In 2004, over 300 school districts in Texas challenged the constitutionality of the Texas system of school finance. In West Orange-Cove et al. v. Neeley et al., the plaintiffs argued that because most school districts were at or near a state-imposed property tax rate ceiling and because the share of state education funding was declining, most…

Media reports are rife with claims that students in the United States are overtested and that they and their education are suffering as result. Here I argue the opposite--that students would benefit in numerous ways from more frequent assessment, especially of diagnostic testing. The regular assessment of students serves critical educational and…

This article discusses the meaning of accountability that refers to an educational system that imparts knowledge and skills for intelligent citizenship and a variety of the policy-making and planning professions. (PD)

After reviewing the role of the school counselor, methods of evaluation, and criteria for measurment of effectiveness, this article provides recommendations for improving the counselor's productivity. (DS)

The limitations of using behavioral objectives in education are discussed, particularly in terms of their impact on the improvement of teaching and the achievement of accountability. (JMF)

Describes the high stakes use of educational indicators to hold schools accountable for students' academic performance, using examples from California's Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 to discuss the assumptions on which this strategy is based and examining the assumptions against the literature on the use of educational indicators to…

Author raises some of the issues, problems, and enigmas relating to the disturbing conditions he finds existing in English departments in two-year colleges and offers some suggestions for ameliorating these difficulties. (Author/MB)

Clearly defined goals are essential to the health and effectiveness of organizations. (JD)

Explores the complexity of balancing curricular standards and accountability with professional creativity and development, focusing on four Chicago high schools that range from a college prep magnet school to a reconstituted school. The paper looks at how teachers respond to curricular standards, frameworks, and assessments and how they shape…

Discussions of teacher quality in U.S. public schools have tended to focus on teacher licensing. Reformers from diverse perspectives have proposed "raising the bar" for licensing by various means (e.g., harder licensing exams, more coursework, graduation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education teacher-training programs,…

Introduces a collection of articles on educational accountability, outlining the framework used to select and order the articles. The framework clarifies the concept of accountability and identifies assumptions and tools associated with four different approaches to accountability (market competition, decentralization, professionalization, and…

Discusses conditions under which educational accountability might prompt academic improvement, critiquing the logic linking the two; identifying processes influencing the validity of accountability judgment, acceptance of judgment, and probability that it motivates improvement; and analyzing 12 New Zealand primary schools' methods of informing…

Suggests that state standards-based reform is insufficient alone, examining long-standing school improvement processes in one Oregon school district, describing the use of standards-based reform and school improvement in the district, and exploring relations between the two efforts. This case shows congruence of approach between the district and…

Discusses National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification, examining five problematic issues: lack of agreement on criteria for assessing teacher performance, slender evidentiary basis for assessment, the board's inability to authenticate or verify the accuracy of the materials received, secrecy surrounding the board's…

Public debate about school choice is often polarized between those who favor and oppose total free markets in education. However, the serious intellectual work on choice focuses on more moderate alternatives that involve a mixture of public and private accountability. A regulated market model of educational accountability would mix government…