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Accountability Guidelines
he following principles for states to consider in designing their accountability systems emerged from Education Week's research and discussions with experts for Quality Counts '99:
States should make explicit and public what schools and individuals are being held accountable for, including, but not limited to, test scores.
Rewards and consequences should be attached to performance and should be clearly defined and published. There should be no consequences for students without also holding adults accountable.
Information from the accountability system should be widely available, especially to parents. The information should be clear and understandable, as should the criteria for any official actions taken. Schools should receive technical assistance in interpreting and responding to data.
The assessment system should be aligned with the state's academic standards. Testing should be open and fair and include more than multiple-choice items.
Incentives and consequences should encourage schools to pay particular attention to their lowest performers.
Student test scores should be a primary factor used to identify low-performing schools but should never be the sole basis for triggering rewards or consequences. Interventions should not occur without a more thorough and sophisticated review of a school's circumstances.
Schools should be identified as having the capacity to improve on their own, capable of improving with help, or unable to improve. Schools that need help should be able to get it, and they should be able to pick from a bank of strategies and assistance providers. States and districts should not be the sole source of technical aid to schools.
Because schools should be held more accountable for student performance, they need greater control over their own spending and hiring.
Low-performing schools should not be allowed to fail indefinitely. Schools that cannot or will not improve must be closed and replaced.
The highest priority in closing failing schools must be to provide appropriate alternatives for the students. Students in persistently failing schools should be given the opportunity to attend a better school or to take advantage of other educational options.
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