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Who’s ‘Accountable’?
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Business New Haven
9/4/2001
By: BNH
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New Haven Schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo wants to set up an “Office of Accountability.” And New Haven's appointed school board has agreed.
Under the program, accountability is to include teachers, parents, administrators (what a change that would be) and yes, even businesses for their involvement in education.
Accountability on the part of parents is to include attendance at school meetings, ensuring that pupils do their homework and, perhaps most importantly, making certain that their kids actually attend school.
The plan envisions “helping” or “enforcing” action on the part of parents using tactics that include a “parent involvement mentor,” or potentially a visit from the Department of Children and Families (an organization that might benefit from its own accountability plan).
We're sure that many parents are outraged by the suggestion that they are the problem. The teachers' union is already squealing. too. The issue, however, is not grand plans but implementation and commitment.
Most kids spend as much waking time in school as at home, so when we talk accountability, teachers and administrators need to be on the hot seat.
It is difficult to take the current school administration and the New Haven Board of Education seriously on the issue of accountability. This is the same group that was pushed, kicking and screaming, into accepting the state's plan for accountability. Four years after the Connecticut Mastery Tests were implemented, Education Commissioner Theodore S. Sergi essentially threatened New Haven with a state takeover if its bureaucrats didn't pay heed to improving performance.
Now, within days of a fiercely, contested mayoral primary, this plan is unveiled. Forgive our skepticism.
If “accountability” is the watchword, here's another question: Why does New Haven stand virtually alone in having an un-elected school board?
We know many in New Haven believe that the government of Plato's Republic, in which an elite of philosopher kings sets the rules is best. But New Haven's experiment in education management is an abject failure.
An elected school board is no guarantee of success - one need look no further than Hartford to learn that. And we're sure an elected school board could and world stir up quite a mess here. But when we talk about involvement, and accountability, the discussion begins with democracy.
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