CEDAR CITY — Utah "gets it," along with only a few other states, in terms of holding schools accountable and making changes when they show poor performance, an expert said.

"Accountability is more than test scores," education expert and author Douglas Reeves told more than 300 teachers and administrators at the Utah Rural Schools Conference last week.

While warning teachers that they might feel "initiative fatigue" after his keynote address held on the Southern Utah University campus, Reeves offered several ideas on how educators can have a positive impact on student achievement.

Don't accept C or D grades as satisfactory or passing, he said. Assess student progress frequently and immediately make constructive use of the data.

Some in education, according to Reeves, prefer to point fingers. For example, poverty can impact gains in achievement, but it shouldn't dictate a student's destiny, he said.

Reeves said he is "weary" of going into schools where the feeling is one of "victim" because teachers and administrators cite demographics or the attitudes of students and parents as reasons for low achievement. In those cases, he said, if educators expect less, they will get less.

Reeves told educators to expect more of themselves, citing research that shows gains in student achievement with more professional development among teachers.

He also called for more recognition for good teachers. Catch teachers doing something right and make daily examples of them, he said.

"This end-of-year, teacher of the year stuff is not enough."

He added that administrators could help by weeding out things like too many announcements, meetings, study halls and home rooms that don't contribute toward student achievement. Instead, he said, they should focus on teaching, collaboration and more nonfiction writing from students.

"This is just about good education," Reeves said. "There are no silver bullets . . . just plain good professional practices."

---

E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com