There are 2 bills in front of Ohio’s elected officials that seek to provide partial reforms to its current accountability model. I liken it to chefs trying to create a very good soup and they’re arguing over the ingredients that make a particular soup a very good one. The problem in this particular case is that those taking part in the cooking are forgetting that at the end of the day, the soup needs to taste good in order to be great. In addition, some aren’t even qualified chefs and shouldn’t be in the kitchen in the first place, but alas. Sure, a person may begrudgingly eat the soup that’s presented, but if you want to create something memorable, sometimes you need to start over.

In this case the debate is over using a 5-tiered grading system (A – F) versus a 6 level system using stars. As it relates to systems of measurement (much like a grading system) you can expand such a system as much as you want. Do you want to use an “A-F” system or introduce pluses and minuses? Heck you could go B- or C++ or C+++, A—. but doing so does not make your system of measurement more precise or more valid. In fact, it stretches the measurement scale to the point where those you’re reporting to have no idea what you’re trying to communicate. So…both are bad because they don’t do what an accountability system should do…clearly communicate and build trust with the audience that you’re communicating to. Yes measurement should occur. We do need assessment results to help us understand where we’ve been, but imagine driving to a location and all you’re doing is looking through your rear-view mirror.

In the words of John Tanner, one of the challenges of a school reporting system is that a group of people who are inside the organization (those that have all of the technical knowledge) are trying to report on a great deal of information to those outside of the organization so that they can see the benefit of forming a relationship with that organization. In this case…the public school district with its stakeholders. The rub is, those outside of the organization have very little technical knowledge. Tanner’s True Accountability model enables “an understanding regarding the technical work within an organization for a non-technical audience.” https://www.brave-ed.com/blog When the information presented enables others to understand the benefit, trust is built. When it is unclear, trust is broken.

It is clear that in Ohio we have some significant trust issues because we continue to mess around with the same types of metrics (e.g. the same soup ingredients) rather than trying to do something brave…something just…something transformative…something great. So from my perspective, use 5 grades, 8 grades, or 10 grades. Or, introduce 5-stars, 7 stars or 9 stars. The model is still bad, the benefit of public education isn’t easily understood and the trust doesn’t increase. In fact, the system that has been in place for the past 20 years has created a sense of distrust with public schools and Ohio’s elected officials have used it as leverage to continually expand the concept of school choice. Doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is Einstein’s definition of insanity.

I’ll end with a few citations from people who have shaped my understanding of the topic of organizational measurement.

Tanner’s most recent blog that resonated with me:
Effective organizations all over the world begin and end their accountability conversations with the notion of benefit and when schools can do the same on a regular basis the amount of information and understanding our stakeholders will have will far surpass anything that exists today. And if our stakeholders can understand what is happening in our schools, so can our policy makers. -John Tanner

Finally, to those who are part of Ohio’s accountability conversation from the Fordham Institute and Ohio Excels who claim to be representing businesses, I’ll remind you of what Jim Collins wrote–1) “Business thinking isn’t the answer and 2) Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline, 3) It doesn’t matter whether you can quantify your results. What matters most is that you rigorously assemble evidence–quantitative or qualitative–to track your progress” -from Good to Great and the Social Sectors

People will read about Ohio’s Report Card/Accountability debate and you will hear things like, “this isn’t perfect but no reporting system is.” When you hear comments like I’d encourage you to put it into this context. Think about a major purchase that you’d make. Something that will impact your daily financial life and cause you to put a significant amount of thought and care into such a purchase. Will you say things like–
“Well this car isn’t safe, but no car is….this house isn’t well built, but no house really is.” Would you accept that? If not, why would you for your children?

Kids have but one journey through their K-12 experience. If you’re not willing to accept an answer like that for something you’re spending a great deal of money on, why are you willing to accept it from our policy makers and elected officials. Expect better. Understand the benefit of public education and demand that they do it right. Require them to “do it right or do it over!”

~Jim Lloyd, Ed.D.