Letter to the editor, the Boston Globe, June 10, 1999:

The debate over standards-based assessment of students and public accountability for schools has recently focused on the use of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System as a measure of student achievement.

Since its inception, Boston's City on a Hill charter high school has demonstrated that there are other ways to ensure public accountability and maintain high standards for student performance.

I recently had the pleasure of participating as a community juror in the annual performance-based assessment at City on a Hill. In addition to passing their coursework, each student at the school must demonstrate that he or she is competent in several areas in order to graduate. The competency that my panel (which included a teacher, a student, and three community members) was assessing was 11th grade reading.

Students were given a newspaper editorial to prepare one-half hour in advance of coming before the jury. After introducing themselves to the panel, the students were asked to read aloud the editorial. As we listened, we considered how students were performing against the specific criteria of which both students and jurors were aware: speaking audibly, pausing appropriately after punctuation, enunciating clearly, and looking up occasionally.

City on a Hill teaches us all a lesson about the importance of opening public schools up to public scrutiny. It takes courage to open the schoolhouse doors in that way, but the benefits to students and to the integrity of public education are worth the effort.

—Abigail Smith
Cambridge

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