Benefits-Based Accountability More Accurately Tells the Story of Schools PAGE Talks

This episode is all about the design and implementation of benefits-based accountability for schools.
Executive Director Craig Harper hosts this conversation with John Tanner, accountability researcher, author, and founder of bravEd, and Dr. Marc Feuerbach, superintendent of Cartersville City Schools, in Cartersville, Georgia. John is the leading designer of the PAGE initiative that resulted in True Accountability for Georgia Schools (TAGS). Cartersville City Schools is one of the original pilot districts that formed TAGS and is implementing benefits-based accountability throughout the system.
Georgia school leaders interested in learning more about TAGS and how to join the initiative should contact John Tanner at john.tanner@brave-ed.com.
Music for PAGE Talks is Inspirational Outlook by Scott Holmes
Podcast cover art by Dolly Purvis with PAGE Communications
Show Notes
(Timestamped notes are summarized from comments and are not intended as a transcript)
John Tanner
03:45-Over the last five years we've gotten better at thinking about, talking about, and getting benefits-based accountability systems in place.
04:05-We can all collaborate on what accountability ought to look like in schools and figure out the best way to bring benefits-based systems into schools.
04:28-A basic benefits-based system can be in place in a few months in a school.
04:45-In the beginning of this work, it seemed like everyone needed to understand accountability in the same way and at the same depth as I did, and that was a mistake.
05:00-Where we've come in the past few years in terms of the old "Name that Tune," we've gone from naming that tune in 10 notes down to three or four.
Marc Feuerbach
05:35-To be truthful, benefits-based accountability wasn't attractive at first.
05:55-This seemed like a way to find something good to show if test scores weren't good.
06:15-This opened my eyes that this really is about the stakeholder, the community, those involved in our organization ... focusing on all areas we should be accountable for.
06:50-As we dived deeper into this, it's a more holistic approach to what we do in schools and what we're held accountable for.
John Tanner
07:40-My professional background is testing and I knew that world well. However, I was Interested in accountability, not testing and so was never obsessed about testing.
08:15-Testing is designed as a research instrument for narrow and specific purposes and not as a social decision-making tool for judgment.
09:15-Standardized testing instruments are legitimate research tools used for deeply inappropriate judgments.
09:30-There are a limited number of research functions these tests can play, and they play almost none of them. This leads in awkward and bad directions that do not share the whole truth.
10:00-It would be helpful to have better tests, but we could have the best tests in the world, and as long as we have the same accountability environment that we do, it's going to have the same effect as we have at the moment.
Marc Feuerbach
11:00-Pillars of the benefits-based accountability system described: Student Achievement; Student Readiness; Engaged, Well-Rounded Students; Community Engagement & Partnerships; Professional Learning/Quality Staff; Fiscal and Operational Systems; and, Safety and Well-being.
12:00-Only have capacity to do so much and must select areas...