Larry Lee, an Alabama native and a member of the board of the Network for Public Education, has a great idea.
He decided that the best way to demonstrate the foolishness of the Alabama Accountability Act was to translate it into terms every Alabama reader would understand. He wrote a satire in which he urged accountability for high school football coaches. He said that the failure of high school football teams was a major scandal.
He strongly recommended that coaches be held accountable. Some 13% of teams won one game or less last season. This, he writes, is unacceptable.
“The fact that more than 10 percent of our teams are incompetent is a statewide embarrassment. Obviously, too many coaches are not working hard enough and too many student-athletes are unworthy of being called such.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great idea. Perhaps the “failing” high school football athletic departments could be privatized, since the “reformers” always know better.
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This satire is yet a very serious analogy.
It’s not milleniums away from our model in New York.
In most of our APPR systems throughout the state of New York, art, music, and gym teachers can choose either math or reading scores to factor in as 20% of their yearly evaluation, even though these teachers don’t specialize in or really teach these disciplines.
You read that correctly.
Of course, literacy and math are always, to some extent, going to be involved in learning about sports, performing and visual arts, but this is not their focus by any means, nor should it be.
Yet such teachers must chose one or the other as part of their overall evaluation composite score.
Imagine!
And just imagine if our Congress and even much of the Senate were to be rated on “the number of bills passed that genuiniely improved the lives of the average person in the United States”.
They would score, according to Charlotte Danielon, a “developing” or “ineffective”, and they’d be placed on a “PIP”, which is a politician’s improvement plan. If after two years in a row they still don’t elevate themselves out of those two ratings categories, they’d be subject to a termination proceeding and fired within 6 weeks.
I’m all for this.
Let’s draft a proposal and submit it to Washington.
Are you in?
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DR,
I think Lee’s analogy should be extended if it is to truly capture the absurdity of current accountability systems for schools. Most football coaches (and I am a former one) do live under intense scrutiny and accountability. Most of the coaches of the 13% of schools Lee cites will, in fact, likely be fired.
However, to make Lee’s analogy more relevant to the circumstances of school accountability it would be appropriate to mandate a wide array of performance indicators for ALL football teams, whether they won 10 games or none. Some of those indicators might be certain weight lifting minimum standards for ALL players, regardless of whether they were linemen or kickers. Certain sprint speed minimums for ALL players, regardless of whether they were centers or wide receivers. Certain height-weight ratios for ALL players, regardless of whether they were tackles or quarterbacks. You get the idea. When accountability is tied to endless (and nonsensical) measures that apply to ALL students, regardless of their gifts, dispositions, or proclivities, then we allow ourselves to view students as automatons rather than unique individuals. Same goes for schools. When we forget to look at the WHOLE (e.g., games won) and focus on isolated, disconnected, and dubiously chosen data points we drift into the realm of the absurd.
I am reminded often of the similarities of the systems school accountability “central planners” try to create and the worlds we see described in Brave New World (Huxley) and Hunger Games (Collins). Alas, the tide (not a reference to Alabama) does seem to be turning (in Texas, anyway).
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Silly, there’s so many more reasons for students to engage in sports than winning. To hold coaches negatively accountable for not winning is silly. All the other reasons that sports benefit students are more important than just winning.
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Would you say the same of academics? Are there reasons why students “engage in” academics besides the test scores? Are there other benefits of academics besides high test scores? Do you see the point?
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Dienne: great response. I recall when my children were younger and the town library would have its summer reading programs, with rewards such as small toys and stickers for reading a certain number of books. My kids never signed up for these programs, even though they were avid readers. They just didn’t like the pressure of it and wanted to enjoy reading for reading’s sake.
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While the analogy is excellent, the truth is many parents, alumni, students and even college presidents support their athletic departments even in the face of scandal. We saw this with Paterno and now the same thing is happening at Rutgers. But if a teacher was found to be abusive, all hell would break lose, and rightfully so!!
Sports should never be about winning just the same as test scores shouldn’t label a child or teacher, I still think teacher judgment should be weighed more heavily than the score. And under VAM, a teacher of gifted students will not get a good score because the percentage of growth comes out low. That’s like saying a team with a 20-0 record one year will get a poor rating if that winning trend continues.
Sports seems to have a higher degree of respect over academics. Some schools allow players with poor grades to be given passing grades or allowed to play despite team rules. This is happening on the college level as well. I was spoke to someone who was upset his child didn’t have good grades on his transcript to get into a local community college on Long Island despite the fact he was the top soccer player in his private school. This wasn’t about standardized scores, but classwork. Both the school and the parents allowed him to continue playing. So what was the message being sent to this child??
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Education reformers are way over the top. Those of us fighting the Education Reformers would be far better off is we found a way that superintendents, principals and teachers could deal with the small, but significant number of teachers who are doing a bad job. There has to be a sensible middle ground where teachers are treated with respect, they are better paid and there is a fair way to deal with non-performers. These folks do exist and until we deal with them the Education Reformers will continue to capitalize on a major weakness of our present system
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It is a small percentage like every other profession. I have experienced far more ineffective administrators who couldn’t wait to get out of the classroom.
How else did the bad teacher earn due process rights from the excellent administrator?
And the small % of bad teachers is not the cause of the ills in our society.
Don’t buy their rhetoric. Don’t adopt their narrative.
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Fair for one, fair for all.
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Doesn’t this already happen? Aren’t coaches routinely replaced on all levels for losing seasons?
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Another analogy would be holding physicians responsbible for the improved health of their patients. 100% of patients should achieve excellent health results after visiting their doctors. Anything less than this is, well, unacceptable! Any doctor whose patients do not meet the standard or Value Added Measure of improved healthy conditions mandated by the Board of Physicians shall be terminated and replaced by someome who can deliver the appropriated medical outcomes better. AND…from now on all 30 patients must stay at the doctors’ offices ALL DAY LONG to receive the quality medical teachings by their doctors. Salaries and bonuses will be based on achievement by patients and the extent to which doctors contribute to their practice in time, effort and quality of effective strategies used to instruct patients about improving their health. Patients will undergo high stakes testing at least 4 times per year by which their doctors will be judged as to whether they will continue in that practice or be replaced. The medical practice will be closed down if 100% of patients do not make Adequate Yearly Progress within a 3 year period. Pearson will publish a series of new books guiding doctors through the material that will be shared with patients reducing the chance that doctors will provide services they learned in med school or at conferences. Due to the dismal data of patients’ declining health and well being, compared to other countries around the world, we must reform the medical system and replace it with one that is more credible. FPA, Future Physicians of America, straight out of college, will take jobs as doctors to replace those doctors who just aren’t being successful. Neighborhood clinics and care centers will be shut down and patients will be asked to travel wherever to find services that meet their needs. All responsibility for a patient’s sucess in achieving excellent health will be held by the doctors. It may take advanced strategies in motivating patients, improved teaching methods or more rigor injected into the experience of the patients for better results. Just find a way to make it happen, guys. No excuses!
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