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Focus Area:
Accountability and State Oversight

States, along with legislatures, governors, advocacy groups, and citizens, are urging state education agencies to drive changes in K-12 education. The restructuring of work on various fronts, such as supporting struggling schools, raising standards, addressing labor market weaknesses, and strengthening educational connections, is necessary to meet these demands. Importantly, these efforts must be undertaken amidst constrained resources. The focus of our work is to explore how SEAs can effectively respond to the increasing demands they face.

Key questions guiding this exploration include:

  • What capacities need to be developed for states to act on reform agendas?
  • How can state agencies balance their compliance responsibilities with the demand for services and public oversight of K-12?
  • What actions can state legislatures, governors, advocacy groups, and other stakeholders take to support the work of SEAs?

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Today, we wrap up our blog series on accountability prompted by a paper and statement of principles released last week. Thanks to guest bloggers and co-signers James Merriman, Joanne Weiss, Sandy Kress, and Jane Hannaway...

Schools have long been held accountable for how they carry out their activities. State and local authorities require students to take certain courses, minutes of classroom instruction are specified, limits on the ratio of students...

Talking with this group over the last few months about the future of school accountability has been a pleasure but also reassuring. The fact that education leaders like these are still committed to the basic,...

School accountability matters. In a country founded on the dream that any child can grow up to be whatever she wants to be, accountability provides a measuring stick to judge how well schools are doing...

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Today, Paul Hill, Robin Lake, and Michael Petrilli kick off a blog series intended to prompt a productive dialogue around fixing school accountability systems. Join the conversation on Twitter: #TheNewAccountability Read “An Open Letter On...

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