How to make schools accountable

How to make schools accountable -- Interview with Albert Shanker*

Human Services Systems and Grants Writing
Joshua Haltom
Antioch University
Professor Karin Vanzant
June 03, 2016META

I am going out on a limb with this discussion.  I see no APA or MLA guidelines, so bar with me, please.  Drucker asks Shanker of his experience in the “improving performance in the classroom(s), [making] teachers and schools accountable for performance, and building the school(s) around the classroom teachers” (Drucker, 1990).

There are three questions posed for this assignment, and they are again the very same three as the other three weeks using the 1990, Drucker text. 

Schools need to upgrade.  “Everything goes beneath the placing” (Matthews, 1994).  Albert Shanker states that “the way to deal with this is to ask: What kind of human being are we trying to produce?” (Drucker, 1990, p.131).  What is required of us? “It’s why I am” (Matthews, D., 2012).  Reflecting upon my own productivity, Albert, which is the same name as the interviewed here, Albert Leland, was the name of my grandfather, and he had a twin brother, Alvis Leo.  They were of course constant companions, serving in the military together but were often shipped-out to different locations.  There are some unusual stories along those lines as are well-known to appear in identical twins’ relationships.

The same it goes within the “classroom” setting. 
If the answers are somehow predetermined, then logic shows this to not really be education but more like indoctrination or a genetic program.  Of course, this is not always the case though.  The human mind cannot be confined or controlled using any lawful modes and methods.  Preforming simple experiments could demonstrate this.  If a donkey is tied to a chair, many times it will not try to moving, because it will notice that it seems trapped.  The other side of the coin can also be observed by dangling a carrot in front of a mule if you need it to carry you to where you want to be. 

Albert Shanker mentions ways of how most educators will approach the question of human productivity seeming with very narrow perception.  He then goes on to say, “essentially performance in education occurs along three dimensions:  knowledge, being able to enter the world as a citizen participating in the economy, and, for some reason, the final mention here is the growth of the individual.  How this affects my views of Human Services Administration is similar to the conclusion [here] by Shanker, “Unfortunately, we don’t do a very good job of even getting close to measuring these gains” (p. 131).  I will say, for arguments sake is that some reason the measurements are unclear is because the weight is misplaced, the gravity exaggerated, and the scales are out of balance.  With these tidbits, I have received confirmation that there needs to be more transparency in relation to the governing of living systems, which is ironically the final dimension mentioned by Shanker.



From the most doubt to the most Certainty, I conclude this review by quoting Metallca, [the student is] meant to be, “so close no matter how far and could not be much more from the heart…  forever trust in who we are … and nothing else matters.”  (METALLICA, 1994)




References|||



Matthews, Dave (1994).  Satellite.  Under the table and Dreaming.  RCA Records.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEGV9H0aZaQ

Matthews, D. (2012).  Why I am.  Away from the World.  RCA Records.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXgYgfe-oNo

METTALLICA (1991).  Nothing Else Matters.  Elektra Records.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxX3nNThhxI

|||submitted unto Antioch University Connected, at 12:12AM., June 06, 2016