Educational Accountability

Educational Accountability: International perspectives on challenges and possibilities for school leadership provides an opportunity to assess, reflect on, and discuss current issues surrounding accountability policies in education from around the globe and the implications they hold for school leadership. It addresses the global trend of accountability policies expanding in scope to include the education profession as well as the increasing incidence of international policy borrowing, brought on chiefly by globalisation. Specific case studies offer a contextual examination of the theory, policy and practice of accountability and an inspection of their influence on school leadership. Cases are intentionally juxtaposed to provide a broad perspective of regional and cultural similarities and departures, and are arranged to reflect the diasporic Chinese, Anglo, European, and Hispanic societies. Bringing together a number of highly regarded experts within the field, the book cultivates a global perspective on the challenges and possibilities for school leaders to foster school effectiveness and improvement. Educational Accountability should be key reading for researchers, policy makers, and current and future school leaders.

Beginning with the earliest efforts to regulate schools, the author reveals the rationale behind accountability and outlines the historical development of how US federal and state policies, accreditation practices, private-sector interests, and internal requirements have become so important to institutional success and survival

In recent decades testing has become a much more visible and high-stakes accountability mechanism that is now seen as a powerful tool that can be used to drive school improvement. The purpose of this book is to identify and analyze the key issues associated with test-based educational accountability and to chart the future of educational accountability research. Chapter contributions are intended to be forward looking rather than a compendium of what has happened in the past. The book provides an accessible discussion of issues such as validity, test equating, growth modeling, fairness for special populations, causal inferences, and misuses of accountability data.

This booklet offers a set of principles and strategies to be considered in the development and implementation of results-based accountability systems. Technical and political issues are addressed as well as the ways in which educators, policymakers, and community members can use the information from accountability systems to improve results.

A guide to building a student-centered accountability program through teaching, leadership, the curriculum, and the involvement of parents and the community.

In an age when responses to accountability regimes in education range from hysteria to cynicism, this volume reframes accountability in narratives of collective, participatory responsibility that leave one feeling inspired and ready to act. The authors, all scholar-practitioners speaking from contexts spanning leadership, policy, literacy, indigenous education, and diversity, explore ways to navigate accountability discourses with wisdom, courage and hope.—Tara Fenwick, PhD, Head, Dept. of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia. In this collection, the preoccupation of educational institutions with accountability is critically examined by writers who work in the field. They consider the impact of accountability regimes on professional practice and the learning agenda, challenge current policies and call for a rethinking of accountability. The skills and knowledge associated with this work is what we should hold schools accountable to. It is, as you see from reading these contributions, time for change.—Stephen Murgatroyd, PhD, Chief Scout, The Innovation Expedition Inc. About the Book From their diverse perspectives, nine educational practitioners discuss current educational accountability policies and how these affect students, educators, learning and teaching in a variety of settings, from K-12 schools to post-secondary institutions and government agencies. The authors combine theory, research and their day-to-day experiences to reflect on the challenges posed by realities such as outcomes-based curricula, high-stakes testing, standardized reporting and management by objectives. By examining current accountability initiatives and their effects in relation to core values of public education such as equity, diversity, democracy and opportunity, this book offers educators a range of insights for thinking about and doing education differently.

Accountability, autonomy and choice are now the watchwords of education reformers around the globe. This book presents new evidence from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test on whether students perform better in school systems with such institutional measures in place. It also provides a theoretical framework for considering these reforms and summarizes previous international evidence. The results confirm that various policies promoting accountability, autonomy and choice are strongly associated with higher achievement for students from both disadvantaged and advantaged backgrounds. In particular, choice through public funding for private schools is associated with both higher performance overall and higher equality of opportunity. Providing detailed and rich facets of different forms of accountability, autonomy and choice, this book is unique in its empirically based and internationally oriented treatment of this up-to-date policy topic. It will be of great interest to academics, policy-makers and practitioners, as well as students in education policy and in the economics of education.