Accountability vs Responsibility

We constantly want to know as a state how we can improve our schools.  This year members of the State School Board traveled to Finland to look at their school system.  Only 1 in 10 people that want to become teachers, actually do.  They all have their masters.  There are in unions WITH the principal.  There is no word for accountability in Finnish.  Where in the US we are begging people to become teacher and it has been stated that teachers do not need higher education or professional development.  A direct quote from a NC congressman was that teachers have learned all they needed to in undergraduate studies, they do not need PD. (I do not want my doctor to think they learned all they needed to in undergrad/med school).  In the US we have people whose job is to hold people accountable (cough::me::cough).  The main difference between Finland and US is that only 4% of Finnish live in poverty so they automatically start off in advantage from the US.

Lets first start with the teachers:

North Carolina Teaching Fellows was recently cut from funding. This is a great program (yes I am partial) where 500 high school seniors were given $6500 for four years to attend a state college and they were expected to teach for four years in NC to “pay it back”.  They can teach in any system they wish to, as long as it is a NC public school.  NCTF also provided summer enrichments and seminars during the school year to increase the educational opportunities.  With the budget being what it is, they could not afford it anymore and the state legislation cut it.  Teach for America just got another big push from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding it for another year.  TFA is a program where it recruits non-education majors and pays for their undergraduate loans if they teach for two years in a low performing, high poverty school.  They do not get to choose their school.  70% of NCTF stay in the field of education after their commitment is over.  7% of TFA candidates do. What are we saying about education as a priority job in America? 

As for accountability, like I’ve said before, my naivety is out the window.  I have seen a need for accountability.  Most teachers want to learn all they can and absorb all the resources they are able to, so that they can best teach their children.  However, when teaching is not considered a professional career by all, nor taken as a professional career by all, there are always those “that give us a bad name”.  We do not want to be teachers because we get the summers off.  We are not teachers because we get out at 3 pm.  We do not teach because we have recess and a lunch break.  However when that is the view that people from society have, and the attitude that a couple of teachers take, we have to hold all accountable for their actions.  In Finland, they said the closest word for accountability is responsibility.  We definitely need teachers to take more responsibility for their actions.  I have heard the words “take this class because it’s easy and it’s over fast” talking about a differentiation strategy.  I don’t want to hear that from my doctor “I took that class on how to work on migraines-it was fast and easy.” I want to know that they learned something! 

Merit pay has been discussed as a way of getting teachers to teach better.  However then you are judging teachers based off of tests that are not designed to judge teachers.  The 5^th grade reading test cannot judge my abilities as a teacher.  Education is not a black and white quota driven profession.  Using the tests as such high stakes models we are squeezing every bit of creativity, critical thinking and innovation out of education models, in the words of Diane Ravitch.  Teachers are teaching to the test, to keep their jobs.  One study found that the merit pay wasn’t “worth it” to teachers.  Another found that merit pay destroys collegiality.  Either teachers are not enticed by the amount of pay they could receive, or they were hoarding their materials and their students. 

As professionals we need to be sharing our best practices, we cannot think of our students as “mine” and “yours”.  We need to embrace our strengths and weaknesses and all of our children and teach each and every child, the best way possible.  For this to happen though, we all have to take responsibility for ourselves and our children.  We cannot limit our hours to the school day.  We cannot stop our education at the undergraduate level.  We cannot look for easy CEUs.  We must challenge ourselves, push ourselves and strive to be professional learners.  I would gladly give up my job and go back in the classroom if it meant that teachers would find PD on their own, collaborate without being prodded and observe each other to learn best practices.  I know time is the biggest issue, but I’ve learned that the more time I take, the better my profession and career are, and the better my personal life is too.  When you are happy at work, you are happy when not at work.  It is a balance, and it takes a positive, responsible outlook.