ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS IN SUPPORT OF STUDENT LEARNING: MOVING TO THE NEXT GENERATION

Abstract

Standards-based reform and the accountability systems it has generated are built on the assumption that being clear about learning goals, measuring students ’ progress toward them, and applying known consequences will help to improve student learning. Embedded strongly in No Child Left Behind ([NCLB] 2002), the logic seemingly is straightforward and linear, even if the reality is not: We agree on standards for what students ought to know and be able to do, agree as a society and as communities of educators and schools that we will work with and expect all students to achieve these standards, develop measures that tell us how well we (educators, students, student subgroups) are doing, and then use feedback from these measures and marshal all available resources to improve educational opportunities and to assure every student’s success. However, while conveyed as technical steps in a familiar and time-honored problem-solving process, current accountability schemes at heart are systems for motivating performance. NCLB makes this point clear by attaching severe and escalating consequences for schools that fail to meet goals for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Ostensibly providing a technical system for measuring performance and providing data to support improvement, NCLB’s policy objective, of course, is to stimulate state and local action to significantly increase student learning and to assure that schools make progress toward all students achieving established standards. continued on next page

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