Educational accountability means taking responsibility for ensuring that students receive a good education. It involves holding schools, teachers, and educational systems responsible for their work and the outcomes achieved by students. It aims to ensure that students are learning, receiving quality education, and reaching certain standards set by the education authorities.
Full definition
However, academic achievement is but one element of student learning and development and only a part of any complete system
of educational accountability.
He is currently directing studies that will explore new methods for evaluating gains in scores on high - stakes tests and evaluate the use of value - added models in
educational accountability systems.
We face an enormous challenge in designing
better educational accountability systems, and the first step in doing that is recognizing the limitations of what has been tried to date.
I am writing to urge you to do everything you can to ensure the integrity of the data used to measure student achievement and ensure
meaningful educational accountability in your State.
In today's age
of educational accountability and assessment, these new statistical methods will play a crucial role in analyzing academic achievement.
Ho is a psychometrician interested
in educational accountability metrics, particularly the intersection between educational statistics and educational policies.
A decade ago, the No Child Left Behind Act ushered in an era of
federal educational accountability marked by relentless focus on closing race - and income - based «achievement gaps» in test scores and graduation rates.
Ravitch, a nationally renowned expert on education who was appointed to key educational posts in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, was once one of the strongest advocates for
more educational accountability standards and a strong advocate of choice schools.
The data presented analyzes and compares the 2013 - 14 school discipline data for every district in the state that helped uncover promising practices and examples of effective
educational accountability while at the same time highlighting the numerous areas for improvement and the deeper systemic issues that still need to be addressed.
They note in their e-book that because schools are seeing an «increase in
educational accountability at different levels» and there are a variety of reading materials are assigned in all subject areas so that teachers can take «formal and frequent» evaluations of their students.»
Armed with the knowledge that quality teaching matters most for student learning, policymakers from state to state are racing to adopt
new educational accountability measures that seek, among other things, to evaluate teacher effectiveness with more rigorous, evidence - based instruments.
We want to work with authorizers and policy - makers on reaching a better understanding of what real
educational accountability needs to look like in this century.
A decade ago, the No Child Left Behind Act ushered in an era of federally
driven educational accountability focused on narrowing the chasms between the test scores and graduation rates of students of different incomes and races.
«In this age of
educational accountability through standards and assessments with only one right answer and success measured by test scores, we need to keep young minds open for alternative ways of thinking... teach students not to get a job, but create one.»
Adding to the larger budget, Congress has passed several laws that
promote educational accountability, which tie additional federal funds to state implementation of these statutory suggestions.
More recently, he has led the development of a first - in - the - nation next
generation educational accountability model, called «Performance Assessment of Competency Education,» or PACE, approved as a pilot program with four NH districts in March, 2015.
Such actions suggest an understanding that the reforms that DeVos champions would ultimately lead to greater inequality in our schools and
decrease educational accountability.
Although overshadowed by more spectacular conflicts over desegregation, community control, and open schooling, the movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s generated more than 70 state laws seeking to
create educational accountability and hundreds of articles, pamphlets, and books about how to create more efficient and accountable educational systems.
«With the demise of the No Child Left Behind Act,» Dr. Reeves suggests, «school leaders have an historic opportunity to
redefine educational accountability to include not only academic results, but also creativity, critical thinking, community service, communication, and a variety of other indications of success that are uniquely important to each school.»
Although we believe that the primary function of assessment is to promote teaching and learning in the classroom, assessment has increasingly become a means of
enforcing educational accountability, and it reaches beyond the classroom.
If an accountability test's items are not capable of distinguishing between good and bad instruction,
then educational accountability simply makes no sense.
He clearly supports
shifting educational accountability to local authorities; for instance, he went on record supporting DeVos and the predicted shift from «federal interference» in education.
«The
current educational accountability system has become overly focused on narrow measures of success and, in some cases, has discouraged schools from providing a rich curriculum for all students focused on 21st century skills they need to acquire.This particularly impacts under - resourced schools that disproportionally serve low - income and students of color.»
California's main concern in developing an ESSA plan was figuring out a way to maintain the essential features of the state's system without having to design and run an entirely separate and distinct system for
federal educational accountability.
He recently served on the National Research Council (NRC) committee responsible for designing a framework for next generation science assessments; he has also served on other recent NRC committees investigating the issues and challenges associated with incorporating value - added measures
in educational accountability systems and on outlining best practices in state assessment systems.
As there is no software to install on school computers with Bookstream accounts, the time it takes for a teacher to create an account and begin uploading material takes about thirty minutes, an unheard of time span in the world
of educational accountability for technology use.
Evers says he will ask the Equity in ESSA Stakeholder Council to take a fresh look at Wisconsin's
educational accountability system with an eye on the value of Wisconsin's state report cards and what improvements can be made.
It is a travesty and an outrage that the few rotten apples in this study may be used by opponents of
educational accountability, like the reforms of the No Child Left Behind Act, to charge that testing should be eliminated because the pressure it brings causes cheating.
Daniel Koretz is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education whose research focuses on educational assessment, particularly as a tool of education policy, the effects of alternative systems of college admissions, new methods of evaluating progress in high - stakes testing programs, and the application of value - added methods to
educational accountability.
In a time of
educational accountability and revenue shortfalls, the first question on the minds of policymakers seeking to trim already - lean school budgets often is: How does this program improve student achievement?
But those who look to value - added assessment as the solution to the problem of
educational accountability are likely to be disappointed.