High-stakes reform : the politics of educational accountability /
McDermott (education and public policy, U. of Massachusetts, Amherst) examines the political processes and historical context, from the beginnings of local public schools to 2001, that led to the enactment of state-level US education accountability policies that focus on performance. She focuses on...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Washington, D.C. :
Georgetown University Press,
c2011
Washington, DC : [2011], ©2011 Washington, DC : c2011 Washington, DC : [2011] |
| Series: | Public management and change
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | McDermott (education and public policy, U. of Massachusetts, Amherst) examines the political processes and historical context, from the beginnings of local public schools to 2001, that led to the enactment of state-level US education accountability policies that focus on performance. She focuses on high school graduation tests and state powers to close schools or replace staff, or take control of districts, and compares the uses of testing in case studies of Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut and their kinds of sanctions against students, schools, and school districts with low test scores enacted prior to the No Child Left Behind Act, a period when much of the action on educational accountability took place. She also discusses performance-based accountability and its ideas and the implications of her analysis for education policy and the general movement toward performance measurement and accountability. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) High-Stakes Reform analyzes the political processes and historical context that led to the enactment of state-level education accountability policies across the country. It also situates the education accountability movement in the broader context of public administration research, emphasizing the relationships among equity, accountability, and intergovernmental relations. The book then focuses on three in-depth case studies of policy development in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Kathryn McDermott zeroes in on the most controversial and politically charged forms of state performance accountability sanctions, including graduation tests, direct state intervention in or closing of schools, and state takeovers of school districts Performance accountability has been the dominant trend in education policy reform since the 1970s. State and federal policies set standards for what students should learn; require students to take "high-stakes" tests to measure what they have learned; and then hold students, schools, and school districts accountable for their performance. The goal of these policies is to push public school districts to ensure that all students reach a common threshold of knowledge and skills Public debate casts performance accountability as either a cure for the problems of US public education or a destructive mistake. Kathryn McDermott expertly navigates both sides of the debate detailing why particular policies became popular, how the assumptions behind the policies influenced the forms they took, and what practitioners and scholars can learn from the successes and failures of education accountability policies. (Publisher) |
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| Physical Description: | xi, 223 p. : ill. ; 23 cm xi, 223 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-204) and index Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 1589017676 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1589017676 9781589017672 (pbk. : alk. paper) 9781589017672 |