Its goosebumps-raising pockets of self-vindication notwithstanding, Kandi-Lee Crooks-Smith's letter in yesterday's Gleaner ought to be mandatory reading for the leadership of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) and teachers in general, coming, as it does, from within the ranks.
For, most likely without setting out to do any such thing, or even specifically mentioning the issue, Ms Crooks-Smith established a compelling case for holding school principals accountable. And, from our perspective, performance-based rewards for teachers.
Moreover, she made a declaration which, we hope, will reverberate along Church Street in Kingston, the place of the JTA's headquarters, as well as in the offices of head teachers and in classrooms across Jamaica.
" ... There is no excuse for schools not doing well," she wrote. "Not even ours!"
Placed in special project
Kandi-Lee Crooks-Smith is the principal of Allman Town Primary School, situated in a gritty area of central Kingston. It used to have a reputation as one of the worst-performing schools in Jamaica, to the point where, with a handful of others, it was placed by the education ministry in a special project to lift standards.
These days, Allman Town Primary is not a stellar performer in league with, say, Jessie Ripoll, Half-Way Tree or St Richard's. But it is a long way from where it used to be.
Indeed, based on the results of the Grade Four Literacy Test for more than 700 government primary schools, published a week ago by the education ministry, 69 per cent of Allman Town Primary's students showed full mastery of the literacy inventory. Twenty-four per cent had near mastery and seven per cent failed outright.
One of the important points about those numbers is that mastery of the literacy inventory by Allman Town Primary's students was two percentage points better than the national average of 67 per cent - as Ms Crooks-Smith pointed out.
Greater personal victory
Ms Crooks-Smith, however, claims a greater personal victory among the students who came close, for it was not foreseen. These were among the students who were most deprived and, in essence, brought much social and emotional baggage to school. The principal credits the performance of this group to the professional and humane intervention of teachers.
Ms Crooks-Smith makes the point that her school tries not to screen students it enrols. Any screening is for a scientific evaluation of the literacy level of children and the interventions that will be required by teachers to bring them to expected standards.
"I encourage my staff to use data to instruct them and to motivate themselves," said Ms Crooks-Smith. "If they are able to move a student from one grade level to another at the end of the year, then they have achieved."
Which, of course, is a point this newspaper consistently makes to the backdrop of the JTA's cacophony against teacher accountability and performance-based remuneration and/or rewards.
It can't be all that difficult to establish reference points and to formulate appropriate measures, which Ms Crook-Smith suggests should be the case, to test outcomes. Indeed, such a system will be inevitable if Mr Andrew Holness, the education minister, is to meet his target of full literacy at grade four by 2015.
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