Even in the most troubled neighborhoods and communities—those disrupted by poverty, poor health, violence and other ills—there are usually far more services available for children and youth than is readily apparent. Public agencies, non-profit organizations, charities, and volunteer groups all try hard to do their part to help kids grow up healthy and safe, and successfully gain the education they need to escape the grip of poverty. But, in most places, each of these service providers—the local school, the after school program, the free clinic, the Head Start program, the housing assistance organization, the counseling service and so on—work in isolation. And though each may be diligent and caring, and be held accountable by their funders or elected officials for meeting ambitious goals, they can only deal with part of the challenges that disadvantaged children and their families face.
So, what would it take to get all of these providers to both coordinate their efforts around a single goal and agree to measure their progress in meeting it? In a new Education Sector paper released this week, my co-authors and I identify four elements that must be present if this community-wide effort is to work:
- An overarching vision of student success
- Objectives, metrics, and performance targets aligned with the vision for each of the participating entities as well as the collaborative as a whole
- A system for collecting, analyzing, and communicating student outcomes data, as well as information on the partners’ organizational performance
- Strong, sustained civic leadership, supported by an intermediary organization dedicated to making the community’s vision a reality
When we went looking for a community trying to put all of these elements in place, we ended up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the Strive Partnership of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky has been operating for several years and is producing impressive gains in kindergarten readiness, vaccination rates, attendance, graduation rates and other metrics. But make no mistake: This is hard work. It poses technical, operational, political, and financial challenges. Such systems require engaging multiple players in decisions about priorities, resource allocation, performance measures, responsibilities, and consequences for participating organizations if performance lags. This is a new way of doing business, one that conceptualizes schooling as part of a community-wide effort to ensure that the children of today become the community leaders of tomorrow. As the cliché says, it takes a village to raise a child. But it takes more than isolated kindnesses and good works. It takes a purposeful, determined effort by people and organizations that agree to hold themselves accountable for success.
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5/29/2012 | The New York Times discusses Mary Nguyen's report "Degreeless in Debt: What Happens to Borrowers Who Drop Out."
5/28/2012 | The Washington Post discusses Mary Nguyen's analysis of college dropouts and loan defaults from her Chart You Can Trust, "Degreeless in Debt: What Happens to Borrowers Who Drop Out." 
5/24/2012 | Education Week discusses Anne Hyslop's views on Mitt Romney's education plan.
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Education Sector’s new paper on shared accountability raises a set of important questions about the in-school and non-school factors that our nation faces in educating our children, particularly low-income children and those of color. Every education policy maker needs to pay more attention to all of these challenges and stop ignoring the role that our families and communities must play in education reform.
That said, there are two aspects of the report with which I would take issue.
Most importantly, the report incorrectly implies that the Cincinnati Community Learning Centers (CLC) grew from Strive’s work. I know from my own personal involvement that the CLC initiative began in 1999, with school system and city leadership, 8 years before the emergence of Strive in 2007. Former Governor John Gilligan started the effort. CLCs bring together schools and a myriad of partners and is driven by a cross-boundary leadership team. There is now a board policy to make every school in Cincinnati a community learning center. We would all have been better served had the report explore the relationship between Strive and the CLC effort. Readers who want to know more about the CLC initiative I can read a brief story at the Cincinnati Public Schools website http://www.cps-k12.org/community/CLC/CLC.htm. They also can go to the website of the Coalition for Community Schools http://www.communityschools.org//resources/cincinnati_ohio_one_brick_at_a_time.aspx and find other resource materials. Cincinnati is one of eight communities we profile there which is scaling up community schools. http://www.communityschools.org.
Ed
Second, the Ed Sector report implies that few other communities have in place the four elements that it suggests are necessary for shared accountability. In our national community schools network we have more than 20 communities that are bring community schools to scale and many other heading in this direction. All of these sites have in place most of the essential elements that the report identified in place: shared vision, metrics, data collection systems, civic leadership and solid intermediaries. While in an in-depth focus on a single community is often helpful to readers, I would have hoped that the writers would have acknowledged related efforts of which they were aware.
Martin Blank
President Institute for Educational Leadership
Director, Coalition for Community Schools
Using the word accountability allows the writer to maintain the false premise that a lack of accountability is why kids do poorly in school.
The article clearly (well, maybe not clearly) points out that poverty is the paramount issue. It then goes on to talk about accountability. Serious disconnect, as JT points out.
All the evidence for failing students points to poverty. We’ve cut services, it’s not that they are simply hard to find (and relying on charity–the thousand points of light, is a fool’s errand).
Poverty, disparity and racism are our problems. Not a lack of teacher accountability.
I’m not trying to argumentative, but neither am I hearing an answer to the question of why you have to use the word “accountability” so much despite the failure of educational reforms based on accountability to produce significan improvements, and despite the damage the movement has caused.
Your report does an excellent job in documenting the need for the four elements necessary to overcome the effects of poverty. The word “accountability” is not to be found in those elements, and all four, I would argue, work more effectively in an environment that is very different that a an environment where the value of “accountability” is proclaimed.
As I’ve said, accountability is needed, just like we need to pay the water bill. It makes not sense to believe that accountability could drive such changes. Again, where in the course of human history has accountability been the game-changer? And again, this is not an acadmic point because accountability regimes tend to bring out the worst in people, and this initiative is designed to bring out the best in people.
Common sense supports your statement that, “Such systems require engaging multiple players in decisions about priorities, resource allocation, performance measures, responsibilities,”
Do you have any evidence for the statement, “Such systems require … consequences for participating organizations if performance lags?” What would those consequences be and who would assess them?
Does this accountability system plan to assess consequences on the organization of the United Way? How? Under whose auspices? The government, for instance, does not have legal authority to do that, and who else would assess consequences?
Does the effort really required that stakes must be attached to volunteers like Bearcat Buddies (University of Cincinnati), Literacy Network of Greater Cincinnati, Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, Council of Christian Communions, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, CPS, the Strive Partnership, and 100 Black Men?
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