Accountability, Control, and Teachers’ Work in American Schools

Abstract

The teacher accountability perspective and its reforms have been the subject of a growing body of criticism—from a variety of perspectives, and focused on a variety of aspects of the theory underlying accountability, the reforms it has spawned, and the outcomes it has engendered. This chapter focuses on the distribution, mechanisms, and effects of control and power in American schools. It expresses that the teacher accountability perspective overlooks some of the most important sources and forms of organizational accountability and control that already exist in schools and, as a result, overlooks the ways school management and organizations contribute to the teacher quality problem. Accountability in schools is reasonable and necessary, and the public has a right and, indeed, an obligation to be concerned with the performance of teachers. The chapter briefly describes the data and concepts used in the research projects.

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