DATE: Saturday, March 22, 1997              TAG: 9703220004

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: OPINION 

SOURCE: BY AARON A. GAY JR. 

                                            LENGTH:   68 lines

DEBATE ON TEACHER ACCOUNTABILITY CONTINUES

The view of educational accountability, presented by Regent University Professor Wally Cox (Another View, Feb. 28) regarding the Norfolk Quality Schools Initiative (NQSI), is obviously flawed. Three flaws scream out for attention immediately.

First, the interesting but highly implausible analogy which the professor draws between medicine and education is tenuous at best. Medicine is a bona fide profession, while education is a pseudo-profession (apples and oranges) for reasons known to the professor, I'm sure. Even so, one must agree that if a physician follows recommended procedures and practices and the patient dies anyway, the patient's survivors could not conscionably hold that practitioner responsible. On the other hand, if said physician does not follow recommended procedures and practices, if he is negligent or if he commits malpractice, woe be unto him. Not only will he be subject to legal action from the patient's survivors, he will also be sorely dealt with by his peers (the AMA).

By the same token, educators who approach teaching and learning using techniques and strategies which are recommended and have been shown to be effective, and who do so properly, probably should not be blamed if their students fail to demonstrate acceptable academic growth. I say ``probably'' because even that is debatable on several grounds. But as is the case with the doddering doctor, educators who do not use methods and materials known to have produced desirable outcomes, namely, acceptable academic achievement, should bear the consequences of their ``malpractice.''

It is unfortunate that the education community and the larger community have come to focus so intensely on grades and test scores. Low grades and test scores are only symptoms which indicate that something is not working properly. Our attention should be focused on what has caused grades and test scores to be what they are.

Individuals who masquerade as teachers, principals, central office administrators and university professors ought to be drummed out of the education community. Educators should be held accountable for performing the duties and functions spelled out in their job descriptions.

Educators must be held accountable for doing what they agree to do when they sign their contracts. If educators were to do so, the grades and test scores would take care of themselves.

Therein lies the crux of educational accountability. Parodying the professor's folksy adage, ``You can lead a teacher to the classroom, but can you make him teach?'' Children learn when they are taught - when educators do what they are supposed to do.

Another flaw in the professor's view is his presumption that NQSI operates on the assumption that educators are the major factor in student learning. One must wonder how he arrived at such a presumption. That notion appears nowhere in NQSI literature, and I doubt that such a pronouncement has been made by any NQSI personnel. Educators are most certainly a major factor in student learning.

The good professor's second presumption is a natural outgrowth of the first, namely that NQSI assumes that other external influences do not significantly impact student learning. This presumption could not be more ludicrous. Norfolk public school personnel are well-aware of the myriad of variables that impinge on the educative process, and they work at those factors diligently on a daily basis. If educators and schools are not a major factor in student learning, a considerable chunk of our gross domestic product is being wasted.

Finally, given the professor's attitude on the effect that educators have on student learning, it would be interesting to learn how he reconciles that position with the fact that he makes his living as a purveyor of pedagogy. MEMO: Aaron Gay Jr. is director of the Department of Research, Testing &

Statistics for Norfolk public schools.

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