We hope that this website will provide all who visit with useful information about the accountability movement and will serve as a good way for educators to engage in robust discussions about accountability and student success.
But we need to hear from you! What else would you like to see here that we may have missed? Please comment in the box below and we’ll do our best to heed your advice. Thanks!
I teach in a community college, and the purpose of study for our many student populations varies quite widely. That’s why I believe the only measure of what should count that makes sense for all of them is something along the lines of an exit interview (perhaps conducted a while after their exit from the college), focused on satisfaction questions like:
“On balance, were you satisfied with what the college provided?”
I’m a retired middle school educator from Long Island, NY. In my last and 34th year of teaching, I discovered and used the LMS, Moodle with my sixth grade students. It changed my professional life so much, I joined with two others after retiring and founded an elearning company, in Baltimore to spread the word of how Moodle could extend learning in the face to face classroom, online.
My students responded well to collaborating with their peers online and demonstrating what they learned to themselves and others. Extending learning beyond the classroom walls , documenting and retrieving the student data of their learning was all contained in this online platform. Accountability, reflection, learning outcomes, instructional design and more are available using Moodle with students and also as a professional development tool for unions and organizations. If data driven decision making is important,using Moodle in a blended fashion can impart that information for schools, teachers and unions. I’d like to see my AFT interact, as you’re doing here with a strong online, interactive presence. This is a great start.
Centering on the word accountability, how would it apply to the educational procedure? If we consider the educational procedure is centered on the student then accountability would be to the student who is the whole reason for this profession. The closest to the student, the faculty, is the most accountable to the student. The instructor is paid by the student to advance his or her skills and knowledge. The instructor could use some support it this effort. All else in the college is support for this activity; they are accountable to the faculty member who is accountable to the student. Any help including money should support the instructional level not the instructional level made more accountable. Instructors are reviewed by their students, which is a measure of their accountability and department heads review instructor skill periodically. This is all the accountability the faculty needs. The success of a program is measured by evaluations of students in the program. Any improvements in instructional process needs to be accepted and supported by the faculty, they are closest to the students. As faculty responsible for students I would not appreciate interference from those outside the classroom; helpful ideas yes, interference no.
Al Christensen, Professor Emeritus and former AFT member