Who Is Accountable and How?

A 60 year old man, who has smoked his entire adult life and has had several heart attacks and strokes arrives at the hospital having trouble breathing. Several scans later the admitting doctor sees that he has stage 4, inoperable lung cancer. Can he be saved? Should the doctor be held accountable for his life to continue to the average age of 72?


A 30 year old woman convicted twice for theft is caught shoplifting on video tape in a jewelry store. Her conviction will send her to prison for life. The jewels with her fingerprints were recovered in her purse and the tape is high definition leaving no doubt that she was the thief. A public defender is assigned to defend her. Can she be saved from prison? Should the public defender lawyer be held accountable for her freedom?

A six year old boy arrives at school. He does not know his father. His mother never graduated from high school and was 16 when he was born. He does not know his letters or his colors. There are no books in his home, he has not been fed nutritiously, nurtured, held, loved or intellectually stimulated. His only model for responding to conflict or frustration is to yell profanities and physically run away or strike back. Can he be taught? Should the kindergarten teacher be held accountable for his learning? Should the teacher be held accountable for his learning on a standardized paper and pencil test?

Why is it so hard to explain to folks of a certain perspective that holding teachers accountable for student performance is at best a loosely linked connection? The doctor knows the patient will die, and will provide comfort in his final days. The lawyer knows his client is going to prison, but maybe the sentence can be reduced to 20 years. The teacher knows the kid is not likely to be academically successful anytime real soon, but maybe the kid can catch up before he leaves elementary school if the kid works hard and the mother supports the effort. The doctor will be praised for his heroic and humane efforts. The lawyer will be lauded for his ability to save a client from a life sentence. The kindergarten teacher will be damned, as will the 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, etc., teachers for the poor performance of the child. Those teachers will demonstrate equally heroic efforts, equally laudable professional practice to save a child from ignorance. But the test results will show, despite the growth, that the child is severely behind. The child was behind before he showed up, much as the patient was doomed and the client was guilty. But only the teachers and the schools will be damned.

Why is it so hard to explain to folks of a certain perspective that holding teachers, schools and school systems accountable for student performance in a judgmental system is so wrong to do?

Amazingly, we shift our assumptions of teacher accountability to the doctor/lawyer model once a student enters college. At age 18 in May it is the teacher’s fault if he does not learn. At age 18 in September it is the student’s fault if he fails. And, accomplishing one of the greatest pieces of mental gymnastics I can imagine, the colleges blame the public schools for not ensuring that the students are college ready!

Teachers exhibit the best professional practice they can given the students they serve. OK, given some doctors are better than others, some lawyers are better than others, we must assume that some teachers are better than others. But, no one fires the emergency room doctor or the public defender lawyer if they lose one as long as they followed standard professional protocols. In fact we are grateful that they perform the professional practice they perform with the patients and clients they serve. We all get that much of the failure of medicine to save lives is based on the life style of the patient, much of the conviction rate is based on the behavior of the accused, and much of the college failure and dropout rate is based on the student’s performance and behavior. Why is it so hard to recognize the same connection with student learning in public schools?

Who is accountable and how we hold them accountable is the real question here. We know how to teach kids whatever their circumstance. No pencil-paper test can measure all that we do much less how well we do it.

Or, perhaps those of us with a lifetime devoted to teaching kids in public schools should simply acquiesce. OK, you are right, all kid learning, nutrition, fitness, and college readiness is entirely up to us. We alone can do it.  We are gods, treat us as such. We can transform all children regardless of their background, their effort, their aptitudes, and their families into high performing, productive citizens. Bring on the tests so we can prove it!

Poppycock and balderdash.

Teachers should be held accountable in the same way other professionals who are dependent on the behavior of their clients/patients/students are held accountable: Do we know our stuff, care about kids, and did we give it our best shot demonstrating that we expected every kid to get it however we measure whether they got it or not.

Period.