While the word «accountability»
never appears in Risk, its call for higher
academic standards and its focus on student achievement as the main barometer of quality laid the intellectual groundwork for the rigorous
curricula and tests envisioned by the promoters of standards - based -LSB-...]
Never in a million years were we going to see forty - five states truly embrace these rigorous
academic expectations for their students, teachers, and schools, meet all the implementation challenges (
curriculum, textbooks, technology, teacher prep, etc.), deploy new assessments, install the results of those assessments in their accountability systems, and live with the consequences of zillions of kids who, at least in the near term, fail to clear the higher bar.