluations, and professional development that focus on teacher accountability especially in the era of NCLB. District offices devote many hours on this task and produce charts and graphs showing which schools have made adequate yearly progress.
When I first began teaching with LKSD, I remember a keynote speaker whose point was this: teachers have many measures of accountability but where is the measure of accountability on the parents of the students that we teach?
This student is now in college, but when I had him in the 5th grade, he didn’t do homework, he lacked effort in school, and we knew that that what he produced didn’t show his true ability. By around the 2nd quarter, I was becoming increasingly frustrated, as were the parents, so we organized a meeting with the student. He sat there with a pensive look on his face. As all of us spoke in turn, we all talked about how much we believed in him, about how strongly we felt that his efforts didn’t match his ability. For examples, we showed progress reports and examples of his work. As the meeting went on, the parents made a decision to create a homework schedule. We communicated regularly, and we informed them of what needed extra attention at home.
With the parents’ support, with the communication from school to home, this student became successful. His grades improved, his outlook on school improved as he gained success, and more importantly, his parents involvement showed him that education doesn’t happen in the classroom alone.
This is my experience with parent accountability.
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