I read everything that Coach Brown writes. Sometimes we agree and sometimes we disagree. We've even disagreed in a series of rather heated posts between our blogs at one point.

When I first read this post I thought, "Here is yet another post about why teachers aren't responsible for low student achievement." After reading it a second time and thinking about it for a moment, I realized that while there is a little of that sentiment, the Coach makes a valid point.

You know the drill.

Harry goes to high school were he was a resource kid.

Harry was basically pandered to and was pushed through the system to graduation.

Harry did what Harry felt like.

Harry went to a community college.

Harry learned that professors could care less about what you feel like doing.

Harry asked Mom to go after the professors.

Harry learned that professors could care less about Mom too.

Harry eventually realized that an enabled, less accountable high school career bit him in the a** later on.

In the end, teachers are blamed for the accountability angle.

I have long thought the "students who won't learn" argument was merely an excuse. However I have finally come to the realization that if our educational system isn't holding students accountable for their efforts, it makes it nearly impossible for teachers, particularly just one teacher of six the student has during the day, to convince that student that they actually need to work at their education.

I frequently hold out examples of high-performing, high minority schools as proof that the "student effort" claim is just an excuse. These schools are able to get students to achieve, so why isn't my neighborhood school? Well, the reason is that these high-performing, high-minority schools hold students accountable for their actions. If you visit these schools, their administrators and teachers hold students to high standards of behavior. They don't baby them. They don't make excuses that their culture doesn't value education. They simply tell the students how it is going to be and they consistently apply those expectations.

We can't expect exceptional teachers like Coach Brown to raise student achievement if other teachers are allowing students to skate through their classes. We can't expect students to make the necessary effort if our administrators cave every time a student complains about "unfair treatment" by a teacher. We can't expect students to achieve if parents make excuses for their children's poor behavior at school.

Schools that are successful at closing achievement gaps and raising student achievement have high expectations for student effort and behavior and are unrelenting in their support for these expectations. They provide a consistent environment for teaching and learning with high expectations for everyone.

Coach shared a personal story which I think is important in this discussion.

I also remember being a sort of Harry, walking into my college career thinking that I could ease into it like high school. I almost didn't get to my dream of being a teacher until my collage advisor, Dale Steiner, basically told me that I was never going to teach if I didn't pull my head out of my a**. I did, and I pulled my act together to reach my goals. Notice, I said that I did both the slacking early on, and the hard work later to become a teacher. It was my own accountability, not the fault of the instructors or "the system".

In the Coach's life experience, his college advisor told him that no one was going to let him escape accountability for his efforts. His teachers didn't let him off the hook. His college president didn't force his teachers to raise his grades. His parents didn't call his college advisor and yell at him and even if they did, it didn't change anything.

When we allow students to escape the consequences for their actions, or lack thereof, we're teaching them that there aren't any consequences. As a result, their achievement is going to suffer. The answer isn't to just admit defeat because you can never hold students or parents accountable. The answer isn't to lower the standards. The answer is to do what high-achieving schools are doing. We need to set high standards for instruction and for behavior and to hold everyone, students, teachers, administrators and even parents accountable. If we let anyone escape accountability for their part of the process, performance suffers regardless of the efforts of others involved.