CROSS CUTTING ISSUES

Accountability for Results

"Accountability" suggests that students, teachers, schools, and/or educational authorities should be held responsible for student achievement. To establish accountability it is first necessary to set standards (what the outcome should be) and to establish a system of assessment (to measure the outcome achieved). Building in accountability puts a focus on the resources available to schools and the degree of alignment throughout the system.

Accountability is one of the four themes of the Draft Master Plan (see section on "Accountability..."). A shared accountability is suggested, going beyond assessment of student achievement to include evaluation of the inputs (resources) provided by State and districts. The Plan links accountability to governance (including responsibilities that overlap local, regional, and state entities, and lack of alignment between responsibilities and authority), to a need for good data to support informed judgments, and to marshalling public will and making wise investments. In the section of the Plan on "Affordability" recommendation 43 advocates development of a California Quality Education Model, which could be used to determine an adequate level of funding to support a high quality education for every student in public school. Links to several of these issues can be found on the Related Issue pages (below).

• Accountability Overview: EdSource Online material on accountability; see yellow tabs below "Accountability" for Laws and Policies, Research and Readings, Related Resources and Accountability News
• School Accountability Report Cards (California Department of Education; follow the link "Links to County/District SARCs")
• Accountability and Low-Performing Schools (California Legislative Analyst's Office)
• Spotlight on Results: Challenges in making accountability systems work (Education Week On the Web)
• Six Principles of Effective Accountability (Harvard Education Letter)
• Overview for K-12 (Education Commission of the States; links to e.g. a state-by-state overview of performance indicators)
• Taking Stock: State by state overview of accountability system implementation (Education Week On the Web)
• Accountability Resources (links from U.S. Department of Education)
• Parent's Guide to Testing and Accountability (National Education Association)

Related Issues:

Accountability is related to most of the topics in the Master Plan; the links below lead to pages on this site that give more information in selected areas.

• Assessment
• Alignment
• Data
• ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act)
• Finance
• Standards

See also the Working Group reports, such as:

• Finance and Facilities K-12 Working Group
  • Part 4: Allocating Revenues to Support Effective Delivery of Services
• Finance and Facilities Postsecondary Working Group
  • Recommendation 2: Accountability Framework
• Governance Working Group
  • Introduction: See e.g. Governance Desired Outcomes and Guiding Principles
  • Part 1: Group Findings
• Student Learning Working Group
  • Recommendation 8: A system of indicators for accountability and improvement
  • Appendix G: Candidate Indicators for an Adequate Accountability System
  • Appendix H: Families and Students Rights to Participate in
  • Accountability
• Workforce Preparation and Business Linkages Working Group
  • Section 3: Accountability

If your organization has material that would be useful for the online dialogue but is not included in the preceding list, please e-mail a URL to <camp-info@network-democracy.org>.