Reducing Threat from Accountability

This KnowledgeBase archive includes content and external links that were accurate and relevant as of September 30, 2019.

In his book, Results: The Key to Continuous School Improvement, Mike Schmoker presents five ideas to help administrators reduce the sense of threat teachers feel from accountability initiatives. The five ideas are as follows:

• Do not use data primarily to identify or eliminate poor teachers.
• Do not introduce high stakes prematurely.
• Try to collect and analyze data collaboratively and anonymously by team, department, grade level, or school.
• Be cautious in implementing pay-for-performance schemes, especially in the beginning.
• Allow teachers, by school or team, as much autonomy as possible in selecting the kind of data they think will be most helpful.
• Inundate practitioners with success stories that include data.

Source:
Schmoker, Mike. (1999). Results: The Key to Continuous School Improvement. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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