Local Accountability: Simple, Local, and Student-Driven

In public education, accountability is often viewed negatively, seen by many as a punitive process. Rarely is school accountability regarded as a positive or ongoing improvement process. Today's school accountability tends to be overly rigid and finite, rather than a continuous and formative journey. Moreover, it often takes the form of a single-day event, with students undergoing state assessments and results being shared with the public. Accountability has the potential to be far more positive than negative, provided certain changes are made. The legacy and traditional accountability models used nationwide have remained static and grown increasingly inflexible with each passing academic year.

With next-generation accountability models, such as local accountability, the narrative for school accountability undergoes a significant transformation. It shifts from a transactional process to a more transformational one, where data is leveraged to drive real-time improvements for students throughout the school year, rather than merely assessing a single data point and providing an overall score for a school or district. Traditional accountability models constrained by the summative nature of the data and the predetermined release schedule of results to schools and districts, often hinder the flexibility and responsiveness of educational institutions.

With local accountability, there exists an inherent desire to render accountability meaningful for all stakeholders. Furthermore, it cultivates partnerships across the entire spectrum, commencing with the primary aim of fostering collaboration to establish distinctive learning environments, experiences, opportunities, outcomes, and support systems for students. To be clear, there is growing momentum in the sphere of school accountability, emphasizing the prioritization of processes, operations, culture, leadership, and instructional effectiveness while diminishing the significance of student test scores. Countless research studies furnish evidence that performance, encompassing student achievement, stems from factors often concealed beneath the surface, such as the learning environment, experiences, opportunities, outcomes, and support systems. Nonetheless, traditional accountability models typically discount, overlook, or briefly consider these crucial prerequisites for student growth, achievement, and preparedness!

Indeed, with the advent of next-generation accountability systems, there is a clear intention to redefine school accountability, making it more than just an annual or semester-end assessment. These next-gen systems usher in a foundational shift, moving away from the traditional summative data approach and embracing a more dynamic formative data model that is assessed on a monthly or quarterly basis. School improvement processes are being restructured to closely align with the formative timeline provided by local accountability systems for schools and districts.

Within the context of Fleming County Schools, we employ a quarterly diagnostic approach in reading, math, and writing to assess students' current growth and readiness levels and tailor interventions and accelerations to meet each student's specific needs. Additionally, we conduct monthly evaluations of underlying dynamics, operations, processes, and support systems to ensure that the conditions and environment align with students' requirements and maintain a high standard of quality. Stakeholders play a vital role in supporting the district throughout the accountability process by offering their input through surveys, participating in focus groups, and engaging in one-on-one interviews.

In 2023, school accountability takes on a new dimension, emphasizing the imperative of driving meaningful change for students, rather than merely striving to meet arbitrary objectives. Next-generation accountability models shift the focus towards growth, assessing a school or district's ability to nurture student development, rather than solely evaluating their proficiency in meeting generic achievement targets, which often fail to captivate or inspire students and educators alike. Similarly, parents, guardians, and the wider community often grapple with the intricacies inherent in traditional accountability models. Frequently, they encounter scores or letter grades but lack a comprehensive grasp of the quality of education and services offered within a school or school district. In local accountability, stakeholders contribute to the development of a system tailored to meet local and regional needs while unapologetically keeping it student-driven.

Next-generation accountability models will adopt an ultra-simplistic approach closely tied to local communities. Communities will play an integral role throughout the entire process, right from inception to culmination. Initially, stakeholders, including students, will pinpoint the accountability components that hold significance to them. This will be followed by identifying how student readiness will be assessed, and lastly, determining the components governing the overall quality of learning within the school or school district. The crux lies in ensuring that the local accountability model remains simple to comprehend and manage without compromising the school or school district's expectations. The beauty of involving the community throughout this process lies in engaging them in meaningful discussions concerning school accountability, and actively listening to their ideas and input. As a result, stakeholders are more likely to throw their support behind the local accountability system, thus strengthening the long-term sustainability of the next-generation accountability model.

This school year (2023-2024), Fleming County Schools will be working closely with the community, including students, to make updates and revise components, if needed, for Version 4.0 which will be released in the fall of 2024. The district will be working to educate stakeholders, while also, soliciting their feedback on the current model (Version 3.0) and gathering input on their preferences for important accountability components already in place and components that need to be replaced with more relevant or up-to-date components. To ensure that feedback and input are collected correctly, the district will be working with an external evaluator to lead this process. Furthermore, the external facilitator will also lead the work with stakeholder education to ensure stakeholders understand the Measures of Quality and the ultimate purpose of local accountability. It is important, as the district prepares to launch Version 3.0 and prepares for the release of 4.0 during the 2024-2025 school year, that there is a purposeful education plan for stakeholders in place. 

Since the autumn of 2021, the Measures of Quality have undergone significant changes due to the discovery of data gaps, advancements in measuring student readiness, and the acquisition of knowledge on how to assess overall learning quality. Within the context of local accountability, experimentation, and refinement are common, yet the primary objective remains resolute: to identify the most effective and widely supported approach for evaluating overall learning quality, thereby enhancing student readiness for the next academic stage.

Since the launch of Version 1.0 in January 2022, school and district leaders have made significant strides in data collection, utilization, measurement, and sharing with stakeholders. Nevertheless, there is always room for enhancement in how the district educates, engages, and empowers stakeholders throughout the local accountability process. The release of Version 3.0 marks the culmination of a year-long journey of continuous improvement and extensive research and development within Fleming County Schools. Every effort has been singularly directed towards creating a local accountability system that not only furnishes an accurate gauge of quality across the district but also drives meaningful change for students.

Arguably, traditional accountability models merely function as reporting systems and are not explicitly designed to catalyze change for students. Local accountability, in contrast, furnishes school districts with the capability to address student growth and readiness in a formative manner. Each day, we diligently work on refining the accountability system with a laser focus on crafting distinctive learning environments, experiences, opportunities, outcomes, and support systems for our students.

Not to overlook the importance of it, the Measures of Quality, our local accountability system in Fleming County Schools, was initiated with the core principle of "measuring what matters most to students," and it persists as a work in progress with high aspirations. Next-generation accountability presents a formidable challenge, given the significant shift it brings to schools nationwide. While local accountability encounters substantial obstacles in gaining recognition, we maintain clarity by adhering to our primary objective of creating an accountability system that is genuinely centered around students.

As we contemplate the state of public education in 2023, it becomes paramount to determine the kind of accountability we desire and, more significantly, what our students truly require. To be unequivocal, within Fleming County Schools, we place significant value on school accountability and comprehend the necessity for it. Nevertheless, within the current landscape of public education, we believe that as educators, educational leaders, board members, and a community, we can hold ourselves to loftier expectations than those dictated by a conventional accountability model.

The standards set by the Measures of Quality within Fleming County Schools surpass any expectations imposed by a state-operated accountability system. What's even more critical is that the Measures of Quality empowers stakeholders in ways previously unattainable, enabling them to force the essential changes that will ultimately benefit our students. 

In Fleming County Schools, we stand on the threshold of revealing a local accountability formula with the potential for replication, expansion, and endorsement throughout the entire Commonwealth. The precise moment of this breakthrough may be imminent, perhaps within five months, or it could be a more distant milestone, potentially taking up to six years to reach. Nevertheless, we approach this endeavor with an unwavering sense of urgency. This urgency does not revolve around winning a race; rather, it derives from our profound awareness that our students yearn to be acknowledged for more than just their test scores.

Similarly, we aim to free our teachers from the constraints of teaching solely to standardized tests. With local accountability, our schools can return to their role as centers of inspiration, fostering a love of learning, and serving as gateways to brighter futures for all our students, regardless of their aspirations. Our journey with a next-generation accountability model is both exhilarating and daunting, yet undeniably rewarding. With each revolution of this orbit, we draw nearer to an accountability model that authentically gauges the quality of education taking place district-wide, offering substantial benefits to our students. Undoubtedly, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, one that is well within our grasp! 

Our Journey Continues…