This portraiture-informed study by Taeyeon Kim challenges the dominant discourse of accountability, which often focuses on high-stakes policies at the expense of relational aspects of accountability in schools. Building on working theories of accountability, humanizing leadership, and paradox theory, Kim theorizes the "human side of…

This phenomenological study investigated the lived experiences of how primary teachers (K-2) perceive and manage accountability pressures. Accountability pressures are the consequences of high-stakes and standardized testing. This can be overtly represented by inappropriately aligned standards or a fast-paced curriculum design to match tested…

Education in Afghanistan and Pakistan is characterised by indicators showing lack of mastering of reading, writing and mathematics literacy skills. To foster effective education systems and provide quality education, experts have encouraged and established various mechanisms of accountability. We conducted participatory workshops with 556 teachers…

Based on the theoretical approaches of social capital and institutional trust, this paper seeks to identify contextual factors and conditions behind teacher behaviours which aim to alter the results of standardised tests in the Italian low-stakes accountability system. Numerous studies report significant factors associated with student cheating,…

Purpose: Studies tracking changes in physical education (PE) policy adherence after an intervention are scarce. In California, successful litigation against 37 school districts for not providing adequate PE time compelled district schools' teachers to post PE schedules online or on-site for 3 years. We performed a follow-up study 4 years after the…

School improvement and accountability pressures heightened at the turn of the 21st century, with the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 and with the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015. These actions spurred research to facilitate school improvement and meet state standards. Researchers identified a strong correlation between a…

Background: Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) programs often expand by offering Pre-K in both public schools and in community-based providers (CBOs). This approach gives families more options and allow UPK programs to increase access more quickly. However, little is known about which CBOs select into these systems. This is an important gap in the…

We examine how incentives for test prep varied between math and English language arts (ELA) on U.S. state accountability exams. We collected data on exam structure for grade 3 to 8 tests in six states that are the setting for most U.S. research in literatures where accountability matters. We show that math exams typically measured ability more…

Background: To inform prevention strategies, this study provides incidence, factors, and actions taken when a suspected concussion occurred in K-12 schools in Utah. Methods: Data were collected using Utah's Student Injury Reporting System (SIRS) from the academic years 2011-2012 to 2018-2019. SIRS is a unique online system that tracks injuries…

This research examines the duality of accountability as perceived by twelve principals of elementary schools in the Bedouin education system in Israel who are implementing a self-management policy requiring a mechanism of accountability in their schools. This study also explores the impact of accountability on the effectiveness of the functioning…

The study inspects the status of school governance and school outcome at primary school level and set up roadmap for all the stakeholders to achieve the mandate of Goal 4 in SDGs within 2030, especially in the context of rural India. The status of school governance and school outcome are assessed under 4 dimensions and 16 parameters through a…

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between teachers' perceptions of organizational ethical climate and their accountability tendencies. The research was carried out with 405 teachers working in the province of Istanbul. Organizational Ethics Climate Scale and Teacher Accountability Tendency Scale were used as data collection…

Under test-based accountability, side-effects--including practices to inflate test results, often seen as cheating--are usually associated to so-called high-stakes policies. However, the influence of different types of stakes in the generation of this type of practices has been overlooked in education research. Based on a survey experiment, our…

Student learning loss during the COVID-19 Pandemic became an issue nationally. When school systems were thrown into hybrid and virtual learning environments, some schools still saw success due to their culture and hard-wired improvement practices. This article will illustrate how those practices at one particular school led to an actual…

This case explores a newly implemented Strategic Education Plan, spearheaded by Principal John Barlow, which has added some tensions and sparked concerns among parents and teachers that the myopic focus on standardized test scores risks erasing the cultural richness that defines the school. The narrative explores the complexities of balancing…