The Importance of Accountability

Hello everyone,

I think accountability is a key component of education, both in our classroom management and in our presentation of the content.

I also think that failure to hold students properly accountable is a frequent, serious mistake committed by teachers.

There are a wide variety of things to consider in establishing accountability in our classroom, and I would like to mention some that come to mind.

We cannot hold students accountable for something that hasn't been taught to them. It is unfair to do so. On the other hand, we don't have to tell them every single thing for which they will be held accountable. We may assign them to learn something on their own (make sure it's easy enough for them to do independently), and hold them accountable for that knowledge. We may require them to read and understand independently, and hold them accountable. We may say, "Starting tomorrow, I will enforce all the school rules that are in your student packet," and hold them accountable for those rules.

It is a major mistake to give work (either classwork or homework) for which students are not held accountable. If we give an assignment, at the very least, we must collect it. If we give a time limit, we must either enforce it or give a valid reason for not doing so. (If I gave a time limit to something, and if I saw that all students were very diligent working on it, and I realized that the time was insufficient, I might say, "I can see that I gave you insufficient time; you have all been working and are not finished. Who cannot finish in the next ____ minutes?" Then I would hold them accountable for the second time. This must be a rare occurrence, however. If you do it all the time, students will feel that you have no grasp of their time or abilities and are not able to make good estimates.)

You may hold students accountable for things that you personally struggled with. Yes, I cheated sometimes in high school. However, I still hold my students accountable for cheating because I have come to learn how wrong it is. If a student ever called me on it, I would use the following parable: "There was once a man who liked to walk on the edge of a cliff. One day, he wandered too close to the edge; it crumbled, and he fell fifty feet. He survived, but he was crippled for the rest of his life. Does he have the right to warn people to stay away from the edge of the cliff?" Of course, the answer can only be "yes." "I am figuratively crippled from having fallen off more than one figurative cliff. I think I have the right to warn you all to stay away from the edges of those 'cliffs,' and I will use the power I have as a teacher to convince you to avoid what is wrong." They don't always like it, but they understand.

Your grades must reflect true accountability for what you have told your students. This doesn't mean that every single thing they do must have an individual grade (you can hold them accountable simply by collecting some assignments); it just means that the grade should be an accurate appraisal of the student's academic achievement.

Don't unfairly mix accountability. Don't give a student a Fail in something academic because the kid irritated you personally with his classroom behavior. Tardies and absences, however, may affect a classwork grade.

Consequences for misbehavior are important to establish accountability.

You are accountable to the students and their parents, as they are accountable to you. Demand much out of yourself, and you can demand much out of them.

Jeff Combe