Dropping in to Observe Your Dentist at Work?

 

The hot question at recent board meetings is if individual board members should be allowed to drop in on classrooms as part of their role as overseers of the school.

The National School Board Association says it’s important for board members to see how the school runs, talk to staff, and view students in their daily environments. That means the answer is a partial yes: as long as board members understand their purpose, which is NOT to cause chaos in the classrooms.

The Michigan State SBA says this: The Superintendent is responsible for the day-to-day management, supervision, and leadership (of the school). The board makes policy. The super sees that it's implemented.

While board members should be familiar with the way the school operates, it is NOT their job to manage day-to-day events, critique teachers, or oversee student behavior. Imagine being a teacher and having not only the principal and the superintendent telling you what to do, but seven different board members giving you their (very unprofessional) opinions as well. That’s where the chaos would come in.

Some members of our current board need to understand that just because they went to school once upon a time, they are not experts in education. If they visit, their purpose should not be trying to “gotcha” teachers and staff. In fact, a person who comes looking for places to complain about is not a good board member.

Another current demand, that board members be allowed to look at grade books, test scores, and other classroom records, is upsetting. Aside from privacy concerns, what possible help could that be? General test scores, standards, attendance numbers, etc. are available to anyone who is interested, compiled by the school and reported annually by the state, which compares our school to others. (We compare favorably, so don’t believe the story a friend of mine was told that our school is “failing.")

What is the purpose of sitting in the back of a classroom or looking at an individual teacher’s records? It feels a lot like a power trip to me: “I’m on the school board. I can do anything I want and you have to let me.”

Who is the expert here? School staff are trained and educated in classroom methods, student needs, and educational record-keeping. They do it every day. What can an outsider learn from looking at a teacher's gradebook? Again, some members of this board like the idea of having power over staff, though the majority of them have NO acquaintance with the system. Their only "standard" is their personal opinion.

Would you go to your doctor and demand to read everything in that three-inch-thick file of papers she has on you? Do you think you’d understand it if you did? How about your housing contractor? Do you question his estimates, or do you let him do what he’s trained to do? Of course a customer can and should ask questions, but most of us don’t assume we know more than the person who does the job every day knows. 

I’m not opposed to board members visiting classrooms, but they should make an appointment, as one does with any professional. It’s only courtesy to let a very busy teacher know she has one more thing on her plate on a given day.