f

o
s
e
g
n
e
y
l
l
t
i
a
l
i
h
b
C n ta
e
e
h
h
u
t
T
o
c
d
n
c
a
A
k
c

o
R
e
c
e
la
h
t
P
d ard erald
n
o
J
y
H
g
i
Be
Cra

The Challenges of Accountability

> Educators must stop lamenting the challenges
of accountability .
Educators should start making improvements.
New York Times Newspaper in July ran an
important article on a serious scandal in the city
school system:
Growing numbers of students-most of them struggling
academically are being pushed out of New York Citys
school system and classified under bureaucratic
categories that hide their failure to graduate.(Lewin &
Medina,2003,p.A1)

 The theme of the article was link between

such behavior and external accountability
policies.
The authors wrote the suggestion between
pushouts and accountability.
Those students represent the unintended
consequence of the effort to hold schools
accountable for raising standards. Given the
pressure on schools to show good results, it is
understandable that principles would have little
interest in holding onto low performing students.(p.
A1)

 Greater accountability always

been accompanied by worried
talk of unintended
consequences.
When professionals in other field
act in bad faith, no one calls for
less accountability.

Choosing to break the rules and take actions that harm students will
always be just that: a choice.

begin to excuse such choices by

substituting euphemisms.
Strip education administration and
instructions of its professional and
ethical dimensions.
Creating another unintended
consequence: Those who attempt to defend
the education profession in such ways end up
undermining
and cheapening it.