Why test-based accountability must be replaced with something better (which actually exists). And why we can't wait.

NAEP scores are out. Here's what we should all take from them, and it probably isn't what most people think.

Please follow me over at Bluesky.

RT @antraasa: Private school vouchers don’t help low-income students. The cost and fees of private schools are often higher than the vouche…

RT @pastors4txkids: Early voting begins today. Vote like your neighborhood public school depends on it! Vote an anti-voucher #txlege Hous…

It is a fallacy to think that we need a test to account for anything in a school. We need assessments to aid with research, but accounting for what matters isn’t reliant on testing. Thinking testing is the solution is short-signed, unimaginative, and profoundly unhelpful.

RT @OFCSSuper: These images will be in each building. Parents and students, ask those in the building what they mean and why they’re import…

Business leaders and parents now what the same thing for our young people: teach them to deal with uncertainty. Learn to collaborate. Focus on digital literacy. Etc. So why is accountability only focused on basic academics?

RT @TMFtx: Today, the TX House Public Education committee is holding an interim hearing on Greg Abbott's failed voucher scam. We are faci…

Here's a thought: What if the bloated emperor of educational accountability really isn’t wearing a thing and we’ve just become numb to the view? It would mean a new and much improved view is possible, and highly preferable. Come see for yourself.

If you are in a school, you already spend considerable time grappling with the current accountability system. If you opt to spend that time a little differently--no policy change required--it may be one of the most transformational things you can do.

RT @copperfields18: Texas teachers outspend any other state in buying their own supplies for their students that’s all we need to know abou…

RT @Forrest4Trees: One of the most important charts for Texas: Attendance in public schools is holding steady while funding continues to dr…

RT @antraasa: “It is hardly the mark of American exceptionalism to have created an alternative approach to education for some whose propone…

RT @joshcowenMSU: Three things are undisputed in the voucher literature: 1) among the largest negative academic impacts ever recorded 2)…

Go ask your stakeholders what matters to them regarding schools. Odds are they will list ~30 benefits with basic academics coming in around #20. Academics matter, but we've missed the mark on what we need to account for.

The only reason anyone accounts for what they do is to create trust in the minds of those that matter. If the current accountability system in schools isn't designed to promote trust it shouldn't be called accountability. A better way is possible.

Accountability done well has a rising tide effect on an organization’s efforts. Accountability done poorly is a massive albatross around the neck of every leader in it. Doing it well or poorly is a choice, one we've been researching four years.

Accountability and testing have become commensurate with each other, which is a misrepresentation of both. Organizations account for what matters. Testing is a research tool. If you'd like to see what it looks like to manage both well...

Accountability feels like a loaded word in education, but it doesn't need to be that way. The truth is accountability is a discipline of leadership that leaders can control regardless of the policy. To find out more click below.

Survey 100 organizations that do transformational work in schools and ask about the biggest obstacle to the work. All 100 will tell you it's the way accountability gets done. It doesn't have to be that way and we don't need a policy change to get there.