Region III Comprehensive Center - Focus Area

Standards and Assessments
Center for Equity and Excellence in Education

Research and Best Practices: Accountability
Public Accountability For Student Success: Standards for Education Accountability Systems: Executive Summary

The Report of the NASBE Study Group on Education Accountability

October 1998

The National Association of State Boards of Education

(Posted with permission from NASBE)

The NASBE Study Group on Education Accountability
Accountability is a hot topic among education policymakers today, largely in response to widely-held public perceptions that educators are not being held responsible for student academic performance. The NASBE Study Group on Education Accountability was established to explore current issues around accountability and produce recommendations for education policymakers.

Introduction
Education accountability is currently a hot topic in state and local education policymaking. Defined as the process by which organizations, communities, or individuals attempt to ensure that schools meet their objectives (Rothman, 1995), new systems focused on student performance are being developed across the nation. Accountability is seen as a means for assuring that all students learn to high standards and for connecting reform policies with what actually occurs in schools and classrooms. Increasingly, the bottom line is student achievement.

States and districts are trying out a wide range of accountability strategies to improve student performance, with varying degrees of success. The Study Group on Education Accountability organized by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) carefully examined the field to determine what is and is not working, the dilemmas policymakers are facing, and how the components of accountability can fit together into a coherent system. This effort has resulted in a framework of ten action-oriented standards for guiding discussion, design and evaluation of state and local education accountability systems.

The Study Group's framework is titled Public Accountability for Student Success. PASS is a comprehensive blueprint for state and local accountability systems consisting of standards pertaining to the basic elements of an accountability system and standards related to important contextual conditions affecting accountability. The basic philosophy of PASS is to use accountability as a means for helping all schools become high achieving organizations.

STANDARD 1: Legal authorities clearly specify accountability goals and strategies that focus on student academic performance.
The central objective of any education accountability system should be continuous improvement for student learning. Accountability systems can be designed to serve several different purposes. It is important to clarify those purposes in terms of coherent, specific goals to be achieved.

STANDARD 2:
At each level of the education system, designated authorities are charged with the efficient governance of the accountability system.

In order for an accountability system to operate with certainty and coherence, responsibilities and lines of authority must be clearly articulated for those governing and administering the system. Schools are faced with a multitude of demands from different forces that often lead to competing agendas and uncertainty regarding priorities. Consistent leadership is needed to provide schools with clear direction and coherent boundaries.

STANDARD 3: Specific responsibilities for student learning and performance are assigned to designated agents.
It is important to clarify who is to be primarily held accountable for improving student performance. In formal terms, this is the agent responsible for attaining the goals of the accountability system. Examples of agents include districts, schools and teachers. Each has a potentially significant impact on student performance, but it is important to clarify who will be held responsible for what to ensure certainty of action. Authorizing a responsible primary agent provides a focal point for targeting incentives and allocation resources to build capacity.

STANDARD 4: Accountability is based on accurate measures of agent performance as informed by assessments that are administered equitably to all students.
Accountability must be based on accurate and meaningful measures of performance applied to all students. In order to help schools improve student learning, data should be collected on student progress in achieving performance goals at critical intervals in the student's academic career (e.g., 4th, 8th, and 10th grades). Multiple assessments serving different purposes should be employed to capture a complete picture of student performance. Also, school level contextual data should be collected to provide meaningful guidance for improving performance.

STANDARD 5: Those responsible for governing accountability regularly report student and school performance information in useful terms and on a timely basis to school staff, students and their families, state and local policymakers, and the news media.
Student performance on assessments and appropriate contextual factors should continually reported to policymakers and school communities in meaningful terms. Reports should address both student performance against absolute standards and progress made towards reaching the standards. Student performance data should not only be reported in aggregated school-wide averages, but also for different student groups to draw attention to defined subpopulations whose performance merits particular attention. Data should be used to engage school communities in continuous school improvement efforts.

STANDARD 6: Incentives are established that effectively motivate agents to improve student learning. Consequences, which could include rewards, interventions or sanctions, are predictably applied in response to performance results.

Interventions should be combined with incentives to effectively motivate agents(schools and educators) to attain the goals of the system. A calibrated series of interventions should be able to address problems in schools where performance is repeatedly below standard and not improving. A well-designed system focused on helping schools improve student learning will begin with assistance and capacity building as the first approach to addressing low performance. Sanctions should only be applied as a last resort to schools that continue to decline.

STANDARD 7: Agents are provided sufficient support and assistance to ensure they have the capacity necessary to help students achieve high performance standards.
Schools with high motivation to achieve clearly defined goals can still fall short if they lack the capacity to do so. Strategically designed assistance should be provided that is based on measures of student performance, school processes, and context.

STANDARD 8: Policymakers work to ensure that education policies, mandated programs, financial resources , and the accountability system are well aligned so that consistent messages are communicated about educational goals and priorities.
Coherence across major education policies is critical to the success of the education system. Student standards, assessments, teacher licensure policies, professional preservice and professional development programs, public school choice policies, and higher education admissions standards should all be aligned to send consistent signals of what is expected of schools and teachers.

STANDARD 9:
The accountability system has widespread support.
An accountability system must have widespread support to stay the course in achieving its goals. States and districts must seek to engage the public in designing and executing the system on an ongoing basis. A grass roots approach to building the system and making important decisions throughout its operation will enhance public understanding of how it works and generate greater buy-in.

STANDARD 10: Various established partnerships work together to support districts, schools and teachers in their efforts to improve student achievement.
The public K-12 education community should be actively engaged in partnerships with parents, the business community, higher education, social service agencies, health organizations, and other important local institutions to ensure all students can achieve to high standards. Partnerships serve as a resource for support, new ideas, and feedback on what knowledge and skills students need. An accountability system is strengthened when a range of standing partnerships work together to support districts, schools and teachers in their efforts to improve student learning and development.

PASS as a Tool for Learning Communities
Almost every aspect of an accountability system is characterized by challenging dilemmas and competing perspectives. A framework of standards can exist as focal point for engaging these multiple perspectives in focused discussion. PASS is designed to capture current thinking about education accountability, with special emphasis on promising and best practices. The ultimate purpose of PASS is to serve as a tool for policymakers and practitioners to use in building accountable learning communities at state and local levels.

Print copies of the full text of Public Accountability for Student Success are available for $12.00 each + $2.00 shipping and handling (prepaid) from NASBE at 1012 Cameron Street, Alexandria, VA 22314; (800) 220-5183.

STANDARD 5: Those responsible for governing accountability regularly report student and school performance information in useful terms and on a timely basis to school staff, students and their families, state and local policymakers, and the news media.		Student performance on assessments and appropriate contextual factors should continually reported to policymakers and school communities in meaningful terms. Reports should address both student performance against absolute standards and progress made towards reaching the standards. Student performance data should not only be reported in aggregated school-wide averages, but also for different student groups to draw attention to defined subpopulations whose performance merits particular attention. Data should be used to engage school communities in continuous school improvement efforts.
STANDARD 6: Incentives are established that effectively motivate agents to improve student learning. Consequences, which could include rewards, interventions or sanctions, are predictably applied in response to performance results.		Interventions should be combined with incentives to effectively motivate agents(schools and educators) to attain the goals of the system. A calibrated series of interventions should be able to address problems in schools where performance is repeatedly below standard and not improving. A well-designed system focused on helping schools improve student learning will begin with assistance and capacity building as the first approach to addressing low performance. Sanctions should only be applied as a last resort to schools that continue to decline.
STANDARD 7: Agents are provided sufficient support and assistance to ensure they have the capacity necessary to help students achieve high performance standards.		Schools with high motivation to achieve clearly defined goals can still fall short if they lack the capacity to do so. Strategically designed assistance should be provided that is based on measures of student performance, school processes, and context.
STANDARD 8: Policymakers work to ensure that education policies, mandated programs, financial resources , and the accountability system are well aligned so that consistent messages are communicated about educational goals and priorities.		Coherence across major education policies is critical to the success of the education system. Student standards, assessments, teacher licensure policies, professional preservice and professional development programs, public school choice policies, and higher education admissions standards should all be aligned to send consistent signals of what is expected of schools and teachers.
STANDARD 9: The accountability system has widespread support.		An accountability system must have widespread support to stay the course in achieving its goals. States and districts must seek to engage the public in designing and executing the system on an ongoing basis. A grass roots approach to building the system and making important decisions throughout its operation will enhance public understanding of how it works and generate greater buy-in.
STANDARD 10: Various established partnerships work together to support districts, schools and teachers in their efforts to improve student achievement.		The public K-12 education community should be actively engaged in partnerships with parents, the business community, higher education, social service agencies, health organizations, and other important local institutions to ensure all students can achieve to high standards. Partnerships serve as a resource for support, new ideas, and feedback on what knowledge and skills students need. An accountability system is strengthened when a range of standing partnerships work together to support districts, schools and teachers in their efforts to improve student learning and development.
PASS as a Tool for Learning Communities		Almost every aspect of an accountability system is characterized by challenging dilemmas and competing perspectives. A framework of standards can exist as focal point for engaging these multiple perspectives in focused discussion. PASS is designed to capture current thinking about education accountability, with special emphasis on promising and best practices. The ultimate purpose of PASS is to serve as a tool for policymakers and practitioners to use in building accountable learning communities at state and local levels.
		Print copies of the full text of Public Accountability for Student Success are available for $12.00 each + $2.00 shipping and handling (prepaid) from NASBE at 1012 Cameron Street, Alexandria, VA 22314; (800) 220-5183.