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...
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?
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...
Preparing for a hiking trip brings you face-to-face with the world of trade-offs. You weigh, literally and figuratively, every ounce of what you put in your pack, trying to decide if the comfort something might...
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...
Children in a city need much better schools, but the local board and union prevent change. Is state takeover the remedy? Perhaps. State action has broken logjams in a lot of cities, but it hasn’t...
This meeting summary outlines common principles to guide the redesign of next-gen accountability systems.
State leaders and policymakers are working hard to figure out how to bolster the capacity of state education agencies to meet the unprecedented demands they face to drive improvements in K-12 performance and productivity. In...
Andy Smarick, Ashley Jochim, and I have been exchanging posts on new roles for school districts and state education agencies. We agree government should set goals and hold providers accountable for performance but rely on...
Last week The Atlantic published a tough article on cities’ recent experience with privatization—by which they meant making contracts with private organizations to do what public employees previously did. The article gave examples of government...
