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ACADEMIC QUALITY ASSURANCE AT EACH SCHOOL

CONTENTS
[ . ] Effective Schools
[X] Community-Based Public Schools
[X] Council Duties
[X] Academic Quality Assurance
[X] Points and Counterpoints
[X] Related Pages

EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS
Research conducted in the 1970's by the late Ron Edmonds found that "effective schools" appeared to be the result of either:
(a) a "tyrannical" principal (one who insists the children will learn),
(b) a core group of dedicated teachers,
(c) a politicized parent-teacher organization (PTO) whose members closely monitor student progress, or
(d) a blend of (a), (b), and (c).

A school board can help create the equivalent of "politicized PTO's" while retaining the traditional supportive role of existing PTO's by also encouraging the establishment of "academic quality assurance councils" (local school councils). The proposal here calls for using public bodies, with elected members, to not only monitor student learning, but, if need be, to go on and address shortcomings.

COMMUNITY-BASED PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Before going further, four positive features of community accountability in public education are listed:

• The traditional public school has been a community-based institution with "community" defined by a geographic boundary. This arrangement gives all residents within the community a reason to join together to educate "our children". This type of public school is a community unifier.
  
  
• School reforms such as alternative schools, private-school vouchers, and public charter schools are intended to make up for a lack of responsiveness at a parent's home school. However, these reform concepts are not expected to be a unifying force in geographic communities. Further, busing students to more distant alternative schools, etc. will increase the cost of education by perhaps six (6) percent.
  
  
• When a public school system is indeed community based, it encourages good-school builders. When schools are isolated from and unaccountable to their communities, parents are forced to become good-school shoppers. A school district that addresses parental discontent by offering "school choice", in effect, gives parents only a lottery chance at a good education for their children.
  
  
• At times, a school may experience student peer pressure toward an anti-learning culture, the use of shoddy English, abrasive treatment of teachers and other students, etc. In a large school district, shortcomings of a specific school's academic climate can be more quickly addressed with community-level oversight rather than relying on oversight from a central school board.

COUNCIL DUTIES
A proposed school board policy that would encourage the establishment of building-level councils is shown on web page POLICY ON ACADEMIC QUALITY ASSURANCE COUNCILS [X]. In brief, the duties of a council would include:

1. Conducting a quality assurance review of at least one academic program each school year. ("Quality assurance" is defined in the next section.)
   
   
2. Maintaining an environment conducive to innovations, and "home-grown" solutions to problems by holding public forums.
   
   
3. Making written recommendations to the school principal on improving the school's effectiveness. (The principal would be required to respond in writing in a timely fashion.)
   
   
4. Participating in establishing rules of conduct and setting annual goals at the council's own school.
   
   
5. Issuing an annual assessment report to the community before the close of each school year.

ACADEMIC QUALITY ASSURANCE
Quality assurance means effort directed toward assuring quality. It does not mean focusing on finding fault. Or, in the other extreme, it does not mean glossing over real problems in order to claim all is well. In an ideal school, one would expect "academic quality assurance" studies of one academic program after another to honestly find that teaching and student learning are meeting all academic goals. Even in this ideal academic environment, if it turns out that many 5th graders seem to hate school, there may still be a good reason to consider making some changes. In other words, as used here "academic quality assurance" is broadly defined.

Quality assurance of, for example, math in the 5th grade may entail:

• Understanding the school district's goals for this 5th grade course.
• Understanding the state's academic standards for this course.
• Determining how well the classroom textbook and other teaching aids align with the academic goals.
• If the teaching goals and tools do not all fit together, questioning why the various pieces don't match.
• If the foundation seems sound, analyzing the students' strengths and weaknesses as indicated by test results.
• Interviewing teachers, parents, students, etc.
• Perhaps, developing ideas for making things better.
• Perhaps, making recommendations to the school principal.
• Perhaps, issuing a report (or holding an event) commending the teachers and the students for their achievements.

POINTS AND COUNTERPOINTS
(Arguments against school-site councils followed by counterpoints)

****** PARENT-TEACHER ORGANIZATIONS ******

Against -- Parent-teacher organizations (PTO's) provide more than enough opportunity for parents and school-attendance-area residents to get involved in their local public school. If a person doesn't want to pay dues to a PTO, he/she may still stop by a school and volunteer to help out. Accordingly, the proposed academic quality assurance councils are not needed.

Counterpoint -- School districts typically offer the volunteer opportunities mentioned above. And, this openness is good public policy. PTO's traditionally play a supportive role in a school community with money-raising activities, social functions, etc. However, these volunteer activities are not the same as the duties of a council member, and one set of volunteers can give only so much time. The academic quality assurance task teaches in-depth study and analyses, creative thinking, and then perhaps give-and-take negotiating. These problem-solving skills can have value in other venues of one's life.

****** ANOTHER LAYER OF BUREAUCRACY ******

Against -- Given the existing size of the bureaucracy in large school districts, encouraging more study groups, oversight groups, etc. just adds to the complexity of the command and control of a school system. It is better not to institutionalize what politicized ad hoc groups can already do.

Counterpoint -- One problem with ad hoc groups is that the members are not elected. Building-level councils, with duly elected members, would represent their community, and if need be, out-in-left-field members can be un-elected. The contention that academic quality assurance councils will add complexity to the command and control of a school system has some merit. This will be true of any form of increase in citizen oversight.

****** COUNCIL MEMBERS WILL NEED COSTLY TRAINING ******

Against -- It is un-realistic to expect non-educators to do good academic quality assurance. Without extensive and costly training, the whole program would be a waste of time and money.

Counterpoint -- There is no reason to believe that councils made up of store clerks, engineers, bank tellers, lawyers, computer programmers, etc. couldn't do a respectable job of quality assurance without extensive formal training. Council members will have a training manual. Granted, the first few meeting would be dominated with "dumb" questions, but it wouldn't be long until a more insightful dialogue emerges. However, the recommended policy [X] calls for the superintendent to prepare an Academic Quality Assurance Council Manual. Beyond this, one could envision placing copies of an academic-quality-assurance training video in both public libraries and school libraries. Yes, the school-council program will cost some additional tax money because of election, training, and meeting space. But, the councils' activities are expected to yield benefits that will be worth the added cost. There is no free lunch.

RELATED WEB PAGES
[X] NORM-REFERENCED AND CRITERIA-BASED TESTS
[X] POLICY ON ACADEMIC QUALITY ASSURANCE COUNCILS
[X] TYPES OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

[X] EDUCATION MENU
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This page last updated: February 28, 2007