President's Corner
Holding All Stakeholders Accountable
By Gail Pletnick/School Administrator, December 2017


IN K-12 EDUCATION, the word “stakeholder” typically refers to students, their families and those who work in or are served by the school or school district. Occasionally, taxpayers are thrown into that mix as well.

The Dysart Unified School District in Arizona operates under a policy governance model, which means we use a much broader and inclusive definition. We use the term “owners” to include stakeholders, constituencies, customers, clients and users of Dysart Unified School District services. This terminology shapes the focus of our public education system.

As we redefine, redesign and reimagine our education system, we clearly must include all owners in this quest. For example, if we want to redefine a graduate, we must tap into the experience and expertise of our business leaders to better understand what skills students need to be successful in this new-era job market.

If we want to redesign our teaching and learning environments to ensure relevance, we need partners who offer real-life experiences, including internships, access to mentors and community resources to arrange authentic learning projects.

If we want to reimagine our school system, we need our government leaders and policymakers to understand changes necessary for the redesigned system to become a reality. So when I think about holding owners accountable, I think of it from the perspective of ensuring community members understand and accept responsibility for contributing to the success of each and every student in our school systems.

We should hold our business community accountable for partnering with schools to ensure programs and standards adopted in our K-12 systems align with the knowledge and skills our students will need to succeed in the workforce.

We should hold our community members accountable for partnering with school staff to provide relevant learning experiences by sharing expertise and by providing learning opportunities outside the school building and beyond the school day.

Our government leaders should be held accountable for passing or amending laws and creating policies that support innovation and provide the flexibility and financial support our public schools require to meet the needs of a career-ready graduate.

Of course, we also must hold accountable those owners who identify with the school community because they have special interests and connections to the education system. Those are the students, parents and staff we often refer to as stakeholders.

We need to involve all owners in the development of that redefined profile of a college- and career-ready graduate and hold students, parents and staff accountable for supporting student growth in every measure included in the profile. Our hope is that the days of one or two standardized tests defining a student and his or her success for life are gone.

However, to meet that new definition, the school system must redesign the learning environment to ensure students gain the knowledge, skills and dispositions identified in the profile of a future-ready graduate. Once again, students, parents and staff must be held accountable not only for the outcomes, but also for engaging in the processes to redesign the learning environment. Continual iteration of the system is necessary to transform the system.

All owners must advocate for the changes and support required to transform to a reimagined educational system. Just as we need to redefine how we describe stakeholders, we need to redesign how we hold those partners accountable and reimagine the possibilities for engaging all members of our school communities in supporting the needs and successes of our students.
 

Gail Pletnick is AASA president in 2017-18. E-mail: gail.pletnick@dysart.org. Twitter: ­@GPletnickDysart