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February 2007
ACCOUNTABILITY: noun; 1. the ability to be counted or counted on, 2.
requirement for a person or institution to answer to someone for actions
taken; syn see RESPONSIBILITY.
CONUNDRUM: noun; 1. a riddle, 2. a fancy academic word for an intricate
and difficult problem; syn see MYSTERY.
We hear a great deal these days about “accountability” in the academy,
although few consider this at all mysterious. Many states (including
South Carolina, where I try my best to be a “responsible” college
administrator) have some kind state law mandating that public
schools—and, in some cases, colleges—demonstrate that they are indeed
“accountable.” Typically, this means that institutions file reports that
show the institution to be in compliance with certain standards as
demonstrated by statistical assessments. (Remember that the art of
statistics is the ability to draw a perfectly straight line from a
faulty assumption to a fallacious conclusion.) Who could be opposed to
“accountability,” a term as revered as “Mom” and “apple pie”? The
conundrum is in the details: Who is accountable to whom for what?
It might be helpful for academic leaders to reflect on such questions.
It seems to me that the concept of educational accountability has
morphed through several murky, even mysterious, stages, in less than a
straight line from assumptions to conclusions:
STAGE #1—The Parent is accountable. One of the earliest educational laws
in colonial America was a statute in 1642 in Massachusetts, declaring
that “the great neglect of parents ... in training up their children in
learning” could result in the court assessing fines to said parents.
Churches also took on a major role in ensuring that students were
accountable for certain values in the young. Only after the development
of schools in the 18th century did accountability for student learning
shift elsewhere.
STAGE #2—The Student is accountable. Once students became the charges of
public schools, the expectation was that they would follow the
established curriculum, standards of behavior, and evaluation processes.
Parents would get report cards showing progress, and if a student was
punished in school, the parents would follow suit at home. Such
accountability concepts assumed that teachers, administrators, and
school board members would make the rules and issue the judgments.
STAGE #3—The Teacher is accountable. By the middle of the 20th century,
testing of students was joined by testing of teachers. Certification of
teachers by states often mandated successful passing scores on such
standardized tests as the National Teacher’s Exam (now itself morphed
into the PRAXIS exams developed by the Educational Testing Service). By
this time, state departments of education, other governmental agencies,
and accrediting bodies were requiring teachers to be accountable for
their professional and academic knowledge and performance. State
dismissal laws specified “just cause” for firing “incompetent” or
“unfit” teachers.
STAGE #4—The Institution is accountable. This is our current stage, and
it extends from the pre-K level through higher education. Today the
entire educational system is being held accountable, not merely for the
quality of its faculty, curriculum, and facilities (so-called inputs)
but also student learning, behavior, and success—in the school and
beyond. To enforce this latest form of educational accountability,
institutions have developed elaborate planning and assessment mechanisms
and face increasing levels of inspection to see if “student learning
outcomes” have been achieved. If not, accreditation, funding, and
reputation are in jeopardy. And now the federal government is itching to
make colleges accountable to it.
So, academic leaders, what is next? I have no idea. Dealing with the
responsibilities of institutional accountability for learning outcomes
keeps me too busy to speculate on the future of this “conundrum” for
administrators. However, the longer I am in the trenches, the more I
sympathize with poet Ogden Nash, who once observed: “Change is good—but
it has been going on too damn long!”
What future do YOU see for accountability in higher education?
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