Topic: Accountability
California’s Accountability System Shows the Way
Section 8 of 10. Not long ago, California used test scores as a single measure to identify progress, but policymakers sought to eliminate the state’s Academic Performance Index (API) system. When lawmakers adopted a new funding system, the state contracted with a research organization to develop new measures and rubrics.... Read the full article >
Continuous Improvement and Accountability
Section 4 of 10. Though continuous improvement processes are not new in education practice, they are relatively new in the state policy arena. In the past, state-level strategies for improving educational outcomes at the school and system levels were driven by federal and state requirements and centered largely on the... Read the full article >
What a Continuous Improvement Accountability System Needs to Do
Section 5 of 10. Accountability systems should be designed to emphasize equilibrium, balancing school responsibility to do what states require with state responsibility to provide needed resources and support in schools.[7] An accountability system also needs to recognize that schools are multifaceted organizations, shaped by the interplay of any number... Read the full article >
What a Continuously Improving System Looks Like
Section 6 of 10. Key features include: Learning supports (materials and professional development) for the continuous improvement of curriculum, teaching, assessment and student support strategies; Information systems for keeping track of what schools and districts are doing and to what effect; Ongoing review of school and district efforts and outcomes,... Read the full article >
Moving to a Next-Generation Accountability System
Section 3 of 10. Expedience should not lead us to recreate what we had or choose indicators based on what is easiest to measure. We need to create a system that gathers information about all aspects of what schools do (from teaching and learning to resource allocation to governance), reveals... Read the full article >
CEO Message
Under the era of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability, too much focus was placed on a single measure—student assessment. Rather than sparking higher performance for all students, schools focused on low-performing students, and federally mandated sanctions were used to punish students and teachers alike. The performance gap widened as... Read the full article >
A Call to Action: What Key Leaders and Stakeholders Can Do
Section 10 of 10. SEAs should begin the conversation about what the new approach to accountability should entail. By framing continuous improvement accountability as a desired long-term strategy that can be built together over time, SEAs can use the ESSA as a framework to inject new ideas, encourage collaboration, and... Read the full article >
How Do We Improve Elementary Math Education? It Starts in High School.
Like me, most middle and high school mathematics teachers are keenly aware of our role in preparing the next generation of STEM professionals—engineers, health care workers, biologists, chemists and statisticians. However, few of us spend much time thinking about how we prepare the most influential STEM professionals of all: elementary... Read the full article >
Getting Accountability Right: Principles and Policies for a New Era
Educational policy critics now gather, with echoes of the funeral oration for Cease, not to praise the No Child Left Behind Act, but to bury it. That this legislation passed eight years ago with more Democratic than Republican votes is now only a little-remembered footnote. The conventional wisdom is that... Read the full article >
Transition to a Catholic School District
The journey from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) model of our past to recognition by AdvancED as a School District has been an evolving process for the Office of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Richmond, VA. Having the distinction of being the first Catholic diocese to... Read the full article >