The history of Louisiana education has been one of short spurts of reform that are slowly unwound by a lack of political commitment unrelated to the best welfare of students. In 1997 Louisiana created its accountability system, and in 2012 Louisiana became the center of the national education reform universe by substantially reforming education policies. The 2012 reforms were based on simple but widely accepted principles: high standards, accountability, and parental choice. Nothing much else has occurred since these two reforms and the results are predictable.

Twenty-seven years on, the accountability system has become so convoluted that it is impossible for most people to understand. Perhaps there are many beneficiaries for such a confusing system, but they don’t include children.

From my personal perspective, we now have a governor who does not accept the status quo, who refuses to assume that we are perpetually locked in mediocrity. We have a new state Board of Education (BESE) and Legislature who are dedicated to the premise that focusing upon student outcomes is an issue that must assume the highest priority. BESE is clear that doing the same things over and over will never result in a better Louisiana, and further it believes (and data proves) that given positive leadership and policies all children can substantially improve. The Legislature has lent it commitment and support to policies of upmost concern to high quality education.

The path to better outcomes hasn’t changed since 2012, positive change has to be based upon those principles of high standards, accountability, and choice. Standards and choice are fairly easy concepts to grasp, but what exactly is accountability? In simple terms accountability is a multi-function tool critical to the efficacy of all tiers of the education process.

More specifically, accountability is a statistically based function that uses a handful of clearly defined metrics to create an actionable view of how well a student, a teacher, a school, a district, and the overall system are doing. To be relevant, a strong accountability system must be simple to implement and understand, useful at all tiers of the education process, and accurate. Though often we hear that the process should be “fair”, it is just a red herring. Fairness is a conveniently defined political construct; if the system is accurate, then the results, by their nature, are fair.

At the classroom level accountability results help a teacher understand the trajectory of individual students and help them make corrections in technique to alter that trajectory. It helps teachers understand how well they themselves are doing. Accurate results help parents understand how their students are doing and help teachers communicate issues and needed change to parents.

At the school level the accountability system also serves to assist school-based management to understand the trajectory of students, but it also helps management to understand the effectiveness of teachers and identify the need for extra training and guidance to help teachers perform at a higher level. In the worst case, management can identify teachers who are unable to improve after receiving guidance and to take appropriate action. A simple to understand accountability system helps parents understand the success or failure of a school and empower parents to speak out about poor results.

At the district level, individual school performance can be compared, and steps taken to correct undesirable outcomes. An accurate accountability system allows the district superintendent to evaluate school-based management and other problems and to correct them. The School Board in turn can have an accurate evaluation of the performance of its district management, especially its superintendent and his/her staff. District accountability helps parents and taxpayers understand how well the School Board manages the district under their governance.

Finally, at the state level, the accountability system lets the state superintendent and management have a picture of how the overall system is performing and allows for corrections in state policy as required. It also highlights for BESE the performance of the state superintendent and his staff against its expectations.

Accountability is truly just a tool, but it is a tool with serious ramifications for adults as well as children. The nearly three-decade old accountability system has been at best ignored, at worst tinkered with to create politically comfortable outcomes. Over the next few months BESE will embark on revising the accountability system so that it fulfills the principles of simplicity, usefulness, and accuracy. That will mean that some will be very unhappy with the results, but BESE is committed to making sure that teachers, administrators, and citizens have the most accurate and meaningful information to make critical decisions about Louisiana’s future. Louisiana’s people, especially its youngest, deserve an accountability system that is a nationally recognized gold standard.

Much is riding on the results of the next few months, but accepting mediocrity by repeating the mistakes of the past has had its day. BESE’s overhaul of the accountability system is a critical step in its effort to help children break the avoidable grip of educational stagnation and the associated social ills and poverty that flows from it.

A frequent Hayride contributor, former Louisiana state senator Conrad Appel is an appointed at-large member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).