Given the situation with Gangs, violence and low academic performance, which actually describes many school districts; The entire school should be held accountable. My question "How does a school District get to this when children get into the upper grades?" If the School Administrator appropriately handled the situation in the first place, is it possible the problem wouldn't be at an all time high? Everyone involved should be held accountable with the older students, because at that point, it could be too late and then the kids are being shipped off to juvenile detention centers. I believe this is a growing problem. Our school districts are beginning to use the foster care system and the juvenile detention centers to solve their own academic situations. Parents need to be concerned and look into these issues when their own child is having a problem with these issues and then getting the school district to appropriately assist the parent could be another problematic issue. No one person can handle these types of issues once they have gotten into severe behavior phase. However I do believe that the administrator of the school district should step up to the plate and manage the staff more effectively and make himself/herself completely available when a problem does evolve within the students and the school. If school districts and parents of the students can't work things out where bad behaviors and low academic performance is ongoing, the students will be too confused and upset to co-operate and eventually retaliation takes over with these kids. I believe if parents and school district effectively worked through these issues together as opposed to fighting each other, it could help resolve the issues. But unfortunately education has become an educational political game and no one wins. The kids that are considered a problem for these schools, get shipped off or they quit school;whatever comes first. I saw a situation in our school where a learning challenged child (not mine), was being given a tremedous amount of school work that he was academically unable to do. The boy kept saying "this is too hard for me I need help" Finally the boy threw a pencil in class and got very aggitated. The school district labeled him a behavior problem and shipped to a school for bad boys. Again, I am concerned about the "Why" this stuff is going on in school. School Districts should be held accountable but the truth needs to be told about everyone, not just blame kids and parents and shipping the kids off. Parents are always held accountable no matter what, when our children get to school, what really goes on???

I agree that the entire image cannot fall on one person - but, if the frontline source of discipline does not get the support of administration to do what needs to be done (and I am not talking about anything wildly extreme - just being able to enforce the rules) - then the administration needs a good looking at. Maybe I read too much into this, but I assumed in asking the question that people had tried to work with the administrator and the administrator had not been responsive. There are families out there that put no value on their kids educations beyond what they can get out of it (the kids out of their hair, the free meals, etc.) - it is a harsh reality.

A school is a community and therefore the burden cannot fall onto one person's shoulders. The administrator will ultimately be held accountable for the school, but it seems wrong to put an entire school's "image" onto one person. As another poster previously said... "image" may not always be the reality. Teachers, parents and students play a large role in the school dynamic. The administrator is overseeing everything, but the teachers are the ones in the classes with the kids, on the yard, and the main source of discipline (or lack thereof it seems in this case.) Sounds like you need to be working WITH the administrator, other families, and the children to take back your community's school.

kjdmom - you make some excellent points.

I would also like to caution people the differences in image and reality. It is hard to shake a negative image whether it is accurate or not. Our district has a negative image created by the more affluent districts that border us - if you believed some of what they say you would be afraid to walk into our high school building - but the truth is we have a more diverse population than any of the bordering schools - we have kids with big hearts who work their hardest every day to succeed, we do have our share of problems with drugs, fighting, etc - but those problems are no more prevalent in our school than the districts that border us - they just have the resources to hide their problems. In a way, I appreciate it because that weeds out families who are more interested in looking good on paper than in working to make improvements for all of the kids.

The school administrator have an extremely important role to play in terms of school image. Some schools may be easy to manage and some may be very tough...guess the admin group should be created and identified accordingly with strong responsibilites and ownerships.

It has been proven before that things can change in a school IF it has the proper leadership. Administrators are under contract and can be removed if they are not doing their job. If your high school is going downhill while retaining the same administration, it is time to get the troops together and start attending school board meetings and talking to the superintendent about the problem - the only way to make a change is for the remaining families who want to see improvement to take a stand.

Are we asking who is at fault? I'd ask this question first - what is the purpose of society's institutions? What is the purpose of our hospitals? Our post office? Our schools?
If their purpose is to get the job done - and at public expense- then when they fail to get the job done, why are they not accountable? Increasingly, hospitals and schools alike tell us they 'can't work miracles'. Schools increasingly say "we have these children for only six hours a day." (which is by the way a very significant amount of time if you add it up)

What bothers me as a taxpayer is society's institutions building loopholes into their promises to us as citizens. "We can only get the job done if" - Am I allowed to withhold my school tax dollars until they can get the job done or must I pay even even for a half-done job?

If society's schools no longer can get the job done, why do we continue to fund them? This country spends billions of dollars each year on education and we're told that's not enough. If society's schools can't get the job done, why do they oppose the formation of charter schools? Why do they resist school choice?
Why do they resist the accountability movement? If they don't like NCLB - and I don't either - then what process of accountability would they suggest in its stead?

It seems to me that our schools say to us they can't get the job done but when other schools such as the charter schools and for-profit schools step forward to try, they're met with angry resistance from the teachers' union, school administrators and local school boards alike. When we attempt to direct monies to make class sizes smaller, the teachers' union meets that with angry resistance and asks only for higher salaries.
I'd say yes- schools deserve to be held accountable - if not for their inability to educate children then certainly for their resistance to the charter schools, to school choice, to intelligent reform, and to pretty much any suggested change to the status quo except higher salaries.