A District Leader Who Views Parents as Partners in the Process

Play video: CoffeED: Lori Rapp (14 minutes 18 seconds)14:18

Family involvement is key to community-based accountabilityDr. Lori Rapp is the Deputy Superintendent at Lewisville Independent School District (LISD), just north of Dallas. The district is a member of the Texas Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC), a collective of more than 40 districts across the state who are pushing the envelope in ways to modernize accountability methods for students. The goal is to move away from standardized test scores as the measuring stick for student progress and look at the whole student, school and district performance to let parents and others in the community know how kids in Lewisville are actually learning.

One thing that this new community-based accountability system encourages is regular participation by parents. “We believe strongly that our parents are more than partners in the education of their children,” Lori says. “I think that’s a different view than from when we went to school where it was more ‘I drop my students off, they participate in learning, and I pick them back up.’

“Now, with this idea of community-based accountability, the community is an advocate for what schools need to look like and parents are partners in learning. Parents are part of the experience and parents are part of helping ensure that the conversation about what it means to be future ready is important.”

Lori says it is important that the member districts of TPAC follow through to the end with this new approach to accountability. I think it is clear that she is ready to lead the charge into doing just that.

Further Reading

1. The Cross Timbers Gazette – Next school year will start early for Lewisville ISD students
2. Huffington Post – A Superintendent Balancing Data with Community Feedback
3. eSchool News – 5 questions to ask when rethinking accountability systems

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