Hold Schools Accountable

Policy Action: Hold Schools Accountable for Results

If we are to move from a system of mandates to a system based on results, we must develop sophisticated measures of school performance and the capacity to respond when schools struggle.

Indeed, the most complex challenge facing Illinois may be the need for a thoughtful plan to intervene in chronically failing schools.

While the state has more than 500 schools on its Academic Watch list, many landed there as a result of targeted shortcomings, rather than as a result of broad-based failure to educate. A much smaller number can be more aptly described as having entrenched and chronic problems which suggest a lack of capacity to serve students or improve on their own.

Intervene in Failing Schools. As the pressure grows to fi nd a way to help these struggling schools, it is readily apparent that the state lacks the resources to do so. Having been in the compliance business so long and so thoroughly, ISBE has not historically needed to develop the sort of expertise or capacity required to tackle this knotty and sensitive problem. The situation needs to change—radically and quickly.

The state recently passed legislation (SB2119) creating a task force to examine the problems facing persistently low-performing schools and identify potential solutions. The task force will devise measures to identify which schools fall into the “chronically failing” category, explore national best practices for turning around struggling schools, and determine what state authority and capacity is necessary for the work at hand.

We encourage the task force to consider the lessons being learned in similar efforts around the state and country, and to move with all deliberate speed to craft a long-overdue state strategy for making a quality education available once more to some of the state’s most vulnerable students.

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