Testing, Teaching, and Learning A Guide for States and School Districts (1999) / Chapter Skim
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7 Accountability
7 Accountability
Pages 91-101
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From page 91... ...
In the past, states held schools accountable for following rules set out by legislatures and boards of education, and for spending funds according to those rules. To that end, accountability mechanisms focused on inputs the number of books in the library, the ratio of certified staff to stuACCO U NTAB ~ LITY 91
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From page 92... ...
Chief among them is how schools respond to the accountability pressures. The external accountability structures can set ground rules and design incentives, but these processes will have the desired effect only if the internal accountability matches that from the outside.
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From page 93... ...
This situation, moreover, reinforces the low levels of motivation high school students have to work hard in school, and masks the consequences for inadequate performance students will face when they get out of school and find themselves unable to find a high-paying job (Bishop, 1994~. In an effort to increase student motivation for schoolwork and hold students accountable for their own learning, a number of policy makers, including President Clinton, have proposed some form of student accountability, such as making promotion from grade to grade or graduation from high school contingent on demonstrating a certain level of performance, usually by passing a test.
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From page 94... ...
The Title I statute and the new accountability ideas it reflects hold that the answer is "student performance." But in practice, this answer leads to a number of interpretations, and the way schools respond to those interpretations affects whether accountability realizes its goals of increasing learning for all students. As noted above, one of the major purposes of accountability based on performance is to encourage schools to focus their efforts on improving performance above all else.
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From page 95... ...
If, however, schools used instructionally sensitive instruction, they could raise scores and achievement by improving instruction. Another factor that contributes to inappropriate test preparation strategies is the use of a single test as the basis for rewards and sanctions.
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From page 96... ...
Assistance can take the form of technical help in writing school improvement plans, as in Mississippi, or a state-appointed monitoring team that oversees the implementation of a reform plan, as in NewYork State. These assistance efforts have helped to turn troubled schools around; however, it is not clear whether states or districts have sufficient capacity to assist all schools that need help.
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From page 97... ...
The ability of accountability mechanisms to produce desired effects depends on the level of internal accountability within schools (Abelmann and Elmore, 1999~. That is, teachers' own judgments about their ability to affect the learning of their students governs the teachers' willingness to take responsibility for improving student learning and to change their practice to make such improvements come about.
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From page 98... ...
· Assistance should be aimed at strengthening schools' capacity for educating all students to high standards and to building the internal accountability within schools. L~ ML ~ Are teachers and administrators held accountable for the progress of their students, and are districts and the state held accountable for the professional development and support they provide teachers and schools to enable students to reach high standards?
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From page 99... ...
Under North Carolina's accountability system, known as the ABCs of Public Education, the state measures student performance on the state assessment and creates an "expected growth" composite for each school based on statewide average growth and the previous performance of students in the school. The state then adjusts the results statistically to compare student performance from one year to the next.
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From page 100... ...
Schools rated as acceptable or low-performing or districts rated academically acceptable or academically unacceptable must show required improvement. To meet that standard, a school or district with a TAAS passing rate below 40 percent in any area must show that, over two years, its rate of change exceeded the rate required to reach a 50 percent passing level within five years.
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From page 101... ...
These report cards must include state-generated data related to the accountability system. The public awareness of the results and the accountability ratings that these reports generate play a significant role for school leaders.
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