The speaker of the State Assembly in Wisconsin said the first thing on his agenda when the Legislature reconvenes will be a teacher accountability bill.
Tim Slekar, dean of Edgewood College, has a better idea: Why not start with a “legislator accountability bill”?
The speaker, Robin Vos, now wants reports on professors’ workload. Slekar says, Let’s check out your daily workload first. Let taxpayers know when and where you are actually working for us.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Searching For Positive Signs.
AMEN!!! What took so long? With a Congress approval rate approaching single digits it is about time for Congress to look in the mirror but won’t happen. The ox being gored? Don’t confuse me with facts. I want to protect my posterior.
A great idea that probably won’t go anywhere since the legislators would have to monitor themselves. It’s like getting Congress to get the money out of politics or the fox to tend the chickens.
The open letter is quite good. Love the opening paragraph:
http://bustedpencils.com/2014/12/letter-speakervos-legislator-accountability-system/
Here is the Dec 19 College accountability draft from DoEd posted by Whiteboard Advisors for their insiders to get a look. They ask for feedback. .
http://www.whiteboardadvisors.com/research/us-department-releases-draft-framework-college-ratings-proposal
One particular metric caught my eye under Metrics- Access:
‘Percentage of students receiving Pell grants’
This appears to mean that DoEd is proposing to judge universities by the number of Pell Grants awarded, yet, as of last week there are fewer grants available. The Omnibus Spending bill just cut Pell Grants allocations in half.
How is this metric to judge teacher ed fair & reasonable? Shouldn’t Congress & DoEd be accountable for failing to provide fair and equitable funding?
Ohio legislatures get $60-70k+ per year for a part time job, plus perks. And they complain teachers are overpaid. In the lame duck session, they voted themselves a raise, sponsored by the term limited, anti teacher chair of the education committee – an advocate of yanking the license of teachers ranked “ineffective” by VAM. Why do these people keep getting elected?
Maybe Wisconsin legislators are particularly cagey, but my local and state legislators are very transparent about daily meeting and appearance schedules, and especially what legislation they’re working on.
It goes without saying, of course, that elections are perhaps the ultimate form of accountability.
But for voter suppression and gerrymandering. And don’t forget Citizen’s United. Don’t kid yourself. We lost free and open elections as an outcome of apathy and sound bytes.
Tim, please tell all readers in this website how are CCSS and RttT doing in your “LOCAL” state? It seems to me that you are very proud of your state. Where is your local state?
What is your position regarding to public education? Advocated Parents for public school? Teachers? Local businessman? GAGAers local administrators? or whatelse?
I would demand legislators’ accountability and all public authority candidates platform’s accountability as well.
“Win election” with tricky media which covers up all lies IS NOT the ultimate form of accountability. You know that and all decent human beings know that too. Back2basic
Agree. Any decent person does indeed know that crooks get elected by the efforts of people who pay them time and time again. Just look at Perry here in TX. Just look at the next loser we have after him. Red states especially.
TOT,
There are enough losers to go around in blue states.
It is amazing to me that many people seem to think that all teaching entails is showing up and reading a preplanned lesson from a book or website. This accountability garbage shows how people think teaching is an hourly job, not a profession. When they begin to tack hourly wages onto professors, they really don’t comprehend what the profession is all about. I suppose some things can’t be explained. They must be experienced to be appreciated.