Effective Accountability Systems in Education

1. Comprehensive Accountability Systems: A Framework for EvaluationKerry Englert, Ph.D.Paper Presented at the Canadian Evaluation SocietyJune 2, 2003

2. Accountability – Positives and Negatives • Positives • Focusing teachers on helping all students learn • Providing schools with data so that they can make improvements • Providing educators and policymakers information on what educational programs are working • Providing parents with data about how their child and child’s school is doing

3. Accountability – Positives and Negatives (cont’) • Negatives • Narrowing the curriculum • Too much time testing draws away the focus from teaching • Focus on bringing students to proficient and not to advanced • Increase retention rates, or place more students in special needs classes.

4. Purposes of Accountability Systems • In education, the purpose of an accountability system is generally ‘to improve student learning’ • Informing students, parents, teachers • Monitoring the learning process and holding students, schools, teachers, and states responsible for the learning outcomes • Certifying teacher quality • Evaluating school and program effectiveness • Ensuring equal opportunities to learn for all students

5. Characteristics of Effective Accountability Systems • Clear standards and expectations • The standards must be explicit so that teachers and student must know what must be achieved. • High expectations for all students – in order to ensure equity, all students should be held to high standards.

6. Characteristics of Effective Accountability Systems • High-quality assessments must be: • Aligned to standards – The degree to which an assessment mirrors the content standards. • Reliable – Is the degree to which a test accurately measures the students’ true ability on a construct. • Valid – Refers to the degree a test measures the intended construct and the appropriateness of the inferences made from the test scores (Messick, 1989). • Fairness provisions – Reduce content irrelevant variance.

7. Characteristics of Effective Accountability Systems • Multiple measures • Because error is present in all tests, examining homework, classroom assessments, and other standardized tests allow for a more complete picture of what students know and are able to do. • By incorporating multiple measures, other important factors of effective schools can be accounted for such as drop out rates, school safety, expulsion rates, and attendance.

8. Characteristics of Effective Accountability Systems • Readily understandable to the public and have stakeholder support • Diagnostic uses for data – The data should be easily usable for teachers. • Sanctions and rewards linked to results • Flexibility and fairness to allow for local differences and creativity • Alignment of resources, support, and assistance for improvement

9. Moving Forward • The primary focus of this phase of the research project was to summarize the existing literature • The next phase will examine the how districts currently evaluate their accountability system and how they are using the information to monitor learning.

10. Contact Information • Kerry Englert 2550 South Parker Rd. Suite 500 Aurora, CO 80014 (303) 632-5627 kenglert@mcrel.org • A copy of the complete document Comprehensive Accountability Systems: A Framework for Evaluation can be found at: http://www.mcrel.org/topics/productDetail.asp?topicsID=1&productID=128