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The article is used for educational purposes by Dr. Jan A. Nilsson, Biology Department, South Texas College, Texas, USA. To make information available to all students in the course the following was scanned, for educational purposes, from the McAllen Monitor.
The home page of the McAllen Monitor is located at the following URL: www.themonitor.com
Ardis, C. 2004. parents, teachers liable for students' education. The Monitor, McAllen, Texas. (November 16): 1B
Parents, teachers liable for students' education
Accountability [emphasis in bold added by Dr. Nilsson]. This is a word we hear again and again. Our schools are graded according to accountability standards. Teachers are held accountable for our attendance and grading records. It is all about accountability. I'm rather confused, though. I think this whole accountability thing is very skewed.
Let me start with grades. Who should ultimately be accountable for a student's grades -- the teacher, the parents or the student?
It seems to me that the teacher is accountable for actually teaching a subject, for answering students' questions and taking material that is very difficult and breaking it down so it is understood. The teacher, I think, should also be available either before or after school for at least a short time for students willing to attend tutoring.
Parents should also be accountable for their child's grades. We send progress reports so parents will know how their child is doing in class. Parents should read those carefully. Parents should also be concerned if their child never brings work home to complete or to study. And parents should be accountable to make sure their children get enough sleep so they will be attentive in class. Young people require at least nine hours of sleep a night.
But shouldn't the student ultimately be accountable for his or her grades? [emphasis in bold added by Dr. Nilsson] This should be a learning process at the elementary level. That is when this accountability should first be taught. By the time the child reaches middle school, this should be obvious. And by the time the child reaches high school, who else but the child should ultimately be accountable?
So what about minimal grading policies, principals who insist, for example, that no grade below a 50 be given to a student?
How in the world can a student get a 50 if he doesn't even turn an assignment in? And how can another student not study at all for a test, earn a 20 but be given a 50? I can't believe this is even legal. I've said this before: That is called a curve. Therefore, if a child who earns a 20 is given a 50, then shouldn't the one who earned an 80 be given a 110? If this were happening at my child's school, I would insist on it. Why should my child work very hard and earn a good grade while another student is given an unearned grade so that "he'll have a better chance of passing?" Where is the accountability here?
At some schools, teachers receive forms in their boxes if their failure rate in a class is considered to be too high. Some teachers have even stopped giving homework because "the students don't do it anyway and it drives my failure rate up." Who are we helping with this solution? We may have a lower failure rate, but we have students totally unprepared for higher education, where no one is going to have that little pity party [emphasis in bold and red added by Dr. Nilsson] for them.
So much of it is what we expect, and the more we lower the expectations, the less accountable our students are.
Attendance is another issue [emphasis in bold added by Dr. Nilsson]. Two weeks ago, there was a story on one of our local television stations -- one Valley district with incredibly low attendance rates decided to get serious about the issue and hold the parents of these truant students accountable. I wanted to stand up and cheer in my own living room as I watched Judge Mary Alice Palacios tell the parents in no uncertain terms that they had better make sure their children were in school.
Finally, I thought, the accountability was being placed where it belonged. Being a parent is not easy, but it is a job people accept when they decide to have children. It is not the job of the teacher or the school administration to get children to ifil school. It is the job of the parent and the child.
As the story progressed, an irate parent was interviewed outside the school. Had he known the judge was going to be so rude to the parents, he said, "I would have brought my lawyer with me." Yes, that is the answer. If you are not doing your job and someone finally decides to hold you accountable, call a lawyer. Threaten a lawsuit. That will solve all of the problems in our schools.
For the record, the judge wasn't being rude, just blunt.
Teachers should be held accountable for teaching their courses, offering help to students willing to learn who need a little extra help and having high expectations for their students.
Parents should be held accountable for having their children in school on a daily basis |m and keeping up on their grades and their study habits.
And the students themselves need to be held accountable for being in school and passing their classes. If we're going to place so much attention on accountability, we better make sure the focus is on the right person [emphasis in bold added by Dr. Nilsson].
