Accountability

Testing and Accountability
Research, Articles & Editorials

Organizational Improvement and Accountability:
Lessons for Education from Other Sectors
Rand Corporation (2004)
This report examines five accountability models from the private sector, summarizes the models' effectiveness, and draws lessons for improving performance and accountability in education.

Making Standards Matter 2001
American Federation of Teachers (2001)
Despite steady progress, a new AFT study finds that most states still have a long way to go in developing a coherent system of aligned standards, curriculum, interventions, and assessments.

Education Assessment: A Primer
Association of American Publishers (2001)
The Association of American Publishers created this brochure in order to provide policymakers and the public with information about the role of testing, what tests can do, and how testing systems can be effectively designed, created, and administered. It also attempts to answer commonly asked questions about tests and testing.

Assessing and Addressing the 'Testing Backlash'
The Business Roundtable (2001)
Tests are an integral part of the standards movement—helping teachers, parents, students, and citizens to identify performance problems and providing important information about how to improve them. There has been a lot of constructive criticism that may help counter weaknesses in states' standards and accountability systems. But there has also been increasingly vocal opposition to the whole idea of student testing. This report addresses this “backlash” and provides suggestions about how it can be countered.

Assessment and Accountability Across the 50 States
Consortium for Policy Research in Education (2001)
Across the U.S., policymakers have adopted accountability plans in response to concerns about student performance. How do they compare? How are they being supported? This policy brief explores the issues.

Reporting School Quality in Standards-Based
Accountability Systems
Robert L. Linn, CRESST (2001)
Given policymaker's and educator's plans to expand accountability, we need to develop better designs, evaluations, and redesigns of assessment and accountability systems. This policy brief from CRESST builds on the issues surrounding school accountability and reporting.

Defining "Failure" Critical to Bush Testing Plan
Education Week (May 2001)
President Bush has pledged to get tough on schools that are failing to educate their students. But how do you determine when schools are "failing"?

Standards and Accountability: A Call by the Learning First Alliance for Mid-Course Corrections
Learning First Alliance (2001)
The alliance, a consortium of education organizations, issued this position statement to reiterate support for standards-based education while offering a note of caution. It describes the serious implementation problems found in many states and calls for a set of mid-course corrections. These include: alignment of standards, curriculum, and assessments; adequate professional development for teachers and principals; adequate support to help each child to meet high standards; community outreach on the importance of standards and accountability; and balanced and comprehensive accountability systems.

Test Prep
The Washington Monthly (March 2001)
Poor, urban school districts have the most to lose from state testing and accountability policies, but most resistance to these measures is found in rich suburban areas. This article by Georgia N. Alexakis looks at the Massachusetts experience to find out why.

AERA Position Statement on High-Stakes Testing in PreK-12 Education
American Educational Research Association, Educational Researcher (Nov. 2000)
Is it fair to base life-altering decisions, such as high school graduation, on a single test score? According to the AERA, which crafted a position statement based on the 1999 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, this is an improper use of assessments. The statement is intended to act as a guide (and a caution) for policymakers and testing professionals alike.

Assessments and Accountability
Robert L. Linn, Educational Researcher (March 2000)
This article by assessment expert Robert Linn reviews 50 years of research and policy in regard to student testing. He raises serious issues about the impact, validity, and generalizability of reported gains in student achievement scores, and questions the use of tests in high-stakes accountability systems. The article concludes with suggestions for dealing with some of the most severe problems.

High Stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion and Graduation
National Research Council (1999)
The use of large-scale achievement tests as instruments of educational policy is growing, particularly when it comes to making high-stakes decisions regarding student tracking, promotion and graduation. This congressionally mandated study provides recommendations on appropriate methods, practices, and safeguards to ensure that these tests are used fairly and properly. (Requires free download of Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Quality Counts 1999: Rewarding Results, Punishing Failure
Education Week (1999)
This issue of Quality Counts details the findings of a 50-state survey of state policies on accountability. It concludes that states have completed only a few miles of a marathon when it comes to holding schools accountable for results. Most have a long way to go in making their accountability systems clear, fair, and complete.

Building Support for Tests that Count: A Business Leader’s Guide
The Business Roundtable (1998)
Standards are important in improving our school systems, but they are only the first step. This report offers evidence in support of the need for strong assessments to supplement state standards. Suggestions for implementation and increased awareness of student progress at home are presented.

A Policymakers Guide to Standards-Led Assessments
CRESST and ECS (1997)
There is a growing need for new forms of assessment in schools. In this article, Robert Linn and Joan Herman argue that existing assessment forms, such as multiple choice tests, aren't very effective. Instead, they advocate assessments that are properly aligned with standards and curriculum—for example, eliciting oral responses from the student as a more efficient way of observing academic progress. While this may require more time and money, the authors feel that proper assessment would ultimately lead to higher academic standards.

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