Balancing Internal and External Accountability Systems

What whole-school principles and approaches would you implement to nurture the
principle of reciprocity in your school setting?

The principle of reciprocity in school settings holds that learning is not unidirectional
from teachers to students. Rather, both teachers and students have an opportunity to learn
from each other (Brown, 2018). It has been found to significantly improve the ability of
teachers to address the needs of the students and help them achieve their goals and the goals
of the school as well (Brown, 2018). Given its importance in learning, it is critical that
teachers and school administrators implement approaches and principles that nurture
reciprocity.

One of the most effective approaches of nurturing the principle of reciprocity is
reducing the traditional hierarchical structure that guides the relationship between teachers
and students (Brown, 2018). Instead of such structures, the school should strive to create a
classroom community in which both the teachers and students are active participants in the
learning process. An environment where both the students and teachers feel that they have a
shared responsibility in the success or failure of their learning efforts creates a classroom
environment that is conducive for learning.

Explain the strategies you would design and implement to internalize accountability and
develop accountable practice within the school.

Accountability includes all agents that exert pressure on schools and ensure that they
meet their objectives/goals. They can be external or internal. Internal accountability is
collectively generated within the school while external accountability comes from outside of

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the school, primarily state policies (Qian & Walker, 2019). Internal accountability has been
found to not only lead to continuous improvement of a school’s performance but also
increases the school’s capacity to be externally accountable.

Effective internal accountability requires two elements: focus on outcomes and
cohesion of the school’s key stakeholders (Qian & Walker, 2019). One of the strategies that a
school can use to achieve these elements include setting high standards for student’s
performance and having consensus among parents, students, and teachers about the mission
and vision of the school (Qian & Walker, 2019). Once all the key stakeholders buy into the
school’s goals, it becomes relatively easy to achieve the goals.

The other strategy involves creating a highly competitive environment in the school
where both teachers and the students are under significant pressure from their peers to
perform at optimal levels. In their bid to outdo each other, both the students and the teachers
are likely to increase their efforts and, therefore, achieve the best possible performance for
the school. Lastly, internal accountability can be achieved through use of data to drive
learning and performance (Qian & Walker, 2019). Instead of teaching blindly, the school
should collect as much data as possible about each student’s performance and tailor teaching
techniques to meet the needs of each student. In that way, the school ensures that the needs of
each student are addressed.

What leadership strategies would a school leader require to engage in discussions with
all educational stakeholders about educational policy in order to bridge policy and
practice?

For there to be progress in education, it is important to bridge the gap between policy
and practice. Unfortunately, there is often a mismatch between education policy makers and

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educators who are supposed to implement the policies designed by the policy makers
(Dickman, 2018). There are a number of strategies that a school leader can use to bridge this
gap between policy and practice.

The two most effective strategies are communication and relationship building. Being
at the forefront of the most important educational activities – teaching and learning, school
leaders are able to know which policies are practical and which ones are not. Through
effective oral and written communication, they can help direct policy makers into making
policies that are practical and useful in the progress of education. In addition to effective
communication skills, school leaders also need to be great at relationship building in order to
influence policy making in a manner that makes the policies practical. Having great
relationship with the policy makers makes it easy to have the input of the school leaders
considered in the making of policies.

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References

Brown, P. (2018). Give and take: Reciprocity. Early Years Educator, 20(3), 38-44.

Dickman, E. (2018). A process to bridge the gap from evidence-based policy to
practice. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 44(4), 27-31.

Qian, H., & Walker, A. (2019). Reconciling top-down policy intent with internal
accountability: the role of Chinese school principals. Educational Assessment,
Evaluation and Accountability, 31(4), 495-517.