Accountability and Student Learning

Abstract

Holding teachers accountable for other people's (students) behavior is inappropriate policy that results in ineffective teaching, diminished enthusiasm for learning, and lower levels of achievement. There are both legal and psychological reasons for this. Making teachers responsible for students' behavior absolves students of responsibility for their own actions and develops an externalized locus of control in students that leads to teacher control and student dependence. Because every person is accountable for his or her own behavior but not for what other people do, teachers must be held accountable for what they do as teachers but not for what their students do as learners. Students are responsible for their own learning.