Dartmouth undergraduates recommend accountability in education

Posted 05/18/01

If state legislators take their suggestions to heart, research by three Dartmouth undergraduates could have an impact on the education children receive in the New Hampshire public school system.

Under the guidance of Visiting Instructor of Education Ethan Cancell, seniors Rachel Goldwasser, Jocelyn Leavitt and Joe Rockers spent two months researching and writing a report on educational accountability for the N.H. Department of Education. Since completing the report earlier this year, the group has twice presented its findings at department meetings in Concord, most recently to more than a dozen interested Department of Education staff members on May 9.

The study offers a definition of accountability, explains what other states are doing to create accountability systems, and offers specific recommendations for New Hampshire. N.H. Education Commissioner Nick Donohue requested the report through Cancell, who has a special interest in the issue.

One of the challenges the group faced was that accountability is a relatively new concept in education, and very few people, educators included, have a firm grasp on what the term means.

"Accountability is a buzzword that gets thrown around a lot, but what is it? No one really knows," said Goldwasser, a geography major from New York City.

The group also discovered that states usually don't have good data on which to base measurements of performance, and even if they do, individual schools often don't have the resources they need to improve achievement.

"Just throwing money at schools won't do it, although money is the one resource every school could use more of," said Leavitt, who noted it's important to provide professional development on the individual teacher, school and district levels.

In the report, the group recommends that the state investigate the possibility of cooperating with other states in the region to provide better, more economical testing, which will yield better data for measuring performance. They also suggest that, in a state that takes pride in having strong local control of schools, imposing a statewide mandate could backfire. Instead, the state should consider investing its resources in more professional development for teachers and administrators.

Chicago native Rockers, a government major, found the complexity of the issue intriguing.

"It was fascinating to me how different states are doing vastly different things, but they all call it accountability," he said. "There are so many ways to approach the issue. Scholars say one thing, politicians say another. There's just a variety of facets to it."

The students received a course credit for the project, but Cancell and the group agreed that the project required considerably more effort than a traditional course - and also provided considerable rewards as well.

Goldwasser, who will be teaching social studies in Nashville next year with the aid of a one-year Lombard Fellowship, found that working on a project with potential real-world impact was a worthwhile - if sometimes stressful - experience.

"I felt a lot of pressure because what we were writing could possibly affect students - a whole state of them," she said. However, she would do it again if she had the chance. "Not many undergraduate students get that kind of opportunity."

Cancell often works together with students on research projects, although this is the first time he's done quite such an extensive project in this way.

"When I work with students, I believe that it is a collaborative affair. Students are one of our most underused resources. I'm not the only person with expertise in the room, especially when you have students as bright as the ones at Dartmouth," said Cancell.

The group first presented its findings in February to approximately a half-dozen high-level Department of Education staffers. Impressed by the quality and scope of the work done by the students and Cancell, the department invited the group back for another larger meeting. Cancell said he wasn't surprised that the group of undergraduates made such an impression on the professional educators.

"Their policy analysis is top quality: they're bright, they're interested, and they're well-read in the subject," said Cancell of the students.

Leavitt, a geography and environmental studies major from Honolulu, thinks students should do more real-world projects like this one. "Students do a lot of work and research, but most of it doesn't go out of the classroom. People hire professional consultants for research all the time, while students here are paying tuition to do good research which is often only seen by a couple of others. It's fufilling knowing that your work might be actually used," she said.

Cancell agrees: "Education of any sort should be applied. Theory is great. Now take what you've learned and go do something that makes a difference. The opportunity for students and professors to work collaboratively on meaningful projects - being at Dartmouth affords that opportunity," he said.