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Comprehensive Accountability Systems: A Framework for Evaluation

Kerry Englert, Ph.D.Paper Presented at the Canadian Evaluation SocietyJune 2, 2003

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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Contact Information Kerry Englert

2550 South Parker Rd.Suite 500Aurora, CO 80014(303) 632-5627kenglert@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