Be Accountable
There is a created sense of urgency with the No Child Left Behind Act for school boards to impact student achievement through the creation of a performance culture. School boards must focus on students, create a shared vision, set high expectations, and enlist community support for what they do. Therefore, they must engage in data-driven decision-making and strategic planning to create a culture for improved teaching and learning.
A system of sanctions and rewards hold schools accountable for meeting performance objectives. School-by-school report cards are published for parents, as well as on the Internet for all public schools. These report cards include math and reading results disaggregated by ethnicity, gender, poverty, students with disabilities as compared to non-disabled students, and English proficiency. These report cards are integrated with existing state and local report cards where possible. Therefore, school boards should understand that they are in the spotlight of the community to create conditions that impact student achievement.
The school board’s role in student performance is to establish a vision of what students should achieve, and then hold themselves, the staff, and the students accountable for continuous improvements in achievement. The Iowa School Boards Association and School Administrators of Iowa have a structure that supports this continuous improvement for students by creating strategies to hold themselves accountable to make sure this is accomplished. The intent is to recognize that a collaborative culture can have an impact on the entire district which in turn can positively impact student achievement. To do this, school boards must understand that they serve as education’s key advocate on behalf of students and their schools. They are accountable to the community and, according to the Minnesota School Board Association, they must regularly assess conditions affecting education and student achievement. They should perform in a manner that reflects service to the community on behalf of students by conducting district business in a fair, respectful and responsible manner.
