Mintrop, H. & Trujillo, T. (2007). The practical relevance of accountability systems for school improvement: A descriptive analysis of California schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 29(4), pp. 319-352. (original) (raw)

Accountability and School Performance: Implications from Restructuring Schools

Harvard Educational Review, 1997

Many politicians and policymakers today link school accountability and school performance. Drawing on evidence from the corporate world, they assume that strong external accountability will impel schools to improve student achievement. In this article, however, Fred Newmann, M. Bruce King, and Mark Rigdon argue that three issues keep this popular theory from working in practice: a) implementation controversies around standards, incentives, and constituencies; b) insufficient efforts to organize the human, technical, and social resources of a school into an effective collective enterprise — what the authors term "organizational capacity" — and c) failure to recognize the importance of internal school accountability. In a study of twenty-four restructuring schools, the authors found that strong accountability was rare; that organizational capacity was not related to accountability; that schools with strong external accountability tended to have low organizational capacity; a...

Accountability Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Superintendent, Principal, and Teacher Perceptions

2016

A key assumption of NCLB appears to be that assessment data in and of itself can foster or promote change. Specifically, the supposition is that by requiring assessment data to be reported yearly, schools will be motivated- and will have the ability-to address those areas where student achievement is lagging. This assumption rests on the notion that educator competence in understanding and utilizing such data will result in academic success. Testing this assumption with empirical evidence is an important component of researching the efficacy of current accountability policies and practices in general. Over the past three years we have been involved in a series of empirical examinations of accountability. Each of these studies has been aimed at gathering varied perspectives on and about accountability, ranging from superintendents to principals to teachers. Our research examines education accountability at three interconnected layers: district administrators, principals, and teach-er...

Accountability Equals Quality: From Pre-K to Graduating High School

2009

The move to standards-based education reform created a set of federal and state standards by which student performance is defined in an attempt to create more accountability. The intent of these high-stakes test is to promote accountability and learning. Student success on standardized testing is meant to be a measure of the quality of education and student learning, an assumption that is also not always accurate. Students do better on standardized tests when they have had quality education from the time their academic characters are formed, from the age of three (Perry preschool Study; Abecedarian Study). Students do well when they have high quality teachers that can help them overcome potential obstacles they may face (Illinois experience). Students do well when their teachers, schools, and school districts use methods and techniques that have been proven successful (NYSED). And lastly, students do well when their schools are adequately funded and their teachers well paid. A compr...