Dr. Heather J. Hough is an independent consultant working with state and local leaders to strengthen education systems, and a Senior Research and Policy Fellow and the former Executive Director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).
In American education, the scars of the “accountability wars” still run deep. More than two decades after the federal No Child Left Behind Act established punitive, high-profile accountability requirements for America’s K–12 schools, states and districts remain wary of debates over testing, student performance, and school improvement.