LaSalle High School and "kindness"

Vicky's post about the Kindness Project reminded me that I never got around to posting "La Salle High School's" approach to character and kindness, which I vastly prefer to the standard FOCUS-word approach.

from Chapter 8
One Kind of Excellence: Ensuring Academic Achievement at La Salle High School

...La Salle High School (a fictional name but not a fictional school) was chosen for study because the graduates of that high school well exceeded expectations as to academic success in their freshman year of college. Considering the relatively high socioeconomic status of La Salle’s population, its graduates were predicted to do well in college, but they did even better than graduates of other schools similarly situated....

...advocates of educational reform agree that a rigorous curriculum accompanied by high standards should be part of what we mean by an excellent school..... Simply asserting [high standards] or even requiring them by imposing dire penalties does not in itself ensure success. La Salle High School did not simply stipulate academic excellence as a standard; it instituted procedures and structures that were aimed at providing the support that such high expectations required. No school is a perfect school, but the way in which La Salle High School was organized provides one way to approach the problem of providing academic excellence for all.

"character ed" through academics

Our impression, relative to programs in other high schools being observed, is that at La Salle the mandate for academic excellence has become the medium through which the staff communicates with students. This is a distinctly different emphasis from that taken by programs that focus more directly on aspects of social development or on adolescent problems. The La Salle administrators perceive that the academic focus provides a more benign environment with respect to negative labeling than would a direct attack on students' problems in terms of emotional and social adjustment.

In some respects, the academic focus tends to mitigate negative labeling because it generally is restricted to dealing with specific student behaviors as opposed to identifying personal character traits; for example, there is a significant difference between, on the one hand, telling a student that his or her absences are affecting the quality of schoolwork and, on the other, suggesting that those absences reflect a pattern of avoidance or are indicative of an emotional disorder. The relationship between absence and failure to achieve well academically can be seen by the student as temporary and subject to correction, while the labeling of the same behavior as abnormal suggests a serious and even permanent condition. In this way, the focus on academics may serve to avoid at least some potentially destructive labels. In general, the formal system of authority that prevails at La Salle is premised on encouraging students' attention to academic tasks and not on putative emotional disorders.

The formal structure of authority also prescribe general procedures aimed at groups of students. All students in their junior year, for example, take a test designed to measure general mathematics competence. Those students who do not pass this test at least at an 80% level of proficiency are required to take a mathematics refresher course. (This constitutes about 25% of the junior class.) Up to this point, this process ma be perceived as simply an examination-driven approach to ensuring that La Salle students have achieved a prescribed level of competence. However, even after the mathematics refresher course, a few students still will not have demonstrated 80% proficiency on the skills tested, and it is for this small group that new mechanisms are set in motion. Rather than leaving these students to their own devices for developing mathematical competence, each of the students is further required to attend a mathematics laboratory at which individual problems with mathematics are diagnosed and treated on a case-by-case basis. These cases ranged from a simple lack of skill development to dealing with psychological phenomena such as reducing the effects of test anxiety and even developing means for teaching certain geometric functions to a blind student. (This meant producing teaching devices as no commercial devices were available.)

In instances such as these, it is highly significant that, while the formal structure of authority imposes high expectations on all students, it also provides extensive support services and requires students to use those services. the proficiency requirement in mathematics would in itself be virtually meaningless unless a regular screening process existed to identify those students having difficulties and, more important, involved a carefully delineated procedure for correcting them. It is in this sense that la Sale's approach differs from the more common "standard raising" approach to achieving academic excellence. Frequently, schools, school districts, and state departments of education seek to achieve excellence simply by testing alone, by raising minimum requirements on such tests, or by simplistic mechanisms such as incrasing graduation requirements. Because support systems for students are lacking or inadequate in some of these cases, excellence is not actually advanced, only proclaimed.

In spite of La Salle's general success in using academic development as a medium for maintaining authority in the school setting, the school goes to considerable lengths to deal with the problems presented by certain students who simply do not accept the school's authority structure as being legitimate. The major burden for dealing with problems of discipline and truancy falls on the two building co-principals, who are "the court of last resort" at La Salle. The principals report that in general their official approach is to take a hard line with both students and parents ("the student will have to shape up or get out") but in practice, they tend to work behind the scenes to keep the students in school. The behind-the-scenes work mahy include intervention and student advocacy with the student's teachers and establishing contact with local employers to attempt to secure a job for a student. (The job can then become a part of the negotiation process--"If we got you an afternoon job, would you be willing to remain in school during the mornings?") It is common for one of the two co-principals to send a student to the other when he or she feels unable to deal effectively with a particular case.

Thus, it appears that the formal and highly visible authority structure co-exists with a somewhat hidden and informal, but reasonably effective, informal authority structure. In other words, there is a human face behind some of the formal procedures.

Changing Course: American Curricular Reform in the 20th Century
by Herbert Kliebard (chapter 8 coauthored with Calvin R. Stone)
p. 119-120

If character education programs (and Kindness Projects) elsewhere are anything like character education here, I vote no.

Good character, inside a school, is about doing your work and striving to excel. When a student is not doing his work and striving to excel, that should be the school's center of attention, not "FOCUS" words scotch-taped all over the front window of the foyer.

Eyes on the prize.


"La Salle High School" - tracking, placement, accountability

palisadesk on school improvement and the Catholic school

A year ago I went to a large conference on school improvement (the focus was on using test results and assessment to determine instructional priorities, action plans, etc.). There were a number of presentations from schools that had made significant progress. My principal and I went and chose to attend presentations on low-income, high-diversity urban schools, since we figured that would be most relevant to our situation. We both noticed that nearly all of the presentations (teacher and principal teams presented what they had done and details of their implementations, etc.) were from Catholic schools.

What stood out was not so much the specifics of what they did, but the commitment of the faculty. They were clearly dedicated and willing to go more than the extra mile in a way that would be unusual in a public school, even one with very competent and caring staff. Whether it was their faith per se, or more of an ethos of service, it was quite strikingly different from what one would encounter in a public school, even a good one (and I have worked in a few).

Now of course these were "success stories," and it does not follow from this that every Catholic school is similarly graced with highly committed staff, but the factor of shared vision is probably an important one that should not be underestimated, and is difficult to replicate in a diverse public system, where many values are simply not shared.

that disturbing kind of uncomfortability

"that disturbing kind of uncomfortability, if that is a word"

Hearing this, my first reaction was: Uncomfortability is not a word.

Second reaction: Uncomfortability is actually a not-bad description of what these news anchors were seeing.

Still and all, a news anchor should know whether uncomfortability is or is not a word.

sauve qui peut!

Possibly More Than You Want To Know About Private Schools

Originally posted at I Speak of Dreams January 5, 2005

Are the Challenger Schools "private schools"? What's the difference between traditional parochial schools and Sacred Heart schools? What makes a school a "private school", anyway? How are they different from public schools? Are all private schools better than public schools?

In the United States (at least in some circles) "my kid goes to private school" has become a chant of status. However, not all private schools mean "highly selective institution of highly rigorous and demanding curriculum".

The penultimate question, "How are they different from public schools?" is the easiest to answer: Governance, Fees, and Selectivity.

• Governance: Public schools answer to the public, and have a complex layer of administration, including state-wide, county, and local (district) layers of managment, some of which are appointed and some of which are elected. A good description of elected school boards.
• Fees Government schools may charge minor fees (an example being participation fees in a program such as music) but the cost of education is borne by the government. Private schools, on the other hand, typically cover costs by charging fees (tuition) and in the case of not-for-profit schools, also soliciting donations from the community.
  
• Selectivity Essentially, government-run K-8 schools on the whole are not selective (in the sense of refusing to enroll students who do not meet performance or familial criteria) although they may have an admissions cap, and therefore a process for reducing the number of students who apply. Private schools may, on the other hand, set any number of limitations on the type of student they will accept.

Non-government schools have one of three types of governance: answering to a religious body; a for-profit structure, or a self-perpetuating, independent board.

The "private school" universe should be properly segmented into

• RELIGIOUS
• Parochial schools of the Roman Catholic Church
• Doctrinally strict Roman Catholic educational institutions independent of a parish
• Religious-affiliation schools requiring (or putting a strong emphasis on) attendance at a given church, membership in a given sect, or a recommendation from an approved pastor
• Religious-affiliation schools associated with a particular religion or sect, but which accept non-members of that sect (an example would be the Sacred Hearts, and schools run by the Sisters of Mercy and other teaching orders. In other words, these schools have a religious core and include a religion curriculum, but have humanist values and accept students of all (or no) religion.


• PROPRIETARY OR FOR-PROFIT-- Unlike religious and independent schools, tuition includes a profit for the proprietors. Typically there is no board of directors, but a manager or owner (examples include the Carden Schools, Challenger Schools, http://www.challengerschool.com/ Chancellor Beacon: http://www.chancellorbeacon.com/aboutUs/default.asp.
• Stand-alone
• Chain or franchise


• INDEPENDENT--Truly independent schools, usually with membership in the National Association of Independent Schools Independent schools are non-public, not-for-profit, pre-collegiate institutions governed by boards of trustees. There are about 2,000 of these.

But What Does This All Mean?

First of all, what schools are we talking about here? I am restricting this discussion to kindergarten through 12th grade--elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. I am also restricting this discussion to schools for the more-or-less neurotypical--in other words, this discussion is not about schools specializing in education for dyslexics or people with autism or any other specialized population.

If there are these different kinds of schools, who determines if they are any good? There is a process called accreditation, which does and does not answer the question. In other words, if a school is not accredited, it may mean: 1. It is too young to go through the process; 2. The school declines to participate; or 3. The school won't meet the criteria.

(There are some very fine schools (Peninsula, on the San Francisco Peninsula, comes to mind) that have never sought accreditation for philosophical reasons.

What is Accreditation?

The United States has no centralized authority over educational institutions, whether public or private. To insure a level of quality in educational institutions and programs, there is a voluntary, peer review program, known as "Accreditation". This system has evolved over time. As it is used now, it tends to mean that the school has publicly announced some goals and has accepted some standard operating procedures, and has a plan for meeting those goals and certifying the procedures are being followed. A full description can be read at WASC's Accreditation Overview page.

There are six regional associations that accredit public and private schools, colleges, and universities in the United States: WASC(California, Hawaii, and the Pacific);, SACS(the American South), NEASC(New England); MSA (Middle States); NCACASI (North Central); and NAAS (Northwest).

The Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is a coalition of national organizations and state affiliates serving private elementary and secondary schools. There are 27,000 private schools in America; in fact, one in four of the nation’s schools is a private school. More than six million students attend them. CAPE member organizations represent about 80 percent of private school enrollment nationwide.

The National Independent Private Schools Association is an association of propriety elementary through high school institutions ineligible to join the National Association of Independent Schools.

Another type of private school is the proprietary academic school organized as a for-profit corporation. There are about 1,000 in the country, according to Jim Williams of the National Independent Private Schools Association.

"We are the tax-paying schools," Williams says. "Most schools start with an idea, the vision of someone. Many of the people who start proprietary schools are disenchanted public-school or disappointed independent-school teachers who don't want to deal with a board of directors or a school board." He points out that most of the elite prep schools of the 19th century began as proprietary schools with fees paid to headmasters. "People who get involved with proprietary schools are pleased with what they see," Williams says.

Other on-line sources of information

Private School FAQs from Robert Kennedy

A Partial List of Associations

• Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) strives to enable and equip Christian educators and schools worldwide to effectively educate children and young people with the mind of Christ. An evangelical Provides accreditation and other services.
  


• Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Educationis to promote excellence in Jewish education across the spectrum of Jewish life.
  


• Friends Council on Education founded in 1931, promotes the theory and practice of Quaker education, supports Friends schools in maintaining their values-based learning environments, and provides a professional development network for educational issues, philosophy and practice in Friends schools.


• National Association of Episcopal Schools.


• National Association of Independent Schools Serves schools that are established (in operation for at least 5 years) independent (not part of a larger organization such as a church) are not for profit (i.e., not proprietary) are accredited. and demonstrate financially sound operations and nondiscriminatory hiring and admissions practices.
  
  
• NAPCIS--this is a relatively new which serves to support and accredit private (not associated with a parish) Catholic K-12 schools, typically more orthodox than NCEA schools


• National Catholic Education Association an association of all Catholic schools, to improve both secular and theological education.


• National Lutheran School Association, provides an accreditation service for Lutheran schools.


• Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE)
exists to provide information and tools for improvment to Jewish schools.


• Solomon Schechter Day School Association provides guidance and support to Jewish day schools in the Conservative tradition.
  

How Do You Choose A School?

That is a huge subject. About Private Schools 101 has a pretty good start. NAIS has a thorough, online parents' guide.

Disclosure: I have been active in independent schools for the last 23 years, as an alumna, a volunteer fundraiser, as a board member, as a member of board committees, and as a parent. I do not believe that education is an either-or choice. Having a diverse set of schools to choose from enriches the community. I believe that the school's governance and fee structure (independent school or private school) is no guarantee of educational quality.

Education Consumers Clearinghouse - best practices

I think this is the report Brett mentioned in his comment:

Executive Summary:
Educational Practices of Six Effective Tennessee Schools (pdf file)

1. Principals receive frequent reports on individual student progress towards the Tennessee curriculum standards.

2. Teachers receive frequent reports on the progress of each of their students.

3. Schools keep parents regularly informed about their children’s progress and ask the parents for assistance when children are having difficulty achieving a particular state
objective.

4. In addition to Tennessee’s TCAP examinations, these schools use supplemental tests that assess the same knowledge and skill domains sampled by the state examination.

5. Schools use criterion-referenced progress tests.

6. Schools set mastery criteria higher than those required by the state curriculum standards.

7. Principals use student progress reports scores to evaluate each teacher’s effectiveness in bringing about student achievement gain.

8. Principals and teachers collaboratively group students to optimize student progress.

9. Teachers employ supplemental learning activities when one or more students are having difficulty achieving a particular objective, even though the rest of students have mastered
that skill.

10. Teachers who are experiencing difficulty in particular areas of teaching are mentored by the principal and other teachers.

11. Teachers and principals select activities that allow students to practice the knowledge and skills that will be tested.

12. Schools have adopted school-wide programs that reward positive social and academic student behaviors.

13. Principals acquire additional resources to help teachers whose students are making insufficient progress.

14. Schools survey parents annually to assess satisfaction with the school’s services.

Heaven on Earth.

somewhere far from here: "La Salle High School" part 2

… a prominent feature of La Salle’s day-to-day reality is the community mandate to strive for and to achieve academic excellence….

In fact, La Salle may be seen as having built its institutional life around the legitimacy of academic excellence, but, practically speaking, in order for that definition of excellence to be maintained, mechanisms had to be created to ensure that all or almost all of the school’s students would be able to find success as the school’s staff and community define it.

[snip]

The heart of La Salle’s formal structure is an emphasis on careful diagnosis of academic problems, an extensive system of support for students encountering academic difficulty, and an especially close monitoring of student progress. A rather complex network of support for a defined standard of excellence keeps the system working and prevents a great many students from “falling through the cracks,” as one administrator put it. The formal structure includes the following:

1. Students are tested upon entry into the district to determine their levels of academic skills. These tests include “both cognitive abilities and a writing sample which indicates writing skills.” Students then are tentatively placed in classes for the purpose of further diagnosis. This tentative placement allows La Salle’s professional staff to evaluate further student capabilities by observing their actual levels of performance.

2. Students then are assigned by subject to one of four academic levels, Honors, A, B, and C. Level B is the most common placement and incorporates about 50% of the student population. In some cases, students may be placed in a high academic track for several subjects but a lower academic track in other academic areas according to their performance. The administrators interviewed stressed the idea that placement is “based on performance rather than ability.” They stated that the criteria used for placement include: (a) achievement testing; (b) motivation as perceived by the classroom teacher; and (c) the grades that students are receiving. Each academic department, primarily through the department head, does its own placement, and there is a re-sorting at the end of each semester based on the student’s semester performance. Parents, however, may intervene in this process by requesting either a higher or lower placement for students and, most often, parent requests are granted “with a note inserted in the student record indicating that the placement is not the recommendation of the department.”

3. The La Salle staff periodically tests student development and retention; for example, at one point, a mathematics test given to juniors indicated that approximately 25% of the school’s juniors could not achieve an eighth-grade level of performance in arithmetic with 80% proficiency. Accordingly, those students were given remedial instruction. This incident led to the establishment of a school-wide mathematics maintenance program in order to ensure that students obtained and retained basic mathematics skills.

4. In their freshman year, all students are required to attend study halls during the hour or two when they are not in class. The study halls are also resource centers, which contain many of the books and references needed by freshmen in their courses. In such study centers, emphasis is placed on assisting students with their work. The teacher aide who runs the center is familiar with the assignments that freshmen receive. (This stands in contrast to study halls in other schools, which provide only custodial care during study periods.) Some freshmen who are deemed to be academically deficient are required to attend a separate study skills center adjacent to the freshman study hall. There, the intention is to provide more intense help than is available in the freshman study hall. Together, the freshman study hall and the study skills center serve to initiate freshmen into the academic culture of the school.

5. During their sophomore, junior, and senior years students who are experiencing academic or truancy problems are assigned to study halls during times when they are not in class. Again, emphasis is on providing academic assistance.

6. A few students exhibiting extraordinary behavioral problems are assigned to “supervised study.” In this room, custodial care is supplemented with a strong emphasis on interaction between the aide and the students. The room has only 12 desks, indicating that supervised study is necessary for only a tiny portion of the student population.

7. The school places a premium on student attendance in classes and has designed an effective monitoring system whereby parents are notified by the classroom teacher of class cuts on the same day that they take place.

source:
Changing Course: American Curriculum Reform in the 20th Century
by Herbert M. Kliebard
(Teachers College: 2002)
Chapter 8: One Kind of Excellence: Ensuring Academic Achievement at La Salle High School
Co-authored with Calvin R. Stone

notes:

• grouping by performance & place in curriculum
• grouping criteria appear to be reasonably objective and understandable by parents
• grouping decisions revisited at end of each semester, not each year
  
• math "maintenance" program
• study hall monitors know the assignments and have most of the textbooks
  
• parents have an override on grouping decisions
  

a school board in an excellent school
"La Salle High School" - tracking, placement, accountability

a school board in an excellent district

This is amazing.

I stumbled across this passage in Herbert Kliebard's Changing Course: American Curricular Reform in the 20th Century by Herber Kliebard. We're on the even of our school board election; went to the candidates' forum last night.

The candidates' statements are here (you should be able to open the emails containing candidate statements, but not download documents) --- if you're interested in "micro" politics, i.e. school politics, these are pretty amazing, I think. I was thrilled to see them.

Irvington is in a bit of a revolutionary moment.... which is pretentious language, but not exactly wrong. I think you can see it in these statements. All three candidates talk about loss of confidence, lack of trust, lack of communication, and so on. I can't imagine that these statements are typical of candidate statements in most board contests.

Anyway, it was pure serendipity to find this study of a high-end school and its school board on the eve of the election:


from the introduction to the chapter:

...La Salle High School (a fictional name but not a fictional school) was chosen for study because the graduates of that high school well exceeded expectations as to academic success in their freshman year of college. Considering the relatively high socioeconomic status of La Salle’s population, its graduates were predicted to do well in college, but they did even better than graduates of other schools similarly situated....

...advocates of educational reform agree that a rigorous curriculum accompanied by high standards should be part of what we mean by an excellent school..... Simply asserting [high standards] or even requiring them by imposing dire penalties does not in itself ensure success. La Salle High School did not simply stipulate academic excellence as a standard; it instituted procedures and structures that were aimed at providing the support that such high expectations required. No school is a perfect school, but the way in which La Salle High School was organized provides one way to approach the problem of providing academic excellence for all.

source:
Changing Course: American Curriculum Reform in the 20th Century
by Herbert M. Kliebard
(Teachers College: 2002)
Chapter 8: One Kind of Excellence: Ensuring Academic Achievement at La Salle High School
Co-authored with Calvin R. Stone
p. 113-116

more:

Public Accountability versus Professional Autonomy

As already indicated, the geographic communities served by La Salle High School are inhabited by middle-and upper-middle class families. Educators in the La Salle district who were interviewed, without exception, perceived the community as a whole and the parents of La Salle students in particular as having extremely high expectations of the school. These community expectations are perceived to be focused directly on the academic program of the high school and on the development of students’ potential for success in future university work. This perception of a “push” by the community for academic excellence was made all the more stark when seen against the educators’ perceptions that the community has only a passing interest in the success of the school’s athletic program or social activities.

This community press for academic excellence is felt by educators through direct contact with parents, who are perceived to be extremely involved and quite demanding. It also is reflected in the actions of the school board, which is perceived by the school staff as being dominated by individuals who are highly intelligent, businesslike, self-confident, aggressive in their desire to involve themselves with educational issues, and firm and decisive in setting a course for the school. The activities of the school board are not limited to concern for the development of the successful student at La Salle. Indeed, in the year prior to this study, the school board requested that administrators produce documentation for each student who had dropped out, including a description of the problems that the student encountered and the actions taken by the school to resolve them. Needless to say, this request in itself caused school personnel to reconsider problems faced by marginal students and ways that the school might respond.

Although some complaints are voiced, the staff of the school actually appears to take some pride in the fact that the school board is as powerful and decisive as it is, because this enhances La Salle’s reputation for excellence. There are, however, reservations expressed about the role that the school board plays. One teacher remarked that she wished that the board would leave more educational decisions in the hands of professional educators. A second teacher, who represents a more critical extreme, stated, “The [school] board is made up of captains of industry, and they seem to think they can treat us [teachers] like the clerks in their stores or the laborers on their assembly lines.” This critical perception by teachers of the school board’s power is voiced by other educators as well, but most often is focused on one particular issue that stands as a source of friction between the school board and the teachers: that teachers in the district may be laid off using criteria other than seniority. In a period of declining enrollments, several teachers each year, regardless of their time in service to the district, were being laid off. The district’s legal authority to use criteria other than seniority, such as teaching competence, places the district in a commanding position to demand excellence from its teaching staff, but that obviously has its costs.

Leaving aside the implications of the relationship between the school board and the teachers, we at least can conclude that there is a strong consensus among La Salle educators that the community places an extremely high value on education and that parents support the school by demanding excellence, not only of their sons and daughters, but also of educators. In addition, these values and expectations are reflected in the community’s electing school board officials who are vocal and aggressive in their demand for academic excellence. As already indicated, however, academic excellence is a frequently expressed goal of American high schools. As already indicated, however, academic excellence is a frequently expressed goal of American high schools. As such, it has become a kind of slogan that is in such general use that it has little power to explain a school’s success unless it is defined further by attention to the concrete school practices that are derived from the meaning that “academic excellence” has for educators. One of the obvious costs of this kind of excellence, which may b particular to this case, is the strong tilt at La Salle High School away from professional autonomy and toward public accountability. Teacher morale, for example, became a particular factor when nine teachers and one guidance counselor were laid off (a couple were later rehired) during the year of this study. In the absence of firm job security, it was natural for teachers to ask themselves who would be cast adrift the following year. In an attempt to mitigate the problem of laid-off teachers, Dr., Hallquist secured the school board’s permission to hire, at a cost to the board of $500 per teacher, an occupational counseling firm to assist the laid-off teachers in making career changes. Overall, however, La Salle High School generally was regarded by its professional staff as a good place to be, even though many teachers and counselors remained understandably anxious about job security.

Notwithstanding the real concern that teachers express about job security, it is still safe to say that the ethos of La Salle High School is one of strict professionalism, including a strong sense of duty and accountability both to the students and to the community. While every teachers’ lounge has its share of banter and idle chatter, it is distinctly less pronounced at La Salle than at other high schools that were observed. By and large, teachers prepare for classes, correct papers, and attend to record keeping. In one instance, a foreign language teacher was asked what work she was engaged in so busily in the teachers’ lounge. It turned out that she had received a higher than expected estimate from a travel agency for a forthcoming trip to Europe with her students. She was using her free period to write directly to hostels and bus companies in Europe to see whether she could reduce the cost of the trip by making the travel arrangements herself. This represents a degree of dedication and commitment that is expected of and not uncommon among La Salle teachers.

Given the fact that most La Salle teachers are evaluated between two and five times a year, and that La Salle teachers’ continued employment depends at least to some extent on meeting the standards that are defined by the evaluation process, it is clear that La Salle’s teachers are subject to tremendous “pressure from the top” to excel in the roles defined by and for them. In this regard, it is important to note that the teachers at La Salle are, in a sense, held accountable for the actions of their students. Teachers who were interviewed, for example, were conscious of the fact that their success in the evaluation process depended on the extent to which students appeared to be motivated, asked questions, and assumed responsibility in the classroom setting.

It is inconceivable that a teacher observed at a nearby high school, who failed over 48% of his students could define his role in the same way were he teaching at La Salle. First, he would not be meeting many of the standards and expectations upon which La Salle te4achers are judged. Second, at La Salle High School, there is such a self-conscious regard for community expectations that, in such a case, this teacher’s particular practices and perhaps his overall competence would become immediately suspect. Whether or not it is actually the case, there is a perceived expectation on the part of school personnel that La Salle parents would become aggressively involved in demanding changes in the event of such an occurrence, and there is little doubt as well that their efforts would be reasonably successful. And finally, at La Salle not only are individual teachers rigorously evaluated, but so is the curriculum. If, at La Salle, a course taught by several teachers was discovered to have a high failure rate, the course itself would come under scrutiny as well as the practices of the individual teachers.

While interviews of educators at La Salle indicate that an actual case of this nature (a teacher failing an extremely high proportion of students) has not occurred, one revealing incident may serve to illustrate the institutional ethos at La Salle. Some of the details of the incident probably have been changed or recast in the telling, but, in general, the story is as follows: A La Salle teacher gave a student a B for a semester grade. The student and parents of the student objected, arguing that the student should have received an A. The teacher refused to change the grade, and so, under pressure from the parents, several administrators conducted a hearing. The student’s grade hinged on the fact that the teacher had given the student a B on an important composition, and the student and his parents argued that the student deserved an A for the composition. To resolve the stalemate that ensued, school officials suggested that the composition be sent to a national testing service for evaluation and that both teacher and student agree to abide by the judgment. The composition received an A, and the student’s grade was subsequently changed. Although this incident is an isolated one, it was repeated by several informants and has become part of the folklore of La Salle High School. Teachers and administrators feel themselves to be under the watchful eye of aggressive, articulate parents, and this strongly influences their professional behavior.

The incident also serves to illustrate several important aspects of La Salle’s approach to accountability. First, teachers have relatively limited autonomy and are certainly not “autocrats of the classroom,” a term that was applied to teachers at another high school. At La Salle, teachers are respected for their teaching ability and for their mastery of subject matter, but they must exercise caution in their dealings with students lest they be called to account. Second, the incident illustrates the aggressive role that parents of La Salle students take or at least are believed to take. Their own high level of educational attainment and perhaps their social standing confer on them a certain freedom to challenge teachers’ decisions. In addition, the solution to the problem (using an independent evaluator to grade the student’s composition) indicates how far school authorities will go to accommodate parental concern for high academic standing. Finally, this and similar incidents reflect and illustrate the contours of the relationship that exists between individual educators and the communities La Salle serves

.


a school board in an excellent school
"La Salle High School" - tracking, placement, accountability