Free post: Accountability

One issue that has really bothered me through this course so far is the debate on accountability. In class we discuss how the US is falling behind in test scores and the schools are not competing on the same level as schools in other countries. The only resolution we raise in class is a need for higher accountability. While this may not be the correct answer, until we find it, I agree that we do need to place more emphasis on accountability. The issue comes in when we discuss testing. To me the most efficient (maybe not the most effective) measurement of accountability is testing. However, in class several people complain that there is too much testing, and that the tests we have to take are too repetitive and/or too rigorous. For instance more than one person has complained that they did not pass the PPST test by 1 point or because of one section or another, or that these tests are just like all the standardized tests we have had to take all of our lives. Open your eyes; thats called being held accountable! We cannot claim that we need more accountability, yet the teachers of our future sit in class and complain that tests are too hard and that we should not have to take so many of them. maybe I am missing something in regards to how to hold our students and educators accountable, but to me these prospective teahers are just being hypocritical, and need to figure out where they stand before any of us should be given responsibility of molding the children of our future.

-Mike