Topic: Accountability

How States Can Meet the Challenge of College and Career Readiness
Continuous Improvement Approach It seems simple enough. All states need to do to meet the challenge of college and career readiness for all students is to align all the systems that support the goal. After all, systems alignment is a business principle that has been recognized as effective for decades.... Read the full article >

CEO Message: Who is Accountable for Student Success?
When discussing education today, it’s difficult to escape the topic of accountability. Educators and legislators alike have perspectives and priorities regarding accountability – from how to change the current system, to teacher evaluations, to measuring student achievement and to who is accountable when a school fails to meet the educational... Read the full article >

Promoting and Supporting a Data-to-Action, Results-Oriented Culture within Durham Public Schools
Setting the Stage The beginning of the 2011-12 school year was a time of transition within the Research and Accountability (R and A) Department for Durham Public Schools (DPS) in Durham, NC. R and A entered the 2011-12 school year with a new department leader, two vacant data analyst positions,... Read the full article >

Reputation, Re-enrollment, Results
The late Stephen M. R. Covey, in his 2006 book The Speed of Trust, notes that in a high-trust ethos, everything is more efficient. Covey builds this theme throughout the book with the idea that leaders of organizations have the power, the responsibility and the ability to engender high trust.... Read the full article >

Seven Levels of Accountability for Student Success
With No Child Left Behind (NCLB) off the table for at least 32 states in the U.S., accountability measures will be left to states and local school systems. NCLB has been clear about closing achievement gaps between groups of students considered at risk. To ensure that there is an ongoing... Read the full article >

Student Learning is our Work
For some time now, school leaders have come under fire to demonstrate greater accountability for the learning of all students. While there are pockets of educational excellence that exist, the preponderance of public schools are considered underperforming and that is unacceptable. Who is accountable for student learning? The Meaning of... Read the full article >

Suggested Reading
Transforming Education: Delivering on our Promise to Every Child The Council of Chief State School Officers It is imperative that we transform the national education agenda so that each and every child may succeed. This paper identifies four areas of focus that will lead the systems change necessary for a... Read the full article >

Surviving the New Age of Accountability
The first day of school for the Wickenburg Unified School District was August 8th – August 8th at 8:00 a.m., to be specific. At precisely 8:10 a.m., during a record heat wave in Arizona, the air conditioning units in Wickenburg High School went down. On the same day, we enrolled... Read the full article >

Key Trends and Implications for Elementary and Secondary Educators and Policy Makers
Accountability is a loaded term. Although it can mean many different things to different people, in the elementary and secondary context, the term has come to represent a set of expectations and obligations associated with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) – which has provided the overarching... Read the full article >

Strengthening Teacher Evaluation in the Age of Accountability
Teacher accountability in the United States is in a period of transformation. In July 2012, the 26th state received an Elementary and Secondary Education Act Flexibility Waiver, marking relief for more than half of the states from many of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. In exchange,... Read the full article >